Comment: Kerry Poon’s Blog – “Is Positioning a Discrimination?”
Being a Richmondite myself, Kerry Poon’s blog post titled “Is Positioning a Discrimination?” caught my eye, as it talked about the upcoming Richmond municipal election and how the issue of banning Chinese-only signs seems to be another factor affecting politician’s campaigns. Kerry took the critical stance of disagreeing with her blog title by concluding “if the chosen segment excludes certain people, it does not indicate that the business is discriminating, it simply means that they are not in their target market.” She supported this stance with Ries and Trout’s positioning strategy.
Most of the businesses that only portray Chinese signage offer services singularly familiar to Chinese (“Chinese apothecaries, Chinese-language DVD stores, Feng Shui stores, etc.) Although the Chinese are these businesses’ target market, I only somewhat agree with activists that say “[they] firmly believe that Chinese-only signs only serve to exclude the rest of the community and this is very un-Canadian.” These Chinese-only signs act as barriers to people who want to integrate themselves with the Chinese culture and embrace the “multiculturalistic” mindset of being a Canadian. From what I see, a few English words wouldn’t hurt a business’ performance, and if at all, would improve it, as this opens up the market to people who can’t read Chinese; however, it’s a business’ prerogative to include English, as “the entrepreneur knows what is in the best interest of their business.”
Comment: Kerry Poon’s Blog – “Is Positioning a Discrimination?”
Being a Richmondite myself, Kerry Poon’s blog post titled “Is Positioning a Discrimination?” caught my eye, as it talked about the upcoming Richmond municipal election and how the issue of banning Chinese-only signs seems to be another factor affecting politician’s campaigns. Kerry took the critical stance of disagreeing with her blog title by concluding “if the chosen segment excludes certain people, it does not indicate that the business is discriminating, it simply means that they are not in their target market.” She supported this stance with Ries and Trout’s positioning strategy.
Most of the businesses that only portray Chinese signage offer services singularly familiar to Chinese (“Chinese apothecaries, Chinese-language DVD stores, Feng Shui stores, etc.) Although the Chinese are these businesses’ target market, I only somewhat agree with activists that say “[they] firmly believe that Chinese-only signs only serve to exclude the rest of the community and this is very un-Canadian.” These Chinese-only signs act as barriers to people who want to integrate themselves with the Chinese culture and embrace the “multiculturalistic” mindset of being a Canadian. From what I see, a few English words wouldn’t hurt a business’ performance, and if at all, would improve it, as this opens up the market to people who can’t read Chinese; however, it’s a business’ prerogative to include English, as “the entrepreneur knows what is in the best interest of their business.”