The 7 Steps August
1. CONTEXT
Mindmap
anything you
know about thetopic, including
vocabulary. Do
some research
online to help.

Pocari Sweat
Listening Questions 1
1. What kind of drink is Pocari Sweat and which company produces it?
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2. QUESTIONS

2. What happened in 1973 that inspired the drink’s creation?
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3. Who is their main competitor and what has been the sales trend for sports
drinks in Japan since 2015?
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4. When did they start exporting Pocari Sweat and which area of the world
do they mainly export to?
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5. What should Pocari Sweat be careful about if considering exporting toEnglish-speaking countries?
.

Read the listening
questions tocheck yourunderstanding.
Look up any newvocabulary.

3. LISTEN

Listening Questions 2
1. What did Otsuka release in 2013 and how is it unique?

Listen and answer
the questions
using fullsentences. Circle
the number oftimes and % you
understood.

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2. What are two more products Otsuka released and their benefits?
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3. What did Pocari Sweat achieve in 2019?
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4. What will happen in 2021 and what do Otsuka hope to achieve?
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1Listening 2
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5. How did Otsuka engage with younger children through this project?
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Discussion Questions
1. Do you often drink sports drinks? How do you feel the sports /energy drink market is going recently?
2. What are some other recent marketing success stories in Japan?

TRANSCRIPT 1

4. CHECK ANSWERS

Read through thetranscript andunderline theanswers. Checkthem against yourown answers.

5. CHECK VOCABULARY

Pocari Sweat is a popular sports drink brand made by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company. It wascreated in 1980 and it has an interesting origin story. In the early 70s, an Otsuka researcher
was hospitalized with an upset stomach while on a business trip in Mexico. The doctor whotreated him told him that he needed to recover by drinking enough water and consuming
electrolytes. The doctor then gave him a soda. The researcher thought it would be better if
there was a single drink that could provide both.
In 1973, that same researcher again was in a hospital and he saw a doctor drinking an I.V.
solution to rehydrate after performing surgery. That inspired him to create a drink that could
rehydrate and replenish the electrolytes of people like an I.V. Otsuka developed Pocari Sweat
through trial and error. It took over 1,000 trial products before they found that mixing one of thetrial products with a citrus juice powder created a good tasting drink. Before that, all theproducts had a very bitter taste.
In 2015, Pocari Sweat had 23% of the sports drink market share in Japan, trailing Coca Cola’s
popular Aquarius brand which had 43%, after which there has been a gradual trend of
decreasing sales of these drinks in Japan. As of 2019, Pocari Sweat is sold in more than 20
countries or territories. Almost all of the countries where Pocari Sweat is sold are in Asia, with
Egypt being the only exception. If Otsuka ever launches Pocari Sweat in an English-speaking
country, it should consider changing the product name as native English speakers would not
likely want to drink something called “sweat.”

Read thetranscript andcircle any new
vocabulary you
find. Look themup and add themto your list.

MATCH THE ANTONYMS BY DRAWING LINES BELOW:

6. READ ALOUD

Read thetranscript aloudat least 5 times,
focusing on
intonation andpronunciation.

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7. SHADOWING
Say the transcript
aloud at the sametime as the audio
without reading
it. Circle how
many times
below.

1
1

2
2

3
3

4
4

Treat

Discourage

InspireMinimize

Trail

Commence

Maximize

Neglect

Culminate

LeadTRANSCRIPT 2Pocari Sweat is always trying to innovate with their products. In 2013, Otsuka launched Pocari
Sweat Ion Water, which is a low-sugar and low-calorie version of Pocari Sweat. The regularversion has 26 calories per 100ml and the Ion Water has only 11 calories per 100ml. They brought
out a powdered version of the drink for people to mix with water at their own convenience and ajelly form to help with maintaining hydration before and during exercise. Most recently, to deal with
the increasingly hotter summers in Japan, they came out with an ‘Ice Slurry’ which is a frozen
version of the drink for athletes and workers who deal with extremely high temperatures.
Pocari Sweat are a big supporter of sports ‘Bukatsu,’ or clubs in high schools around Japan, often
promoting healthy living and how to maximize their athletic performance. This culminated inOtsuka receiving top prize in the Japan Marketing Awards of 2019 for their ability to engage withyounger sports players despite a regularly changing target market.

55In 2014, Pocari Sweat launched the ‘Lunar Dream Capsule Project’ where they plan to send thepowdered form of their drink 380 000km away to be the first sports drink on the moon. The plan isto eventually mix this with water from the moon after being sent on an Astrobotic lunar lander set tolaunch in 2021. Children in Japan have been requested to write down their hopes and dreams
which are then lasered onto titanium plates which will form part of the capsule.