U.S. Multicultural Market Language Demand Finds New Supply

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Global Watchtower

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Posted by Donald A. DePalma on June 19, 2006 in the following blogs: Translation and Localization, Web Globalization, Business Globalization, Technology, Interpreting, Market Data, Global Marketing, Best Practices, Supplier Business Issues
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A pair of American companies that market to non-Anglophone audiences in the United States were in the news this week:

Communications conglomerate Verizon posted consumer information about its next-generation FIOS phone/CATV/internet service in Chinese and Korean. Interestingly, the company started pushing its high-end alternative to cable TV into ethnic markets at the same time it limited FIOS deployment to only the most exclusive zip codes in metropolitan areas, indicating some potential in Chinese- and Korean-speaking households.

Spanish-language media giant Univision (TV, radio, music company, and online operations) accepted a US$11.1 billion buy-out offer from Saban, a private equity firm. Most analysts had expected Grupo Televisa de Mexico to prevail in the bidding, but the Mexicans didn't cough up enough dinero to gain access to this huge market.

How huge? As we pointed out in a series of reports that we began 2 years ago, most companies should find the U.S. Latino market interesting -- it's about 13 percent of the U.S. population, bigger than Canada, and comprises the fifth largest group of Spanish speakers in the world after Mexico, Spain, Colombia, and Argentina. U.S. residents of Asian extraction represent a smaller percentage of the population, but one desired by companies like Verizon and Univision's advertisers.

We find companies like Continental Airlines, Hertz, Home Depot, McDonald?s, Southwest Airlines, and Toyota
actively marketing their wares to America?s Latinos and other ethnic groups. Better tarde than nunca, their language service and technology suppliers are now responding with educational, service, and product offerings to meet the needs of non-Anglophone consumers. In the last few weeks, we?ve seen a few companies grab for the brass ring of this growing market opportunity:

With an agenda similar to other language service providers and ad agencies, Enlaso's next webinar will focus on the "growing market of non-English speakers in the US." The company's president John Watkins will give an overview of changing demographics and effective strategies for communicating with people preferring languages other than English. His Marketing 101 presentation will include anodyne topics like identifying target demographics and communicating a message, and continue on to more contentious topics like understanding when translation is necessary.

Translation management software vendor Idiom and interactive ad agency Captura Group hosted a joint series of webinars on the Hispanic market in the U.S. The most recent webcast focused on their work providing hispanohablante travelers in the U.S. access to Continental Airline's frequent flyer and reservations system.

Hybrid LSP-tool supplierTranslations.com didn't hold a webinar, but its website outlines its ability to provision clients such as Avis, Advance Auto Parts, JetBlue, McGraw-Hill, Thrifty, and US Bank with U.S. Hispanic Marketing expertise.

On the left coast of the U.S., LSP Ion Global helps companies like Disney adapt sites for American Latinos and firms like Schwab and Wells Fargo with their Chinese, Filipino, and Asian-Indian properties.

Does your firm want to reach non-Anglophone markets in the U.S.? Here are a few top-level tips from our research (see the report for more details, checklists, and recommendations): 1) study, segment, and target desirable populations, remembering that Latinos and Asians are not monolithic populations; 2) develop a deliberate, cross-channel multicultural marketing plan, using in-house resources and finding external help such as language service providers and ad agencies that understand the differences between international and domestic targeting; and 3) leverage corporate solutions such as enterprise CMS and CRM, but insist on technology that works with multilingual content.

What we tell clients most often is #1 on our list -- remember that you're dealing with Colombians, Cubans, and Mexicans or Koreans, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese, not just generic Hispanics or Asians. That means tailoring messages to the cultural, behavioral, and linguistic motivators of each market or figuring out what's common to everyone. Success often involves bringing in outside agencies to complement the work of heavy hitters from your segmented marketing team.

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