COMMUNICATION PROGRAMMES FOR MARKETING

Communication Programmes for Marketing

Communication Programmes for Marketing

In the information age represented by the Internet and the World Wide Web, the language representation online has evolved from the monolinguality of one English language into the multilinguality of more than 1,000 languages (Crystal, 2001). As a natural outcome, multilingual Communication programmess have become a common ground for online communication for peoples across national boundaries. On the Internet, Web users spend more time and come back more often to the Communication programmess that are in their native language and appeal to their cultural sensibilities.

Visitors to a Communication programmes would stay twice as long if the content on the Communication programmes were available in their own language. Their willingness to buy something online increases by at least four times if the Communication programmes is localized to meet their needs to thoroughly research the product and the company. (De-Palma, 2006; Enos, 2001; Schreiber Translations, 2007; WorldLingo, 2006). According to an Internet Executive ePanel done by International Data Corporation (IDC) in 2000, adding multilingual capability to a company's Communication programmes significantly increases global e-commerce revenue up to three times (Parr & McManus, 2000).

Additionally, the statistics provided by Internet World Stats, an international Communication programmes specializing in Internet usage and population statistics from 233 countries and regions, show that between the years of 2000 and 2007, Internet usage has increased 248.8% in Asia, 638.4% in Africa, 491.4% in the Middle East, and 433.4% in Latin America and the Caribbean (2007a). With such a steady and rapidly growing non-English-speaking population on the Internet, multilingual Communication programmess have become an important phenomenon that involves issues of language, culture, and technology. This growing population continues to create new challenges for multilingual communication in global e-commerce.

Along with the monolingual to multilingual evolution of the Internet, more and more non-English-language Communication programmess were developed to meet the rising needs of the non-English-speaking Internet users all over the world. For example, Yahoo! is one of the earlier companies that made successful efforts in launching the Yahoo! France and Yahoo! Japan Web directories specifically for French-speaking and Japanese-speaking Internet users (Jenkins, 1997). Since then, major companies have been moving steadily to multilingualize their Communication programmess.

According to a study done by thebigword, a translation service company, 58% of Fortune 500 companies in the United States currently have multilingual Communication programmess (2006). For example, Coca-Cola, the number one global brand that sells products in more than 100 countries and regions, has more than 100 Communication programmess in more than 30 languages. Nike does business in more than 140 countries and makes more money outside the United States than it does within the country. One of the two priorities set forth by CEO Philip Knight in Nike's 2001 annual report was to become a truly global company. Its Communication programmes offers information in 13 languages, including the 10 most popular languages on the Internet that are used by more than 80% of Internet users (Internet World Stats, ...