Many people do not realize their own market. Most people think when they open a store that they will sell to someone like themselves. With this mentality, their customers will be just like them because their marketing is targeted to what they like and how they think, so the people who respond will agree with them. But is it not also a limiting factor? How many customers are they excluding with their advertising campaign?

And, the hardest question of them all:

Do they really want to sell to themselves anyway?

I know that you are probably thinking that is a silly question, but humor me a few minutes. Let’s look at your basic white, middle-class, business owner. I know there are other kinds, but please bear with me. His (or her) ads will appeal to white middle-class and either one class higher or lower, depending on how it is designed. This is a class that is apt to live above their means, and though they may not seem to be on a tight budget, their money is usually promised to payments on other items.

Working with businesses in the area (Waco, Texas), we have found that their favorite customers are not in this description. According to businesses in both car sales and furniture sales, they would rather do business with the Hispanics in the area. This is because the Hispanic population has a tendency to have access to more liquid cash. They also have a better record of being more prompt in their payments.

If you had the choice between a customer that looks like you and acts like you, but is delinquent in their payments, or a customer that comes from a different culture and may have to bring their son or daughter who is in high school to interpret for them and pays on time faithfully, who would you pick?

Now the question is how to reach this largely untapped market. One of the easiest ways is the internet, but it is also one of the ways you can get ripped off. Language is not a static formula, and this is why we have not had much success with computer translations. Each day, language changes, evolves if you will. Some words are born, some words die, some words change meaning, some words change pronunciation. On top of that, when a language is divided and there is not much contact between the two sections, they have a tendency to change differently, influenced by different factors. When you hire a Spanish translator, you may find some one that is fluent in Spanish, but the question is what dialect, or flavor, of Spanish is it? Many people do not realize that there is a huge difference between dialects. We can read and watch British news with not much difficulty, but when I went to London a few months ago with my family, it was a different story. I felt like a little mini-translator standing behind my dad, explaining what people were saying. It was not just the accent he was having trouble with, it was a different way of speaking on top of a different vocabulary. Instead of asking him if he was in line, the question was “Are you queuing?" Rarely in the U.S. do we use the word queue. For example, it is used in the printer control panel on your computer and other computer jargon, on technical documents, and possibly some other formal occasions. I do not believe I have heard it used in everyday Standard American English, and I have never heard it used as a verb, even in computer jargon.

That is just one example of how English is different across the ocean, and the same linguistic rules that spur change in the English language, spur change in Spanish. Another problem that people have when translating web pages to target a new consumer, is what I would like to call the “yes-but-no factor". My boss recently received some information on a DVD from a major Italian manufacturer. The graphics and media affects were amazing, but when the narration began, it sounded like a different language. When we listened again, the stresses were on the wrong part of the word, and the words were out of order in the sentence with articles such as the and a/an were left completely out. Even knowing this, it was hard to understand. Yes, it was English, but no, it was not English at all. This is why it is important to have a native speaker translate the material, and not just any native speaker, but one from the region to which you are marketing.

There are many customers not being reached. Find out who they are in your area and try something new to reach them.