Category Archives: Culture

Have a Mecca Cola and a Smile

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When the world loved America, American multinationals could do (almost) no wrong. Nike, Coke, McDonald’s and the rest could sell their goods practically anywhere in the world and make a nice profit. But now that the world’s love affair with U.S. has gone sour, a window of opportunity has opened for “un-American” products. Enter Mecca Cola:

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A must-read article in the NY Times explains the sudden success of Mecca Cola. Here’s a reaction from Coke:

Coke acknowledges that the Arab boycott has hurt. Singling out North and West Africa, most notably Morocco and Egypt, the president of Coca-Cola Africa, Alexander B. Cummings Jr., told analysts in October that “our business in these countries has been hurt by the boycotting of American brands.”

Another Coke executive, asked about Mecca-Cola, said simply, “We are aware of Mecca, and we have felt the impact of the boycott of American goods.”

Also, take a moment to visit the Mecca site. Thanks to the power of globalization, Coca-Cola will soon be battling with Mecca Cola in stores around the U.S. Globalization is a door that swings both ways.

What’s the #3 Language in Canada?

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If you didn’t grow up speaking English or French in Canada, you most likely spoke Chinese, according to new census data released on Tuesday. Statistics Canada reported the number of people listing Chinese as their mother tongue grew by almost 18 percent, to 872,400, between 1996 and 2001.

That accounts for 2.9 percent of the country’s population of 31.4 million, up from 2.6 percent. The biggest concentration is in Vancouver, British Columbia, which has seen 3/4 of its increase in population come from immigrants from Asia.

Here’s the article.

Nueva York

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Language never stands still, particularly in NYC:

“When you think that the United States is the fifth largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world and New York has more Spanish speakers than 13 Latin American capitals, you begin to appreciate the dimensions of the linguistic and cultural hybridity that’s taking place.”

Read the article.

Look Before You Localize

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Research International just released the results of a study on global branding. I found this excerpt very interesting:

Despite the growing need for localized positioning highlighted through the research, there are two groups of brands for which marketing that is too localized can be potentially damaging. These are either highly aspirational prestige brands (e.g. Chanel) or brands whose appeal is founded on a universal myth such as Nokia’s theme of connection, or Levi’s theme of independence.

This is a very good point. And I wonder if Mercedes will suffer long term when the word gets around that their “German-engineered” cards are built in Alabama.

Here’s the press release.