Businesses in several European countries are increasingly using regional or minority languages to add value to their products and to improve their customer services.
It is widely recognised that these languages, as well as the cultures and heritage which they represent, can offer significant commercial benefits to companies in many different market sectors.
Increasing numbers of companies in the retail, leisure, commercial and service sectors are realising that offering a minority language service is a vital part of developing good relations with customers and clients in a particular region or country. Customers in the region or country may well support the use of the language and enjoy dealing with businesses which also make an effort to do so.
In some European countries there are statutory provisions concerning the use of the indigenous regional or minority languages in public life. Their applicability to private sector companies in most cases arises from the basic rights of citizens to receive services in their language of choice. These rights are enshrined in the European Union Charter on Regional and Minority Languages, enacted in 1992 and subsequently signed by 27 national governments within Europe. Several governments implement policies which actively promote and support the use of regional or minority languages by companies operating within their territories. This is the case for example in Ireland, Wales, Catalonia, the Basque Autonomous Region of Spain (Euskadi) and Galicia.
However, it is important to realise that commercial organisations will need to be persuaded of the sound marketing reasons for using regional or minority languages in their businesses, as well as the ideological, legislative or linguistic ones.