Marketing and Transcreation: your way to cross-cultural marketing

Marketing transcreation is increasingly becoming an integral part of marketing campaigns. It is part and parcel of transcending language and culture barriers regarding marketing and advertising-geared messages (such as a slogan). Advertisers who aim to communicate a brand's purpose in a foreign country must turn to transcreation services. A professional copywriter uses transcreation to capture best the essence of what the original author was getting at. Transcreation in marketing combines two words: "translation" and "creation": this means adapting a message from one language into another, keeping in mind its suitability for the audience.

What does transcreation mean?

Transcreating means "translating" and "creating" a message from one language into another, keeping in mind its suitability for the context and the targeted audience. A successfully transcreated message would evoke the same emotions as the original message. A literal translation might be informative but fails to make the message resonate in the targeted culture. The problem with this approach is that your messages will not allow your customers to connect and engage with your brand, hindering your international growth.

How does transcreation differ from translation?

If you aim to expand your business internationally, translating your marketing material would seem like the most obvious thing to do. However, sometimes translation is not enough. Different languages have different perceptions of words and expressions. You need a professional copywriter who has an intimate knowledge of the target language to be able to provoke the same reaction from the readers in the targeted country and, therefore, attract them to your business. The person producing the transcreation has to have a perfect understanding of the outcome desired by the customer and make significant changes to the text to uphold its original meaning.

How important is transcreation in global marketing?

Advertisers tend to write simple and focused content when creating promotional content in the original language, offering something of immediate value and making their customers feel special. When translating this content, it is of the utmost importance to replicate the emotional experience intended by the author instead of translating mere words. This is the main purpose of marketing transcreation and the direct bridge between the marketing strategy in the original language and the marketing strategy in the target language. 

In 1987, Braniff International Airways launched an advertisement on television, radio, and in newspapers with the slogan "fly in leather." The North American company was flaunting its leather-seated airplanes and tried to encourage its passengers to experience the luxury of flying with their airline. Braniff failed to anticipate the negative connotations of its slogan in Spanish when it was translated as "vuela en cuero", which sounds like the Mexican slang for "fly naked".

Translation and transcreation are, therefore, based on a common ground: the expert operates by creating a target text in language B based on a source text in language A. However, translation seems based on a word-by-word translation, while transcreation tends to be concept-based. Marketing transcreation also grants the professional a large amount of creative freedom. For example, the transcreator can advise the client about changing the models in an advertisement to fit the target market's demographics better. For example, a translator would be exempt from this duty when handling a technical brochure. This is because the content is factual and not subject to misinterpretation. The content also does not aim to give the reader any emotional experience to get a reaction that would propel them to buy a service or purchase a product. Therefore, cultural adaptation takes the backseat, and the precision of the instructions and word sequencing is given higher importance.

This is the main purpose of marketing transcreation and the direct bridge between the marketing strategy in the original language and the marketing strategy in the target language. Machine translation can play a key role in assisting the initial phases of translation, ensuring the efficiency and accuracy of messages before they are fine-tuned during the transcreation process. For example, Pangeanic’s machine translation technology can help translate large volumes of content quickly and accurately, allowing transcreators to focus on adapting the message culturally and emotionally for the target audience.

Key Takeaways

So do you have a product you wish to internationalize or a website you would like to globalize? Or do you simply want to expand your business overseas to make more profit? If this your case, you might want to ask your translator to take a step further and begin the transcreation process.