Foreign language translation software producers have made headway into China in a bid to cash in on its growing translation market, which has been fueled by the country’s recent acceptance into the World Trade Organization and the opening up of its markets to foreign competition.

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In looking ahead to what will stand out in Hispanic marketing in 2005, Garcia360 highlights grassroots marketing as being the “big thing” most of the firm’s clients are looking for. This trend continues to be dominant, which is good news for radio stations, which have a tried and true method of grassroots marketing in ‘radio remotes’ (live location visits). A push from advertising agencies is expected for increased use of the radio remote, especially in conjunction with community events, as marketers continue to look for ways to have one-on-one interactions with consumers. This article is copyright 2004 TheWiseMarketer.com.

One of the newer local one-to-one tools is the mobile marketing unit. Some financial institutions have already tried this tactic by creating mobile banks that enter Latino neighbourhoods and try to educate potential customers on the benefits of banking – and the benefits of their brand. Some companies, such as AOL Latino, have also used this idea for product demonstration. Some brands have been using it for years, such as Nike – you can see the mobile units at the Inner-City Games, showcasing sports products and co-branding efforts with sports celebrities.

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“Hispanic is by far the preferred term nationally but especially in New Mexico,” F. Chris Garcia said.

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Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload by Stever Robbins. Hat tip: Online Business Networks.

Wireless companies and record labels see salsa music as the next ring with bling for cellular phones.

Both industries are attempting to gain leverage in the Latin ringtone market, offering more merengue as a hook for Hispanic consumers. Industry executives say the demographic is relatively untapped for companies that sell ringtones. And at $1.50 to $1.99 for each tune, wireless companies and record labels stand to build rapidly on a $3 billion industry.

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“Beware the CEO blog,” says Seth Godin. Since Seth Godin isn’t up for comments on his blog, this CEO with a sense of candor, urgency, timeliness, pithiness, controversy, and utility will post his comments here and invite yours and Seth Godin’s in return. “My work in the world is about sharing and acquiring knowledge globally, through the awesome power of languages and technology…” (from my life plan). That’s why I founded Linguistic Solutions. That’s why I started the Linguistic Solutions Blog.

Greg Thibodeaux sent me a link to a Houston Press article featuring our mutual friend Matt Mullenweg, lead developer of WordPress, on which the Linguistic Solutions Blog runs (thanks to Matt and another mutual friend, Scott Allen).

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 new estimates by HispanTelligence®.

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HispanicBusiness.com announces HispanTelligence Hispanic market projections for 2005 planning.

I was in attendance at the Houston WordPress Meetup Group Monthly Meetup this afternoon. Matthew Mullenweg, lead developer of WordPress and the organizer of the group was absent. In his abscence, Dennis Williamson used the Linguistic Solutions Blog to give attendees John Beck, Jonathan Abad, Lee Wilkins and Marcus Major a look at version 1.3 of WordPress.

As the fastest growing minority group in the US, the Hispanic market is capturing the attention of marketers, advertisers and companies representing all sectors of the business community. Hispanic buying power is expected to explode to $926.1 billion by 2007, making it larger than Canada’s gross domestic product and representing 9.4% of America’s total buying power.

To help businesses understand the “Hispanic” market, Chain Store Guide presents the “Top 50 Hispanic Markets Report: Your Retail & Foodservice Guide to Hispanic Marketing.” This report establishes the link between the market demographics of the Top 50 Hispanic Markets and retailers serving those markets.

Findings of the report include:

— Average per capita income for Hispanics living in the profiled markets
is $11,949.

— Washington-Baltimore, with the majority of its Hispanic population
describing itself as Central American, has the highest per capita
income for Hispanics at $16,673. With a Cuban population at almost
45% of its total Hispanic population, Miami-Fort Lauderdale Hispanics
represents the second highest per capita income at $16,483.

— Among retailers, Wal-Mart and Walgreens are the leaders in serving the Hispanic community, having stores in 48 and 46 of the 50 markets,
respectively. Wal-Mart’s average market share is 37.3% among discount
stores in those markets while Walgreens’ average is 40.3% on the drug
side.

— Grocery market share is not quite so cut and dried. The H.E.B.
Grocery Company is number one in the eight markets in which it appears
with 55% average market share. Publix leads in the five profiled
markets in which it has stores with 44% average market share. Safeway
and Kroger serve approximately 20 markets each with an average market
share of 21.4% and 18.8%, respectively. Safeway takes the top spot
in eight markets, while Kroger leads in six. Albertsons never leads
in market share, but serves 32 of the profiled markets.

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Covina, CA–(HISPANIC PR WIRE – BUSINESS WIRE)–October 6, 2004–Today, IKEA, the world’s leading home furnishings retailer, officially launched a multi-media, U.S. Hispanic marketing initiative. The effort, which includes Spanish-language TV spots and the company’s first U.S. Spanish-language catalog, was kicked off at a series of home solutions workshops led by TV celebrity Lesley Ann Machado at the IKEA Covina store.

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The Hispanic population boom in the US has sent companies scrambling to win a piece of the lucrative pie.

According to the The Selig Center for Economic Growth, Hispanic buying power for 2002 totaled $580 billion, with a predicted compound annual growth rate of 8.7%. (The standard rate for non-Hispanics is 4.8%.)

The center’s study predicts that by 2007 the dollar power of Hispanics will rise to $926.1 billion. The Hispanic community clearly holds a great deal of economic clout, which certainly explains why marketers are vying for its attention.

Unfortunately, many marketing campaigns are ineffective. Here are the top three reasons.

1. Advertising for Service-Related Products, But Not Educating

2. Translating Accurately—but Not in a Culturally Appropriate Way

3. Marketing Without Bilingual or Bicultural Staff

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Lookout

Our readers frequently ask why Adobe Reader 6 is so slow to load when they open a PFD file. The main reason is that the Reader doesn’t load alone – it comes with a crowd of plug-ins. If you watch the splash screen carefully you can see their names flip past. Most people need only a handful of these plug-ins. If you’d like to load PDF files faster, follow these simple instructions:

· Launch Windows Explorer

· Navigate to the Program Files folder, usually c:\Program Files

· Below this, navigate to Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader

· In the right-hand pane, find the folder named plug_ins

· Right-click it and choose Rename, changing it to plug_ins_NOT

· Create a new folder named plug_ins

· From the plug_ins_NOT folder, copy just three files to the new plug_ins folder: EWH32.api, printme.api, and search.api

That’s all you need to do. The next time you load a PDF file, only those three plug_ins will come along, and you should notice a significant speed improvement. If you need to read encrypted PDFs or if for any other reason you want to undo this change, simply close Adobe Reader, delete the plug_ins folder and rename plug_ins_NOT back to plug_ins. – NJR

Neil J. Rubenking, “Solutions: User to User,” PC Magazine, 19 October, 2004, 86