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With the digital revolution, the global market is coming closer and closer together. Companies of all sizes are reaching beyond their local and regional markets and establishing markets around the world in every language.
Here are five real-world localization and translation examples of when a superior localization strategy was used to help companies go above and beyond.
Adobe
Adobe and their Creative Cloud is a software powerhouse based in America but used internationally. As part of their localization efforts, Adobe’s international regions stretch beyond languages and target unique regions. Even when a language is shared, like between Canada and the United States, Adobe has created a unique experience for both regions that shares the style and form of Adobe but is slightly modified to meet each region's local style and culture.
Netflix
Netflix’s mission statement is to entertain the world. Their goal of entertaining the world even stretches into their localization structure. But what may be entertaining for one part of the world may be overlooked or unwanted elsewhere.
Netflix’s total media library is much larger than what you have access to in your account. Rather than offering their complete library to everyone, they create localized libraries. Netflix offers select films and TV shows depending on where their customers are based.
Additionally, the features and series on Netflix follow strict guidelines to ensure translation and localization are consistent across all media. These guidelines apply to translating subtitles, dubbing, and even onscreen text to ensure each region's audience understands and enjoys the content.
Nintendo
While some game companies have struggled with localization, Nintendo has made it a strength of their brand.
Localizing video games creates a unique situation because, for many games, the culture and style behind them are an essential part of the experience. Trying to water down the culture or westernize a game can leave consumers feeling short-changed.
Nintendo has decided to tackle this issue by considering localization at all stages in development. The point is to ensure it has the same style, feel, and quality for all audiences. This ensures consistency of style between versions and in all markets.
Coca Cola
Coca-Cola sells more than 1.9 billion servings across 200 countries every day. It has been an international brand that dominates markets because of its localization practices. Each ad campaign is customized to speak to the target region while staying consistent with Coca-Cola’s voice and style guide. For example, the “Share a Coke” campaign where individual Cokes said, “Share a Coke with Whitney,” was an international success because of localization. Not only was the campaign translated for each region, but the names on each can/bottle were localized to match 250 of the most popular names in the country or region. This advertisement and localization were credited with bumping sales by more than 2%.
McDonald’s
There are over 14,000 McDonald’s in the US and over 38,000 locations globally. While the classic chicken McNuggets and Big Mac are available everywhere, McDonald’s changes its menu to match each region's local style and cuisine.
In South Korea, you can get a Bulgogi Burger, and in Indonesia, they serve Nasi Uduk McD. Each of these menu options is served with the same traditional golden arches but understands and meets local tastes and demands.
Get Help with Localization with SYSTRAN
Localization is a necessary part of every company, and is made even more effective by a machine translation post editing process You don’t have to be a major international company to need localization because even within a single city, communities and groups of people can benefit from localization services.
Translation and localization are no longer optional, and SYSTRAN is here to help. With decades of experience and utilization of AI-powered neural machine translation, we are a team you can trust. We make sure you have the tools you need to succeed at every step along the way, like our Ultimate Glossary of Machine Translation Terminology.
Contact us and schedule your free demo to find out more about SYSTRAN and localization.
