実践ビジネス英語 Wednesday, September 12
1) Umemura says H&B attempts to hire popular students with lots of connections --students Collins describes as having inside knowledge of school traditions and what's cool at the universities. She also says some companies have failed to screen their on-campus representatives properly, and hired people who damage their image by pushing too hard. Lyons says using students must be more cost-effective than hiring celebrities.
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Brand Ambassadors in Action (4)
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2) fraternity, sorority: Umemura is referring to social clubs at U.S. universities. "Fraternity" is a club for male students and "sorority" is for female students.
3) And these words can also refer to other groups of people connected by a common characteristic like a hobby or a profession. In this case, "fraternity" would refer to a group of people where a "sorority" would be specifically women. And in this case, they don't have to be formally organized groups. For example, I belong to the expat "fraternity," the "fraternity" of Americans overseas, to be
specific.
4) cachet: Prestige, distinction, Collins means. One reason people buy
luxury cars and designer bags is because they have "cachet" and they give us "cachet" as well.
5) go for the hard sell: Collins is using "hard sell" to mean an aggressive, high pressure method of sales. It can also mean something that is difficult to persuade people to buy or accept. Getting voters to accept the tax increase will be "a hard sell", for example, or convincing the company to buy new computers will be "a hard sell."
6) spam: The noun "spam" has become a Japanese word too, hasn't it? It means email, usually unsolicited commercial email, sent to a huge number of different people. According to my dictionary, this usage comes from a skit on a British comedy show, where the word "spam" gets repeated over and over and over.
7) get someone's message across: Convey someone's message, Collins is
saying, communicate it to someone. I just saw a wonderful ad for a
sports channel, which showed a little boy getting all excited about soccer
matches. It really "got across the message": subscribe to our channel and you'll have this much fun.
8) oodles of cash: I was very interested to find out where "oodles" comes from, but unfortunately, my dictionary says its origin is unknown. It means a lot, a huge quantity. It's a cute, slightly childish word. I think we use it with a sense of fun, you know, like, "My smartphone has 'oodles of' features," for example.
9) big-name celebrity: If something is "big-name," it's very famous or widely admired. Lyons uses it as an adjective, so there's a hyphen between the two words. If it's a noun, no hyphen. As in "Oh, he is a 'big name' in the financial world," or "Company X is a 'big name' in hybrid vehicles."
10) tout: When we "tout" something, we promote it or praise it enthusiastically. You could say something like, "The Electro Flyer from XYZ Auto is being 'touted' as the best hybrid ever."
