【大学生体验英语大二上】UNIT 3.ppt

Haier Seeks Cool U.S. Image NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) — For most American shoppers, “made in China” may still suggest cheap toys, but China’s largest household appliance maker has ambitious plans to change that with its sales of a growing range of sleek minibars. Haier Group Co., which according to some industry estimates is the world’s second-biggest maker of refrigerators, is seeking to outflank America’s three major appliance makers by competing on image rather than price, and by targeting students in the hope that they will remain loyal as they get older. And so far the strategy, which may signal the way for future campaign in the U.S. market by other Chinese consumer products companies, may be working — at least according to two arms of the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. “It’s not about whether they’re made in China,” said Melissa Berryhill, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club, whose last holiday season catalog featured a black Haier cooler with smoked glass doors that is big enough to chill 30 bottles of wine. “They’re an exceptional value,” she said of the $300 luxury machine, sold along with the more ordinary Haier chest freezer that costs about $160. Wal-Mart’s main discount operation in April began selling the chest freezers in half of its 2 600 stores, while most of its stores sell at least one of two versions of compact refrigerators made by Haier. “They’re popular and beating our expectations on sales,” said Wal-Mart spokesman Rob Phillips, who added that the Haier 4.6 cubic feet and 5 cubic feet freezers cost about the same as General Electric Co.’s comparable products, selling for around $169. COLLEGE TOEHOLD GE, Whirlpool Corp. and Maytag Corp. currently dominate the U.S. marketplace for household appliances but they tend to focus most of their attention on mainstream areas such as large refrigerators and freezers. Haier, which says it currently sells $200 million worth of appliances in the U.S. annually, now claims more than