Re: For Rent sign question - Posted by Frank Chin
Posted by Frank Chin on October 27, 2005 at 08:11:12:
John:
I live in NYC and “signage” issues are very controversial. I would put up BILINGUAL signs even if the area is 100% Hispanic.
I researched the marketing impact of advertising and signage in an area that I own a business, that is 11% Chinese, 11% Russian, 8% Hispanic. Local business people advised me to keep the large English signage, but add Chinese and Russian to signfiy that our business “Welcomes ALL”. To do otherwise would be to say “English speaking clientele is not welcomed here”, and make trouble for myself.
The area I live in (not where my business is) is heavily Korean, and some business owners are in the bad habit of putting up signs in “Korean” only. I actually avoid these businesses myself as it seems to me only Korean customers are welcomed.
I recall a Chinese Restaurant I patronized being taken over, and a Korean ONLY sign put up. What was strange is they painted the Eiffel tower on the front door. After walking by the place several months, curiousity got the better of my wife, so she walked in to see what type of business it was. They told her it was a Korean restaurant that serves French food. Gee, I could’ve figured that out.
BTW, they didn’t stay in business too long. Wonder why??
Then, politicians been getting angry calls from citizens about this issue, with letters to the editor saying “I was born here, and now I feel I’m living in the middle of a third world country”. The funniest story I read about this was a women went to her local McDonalds (here in the USA), but everyone behind the counter that day couldn’t speak English, and someone else on line had to help her order her food. Imagine if it was YOU or ME??
The McDonald manager later said it was a fluke as he hires people who speaks English.
Then, some bright Korean businessman had the idea of putting up a huge billboard announcing his NEW business in Korean only with the only part not Korean being the “phone number”. Well, it got the attention of local “non Koreans” who checked it out, and it turned out to be a new Korean run taxi service. Further checking by the local newspaper revealed the taxi service is NOT even LICENSED, and the newspaper happily reported it was SHUT DOWN.
Imagine if the taxi service added English to its signage?? Not only would he get some “Gringo” customers who only speaks English (isn’t that terrible?), but no one would even bother to check to see if he’s licensed!!
I do advertise to Russians and Chinese, but thru Russian and Chinese newspapers and magazines. If you want to reach Hispanics only do it in Hispanic papers. BUT, DO expect people to call and ASSUME you speak Spanish, which is the case if you put up SPANISH only signs.
Now, I do have employees in my business who speak Russian, Chinese, and Spanish.
One last thing. There seems to be local regulations in NYC that REQUIRE English on signs that was never enforced. Now, there’s debate here to clarify the law, enforce it, and stress its based on “safety” issues. The idea being that if a fire is reported on such and such a place, at a restaurant, the firemen arriving on the scene don’t have to guess “is that place with the Korean sign, and Eiffel tower the restaurant”??
Frank Chin