Coke combines marketing and language learning

The Coca-Cola company has been running a very active marketing campaign, announced in March 2009, that targets Hispanic Americans. And since the fall, the firm has invited Hispanics to “open happiness” through an educational initiative designed to facilitate English-language learning among the nation’s Hispanic population.

The project underscores the importance that language occupies in today’s culture. Rather than offering gimmicky plastic toys to attract consumers, Coke is giving away a free bilingual English-Spanish mini-dictionary and a DVD of the beginning Inglés sin Barreras lesson.

Coke-buyers in 11,000 stores located in Hispanic areas across the US are now taking advantage of this offer. After the initial purchase, they can also accumulate points via their cell phone, and later trade them in for one of the 12 volumes in the Inglés sin Barreras collection.

One question remains: does learning English go better with Coke?

At Language Translation, Inc. in San Diego, California, we are keenly interested in new connections between the world of language and business. Our company provides translation and interpreting services in over 40 languages, with Spanish-English language services a specialty.  

Betty Carlson