One billion people will have access to the Web by year's end-and more than 70 percent of them will speak a language other than English. Think what this exponential leap in multi-cultural commerce is doing (and, more importantly, going to do) to world trade! And what that will mean for your organization. The thrust of the current wave of U.S. globalism has been oriented toward off-shore production for manufacturing and retail supply chains. The next stage is already underway, the leveraging of these earlier investments for the sake of servicing the domestic markets in which they're located. As this trend grows, a key question facing companies is whether they're marketing effort is ready for multi-nationalism. The 'wild card' these days, of course, is the Internet as it cuts ever more heavily into traditional channels. Correspondingly, it's appropriate take an audit of their online initiatives. How closely are those campaigns tailored to the intended audiences, from both a language and cultural perspective? Do they take into account rules that may make it mandatory to provide information in multiple languages? Are they optimizing resources?
展开▼
