Bread and butter
Your recipe for success. That’s what we are here at Plain English, and it fits with today’s episode. The main topic was about a new recipe for Coca-Cola, and the expression is a food-related expression, too: bread and butter. A company’s bread and butter is what they traditionally make most of their money from. Just a few minutes ago, you heard that Coca-Cola’s “bread and butter” has been traditional soft drinks: Coke in a red can, Diet Coke in a silver can. That has been their bread and butter; that has been what makes them the most money. But you know, traditional soda is not growing in popularity. People are starting to switch to energy drinks, pre-packaged coffee drinks, bottled water, even these lightly-flavored soda-water drinks I see everywhere. Coca-Cola doesn’t want to miss out on the newest trends, so they’re investing in those other types of drinks, and even experimenting with creating new categories, like chunky mango drinks. But they can’t forget that their bread and butter today, the thing that makes them the most money, is still their traditional soft drinks.
Let’s take another example: Microsoft. What is Microsoft’s bread and butter? Windows. Microsoft Office. Operating systems and productivity software installed on PCs. That’s their bread and butter; that’s where they make the most money, or where they have traditionally. They’re trying to diversify out of that because they know that market probably won’t last forever. They bought LinkedIn, they bought Skype, they have their own search engine, they are now in the hardware game with Surface tablets, video games, and now some artificial intelligence. They completely missed the boat on mobile, so they don’t want to miss the next big thing. But still, their bread and butter, what makes them the most money right now, is Windows and Microsoft Office.
Let’s try a couple others. Google? Their bread and butter is search. They might do a lot of things, but their bread and butter is still search. If you’re listening from Germany, you know Commerzbank was in the news a lot. Their bread and butter is lending to other businesses. McDonald’s. Their bread and butter is burgers and fries. They may have salads on the menu, they do some coffee, but their bread and butter is burgers and fries. It’s what brings people in, and that’s how they make their money.
JR’s song of the week
The song of the week selected by JR is “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis. This song was nominated by Pablo in Brazil. He suggested it because it has a lot of good expressions and new words in it. And I agree with that approach—you don’t want to listen to a song to learn how people talk. But there are some good words in there to know. Summertime’s in bloom—that’s one I’m still waiting for. Once more, “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis. Thanks to Pablo in Brazil for sending that nomination. If you’d like to nominate a song, send an email to [email protected] .
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