Global by Design

Cox Communications announced yesterday that it is rolling out Spanish-langauge bills in selected markets. Here is the press release.
I found an interesting new term in the release: transcreating. This is just another term for localization, and I’m not sure I like it any better. But its use does underscore the limitations of terms like localization [...]

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Since relocating to San Diego, I’ve been a regular at Lowe’s. During my last visit I was asked to particpate in an online study.
I went home, plugged in the URL and here’s what I found:

A bilingual marketing research study. I’m glad to see it. Coincidentally, I pitted the Spanish Web sites of Lowe’s and Home [...]

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The statistics are compelling. According to the US Census Bureau, there are nearly 40 million native Spanish speakers in the US. By 2010, this number will easily surpass 50 million.
So it’s no surprise that American-based companies and organizations are responding to this trend with Spanish-language Web sites. I’ve commented on a number of these Web [...]

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Amy Campbell alerted us to The Modern Language Association Language Map. It’s an interactive tool for analyzing language speakers in the US by county and ZIP code, based on the 2000 census. Here is an excerpt of Spanish speakers in California:

Did you know that more than 350 languages were reported in the 2000 census?

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According to a new report by HispanTelligence, U.S. Hispanic purchasing power has surged to nearly $700 billion and is projected to reach as much as $1 trillion by 2010.

According to the report, the rate of growth is nearly three times the overall national rate over the past decade and will propel the aggregate disposable income [...]

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Ford and AOL have gotten together to launch the “first-ever Spanish language entrepreneur hub for Latinos.”
It is called Mi Negocio (”my business”) and is located at www.ford.com/go/minegocio

Here are some juicy stats from Ford’s press release:
About 42 percent of all minority businesses are Hispanic-owned, which is more than any other minority group. Ranks of Hispanic entrepreneurship [...]

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According to Samuel Huntington, in Foreign Policy Magazine, the “unprecedented inflow of Hispanic immigrants threatens to divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages. Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Latinos form their own political and linguistic enclaves—from Los Angeles to Miami—and reject the Anglo-Protestant values that built the [...]

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The San Antonio Express-News has an article on the growing number of bilingual (English and Spanish) ads.
Here’s an excerpt:
There are “more Latinos in the United States than there are Canadians in Canada,” Sosa said.
The Census Bureau has announced Hispanics are the nation’s largest minority group, with a population of 38.8 million. And the Santiago Solutions [...]

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For anyone who says that globalization is a one-sided game in which American is always the winner, I submit Kola Real.

Kola Real, known formally as Industrias Ananos, is giving Coca-Cola a run for its money south of the U.S. border. Based out of Peru, Kola Real has succeed by creating a product a lot [...]

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Globalization is funny. Just when you think you’ve created a global brand, people start yearning for its “localness.” Take Coca-Cola. According to this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, expat Mexicans are paying a premium for imported Coke.
Here’s an excerpt:

“It has a different taste,” owner Adela M. Trinidad, 30, explained in Spanish.
It’s common for immigrants [...]

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