Translation vs. Localization – Understanding Your Audience

Translations are the first task that those trying to expand their business internationally, or to simply publicize their product or communicate with people in other countries think about. And rightly so, since communicating with others in their own language is a big step towards establishing a relationship. But unfortunately, as most people that have tried any of the automated, machine translation solutions, know, real and meaningful communication goes beyond purely translating a text.

Cloudwords Helps You Avoid Localization Issues

Translation is a first step towards communicating with someone in another country – even if people in that “other country” speak your same language. But merely translating your words is not enough to truly communicate with others, to transmit the meaning of what you are saying — and this is the case in every area, from marketing to legal, from websites to novels, from cars to furniture. So you might wonder what is the difference between translation and localization.

This is where localization comes in. As defined on Wikipedia, “localization (…) might include adapting graphics; adopting local currencies; using proper forms for dates, addresses and phone numbers; the choices of colors; and many other details, including rethinking the physical structure of a product. All these changes aim to recognize local sensitivities, avoid conflict with local culture and habits, and enter the local market by merging into its needs and desires. For example, localization aims to offer country-specific websites of the same company, or different editions of a book depending on the place it is published.”

One of the easiest and clearest ways of seeing the importance of considering the localization of your product or document is by reviewing some well-known marketing mistakes made by companies that did not research the markets where they were introducing their products:

• The Swedish furniture giant IKEA somehow agreed upon the name “FARTFULL” for one of its desks lines.
• In the late 1970s, Wang, the American computer company could not understand why its British branches were refusing to use its latest motto “Wang Cares”. Of course, to British ears this sounds too close to “Wankers” which would not really give a very positive image to any company.
• Sharwoods, a UK food manufacturer, spent £6 million on a campaign to launch its new ‘Bundh’ sauces. It received calls from numerous Punjabi speakers telling them that “bundh” sounded just like the Punjabi word for “buttocks” (or even stronger).
• A golf ball manufacturing company packaged golf balls in packs of four for convenient purchase in Japan. Unfortunately, pronunciation of the word “four” in Japanese sounds like the word “death” and items packaged in fours are unpopular.
• Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious pornography magazine.
• Kellogg had to rename its Bran Buds cereals in Sweden when it discovered that the name roughly translated to “burned farmer.”

And the list goes on, but you probably already got the point. Think for a minute about the money these companies spent in creating failed campaigns, in changing them, and even in recovering the damage made to their brands in the local market, and you will understand how fundamental it is to count with local expertise when planning and designing global products and marketing campaigns.

This is something we understand and deeply care about at Cloudwords. The translation vendors that participate in our Community and Translation Management Platform are certified by some of the most important professional organizations,  and have been helping companies around the world not only translate, but also successfully localize their products and documents for many years.

If you have translation needs, little time to dedicate to your translation projects and want to ensure that your localization is going in the right direction, we invite you to sign up for Cloudwords – You will be surprised by how easy it is to use and how complete are our  tools to manage your translations.