I recently came across a post that I thought was very interesting. Kerry addressed in her blog post “Is Positioning Discrimination?” that Richmond was going to ban Chinese-only signs. She expressed that she disagreed to such ban, as Chinese-only signs are a means of segmenting the market and targeting specific customers.

Yes, Chinese-only signs may be convenient for businesses to target the Chinese in Richmond. However, I disagree that such ban is “forced assimilation and bullying”.

I believe segmentation does not just imply segmentation by race and/or nationality. It can also mean the market is segmented geographically. Richmond is a geographic segment that not only has Chinese residents, but also Canadian residents. Hence, it’s unfair to say that the businesses in Richmond are all just targeting the Chinese, and that it is okay to create signs in Chinese only. As said before, as much as targeting the Chinese is important, the businesses must not forget that they are still in Richmond BC, CANADA.

The ban doesn’t forbid businesses in Richmond to use Chinese on their signs. It just asks that English/French is included on it as well. Therefore, it will not harm the business or stop it from reaching its target audience. If anything, it will reach out to a wider group in the geographical segment of Richmond. I say this is a win-win for all.

Kerry’s original post can be found here. The article she read can be found here.