Recent Posts View All

Blog - Royale... with cheese

Royale... with cheese

posted 2007-05-20 14:24:24
by Dean Nomura

As I'm still in process of working off all the great food (especially the desserts and afternoon pastries) from WorldSummit in San Diego, it hit me that "localized" food has been around forever.  If you're near the sea, seafood is likely to be predominant.  If you're in a cattle area, menus are probably influenced by beef.  Certain regions produce their local wines, beers, or spirits.

In thinking back to some of the traveling I've done, it struck me that some of the best "localizers" are actually the multi-national fast food giants.  Of course they work very hard to establish their global brand names.  However they've learned that local patrons might enjoy their universal products, but perhaps the individual item names need modification or locally-specific menu items need to be added to draw them into the establishment.

Pulp Fiction fans often quote the unforgettable dialog between John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson about the Quarter Pounder being called the "Royale... with cheese" in France because the French use the metric system and a quarter of a pound wouldn't have meaning to them.  (After a bit of checking it seems to be Royal Cheese on the current menu, but that just wouldn't have sounded quite right coming from John Travolta's character.)

The point is although U.S.-centric menu items exist, fast-food folks are very good at adjusting their offerings to appeal to local markets, not just translating a single set of menu item names into many languages.  Whether that's through unique branding/names or specific one-of-a-kind local/regional items, they know localization can result in increased sales.

For example in France in addition to the "Royale with cheese," McDonald's offers McOriental, a burger on eastern bread rather than a bun.  In Australia they have McOz, a burger made with Aussie beef and beetroot.  In Malaysia they have Bubur Ayam McD, a chicken porridge.

In the U.S. pepperoni pizza is one of our staples, but a pizza with sardines, tuna, mackeral, salmon and onions is popular at Russian Pizza Huts.  In Japan there's a pizza with potatoes and mayonnaise.

In Canada, Burger King has Poutine on the menu, which is fries smothered in cheese curds and gravy.  In New Zealand they have Mango Jammin', a grilled chicken sandwich with mango-lime sauce, aoili and bacon.

Menu localization isn't just inter-country.  Within the U.S. regional specialties are on fast-food menus such as Saimin (a noodle soup dish) and breakfast with portuguese sausage, eggs and rice in Hawaii, or regional-style chicken sandwiches in the southern part of the country.

I'm sure there are examples from other industries, but I wanted to call out these cases of how some food industry companies have shown that sometimes it isn't enough to just translate, you need to localize to maximize your market.

Share:

Back to the Blog

Back to Top