Globalizing Your Business Across Cultures With Transcreation
Do you want to solidify your business presence, delve into unexplored niches and markets, and reach new people? Consider making transcreation a part of your arsenal. This versatile translation method can be just what you need to reach new heights of success, whether you employ it for your upcoming marketing strategies or your next product launch. Not only is transcreation a way to strengthen your organization’s operations beyond your domestic market, but it’s also a gateway to fostering and celebrating cross-cultural communication, helping your company transcend spatial barriers and cultivate loyal customer bases internationally. Let’s see why investing in transcreation is a sound business practice and a must in this globalized climate.
What Is Transcreation?
As we’ve already mentioned, it’s a translation method. But what does transcreation entail, and how is it useful for business leaders? And, why aren’t we talking about localization if we wish to focus on the weight it carries on cross-cultural communication?
For starters, transcreation means adapting content from a source language to a target language, which is a familiar concept for those acquainted with the practice of translation. A winning blend of translation and creation, transcreation requires language experts to maintain the tone, appeal, and intent of the source content while still allowing for a lot of creative freedom in its delivery. Basically, transcreation reimagines the original content in a way that will help the target audience better understand, relate, and respond to its message.
Transcreation Vs. Localization
Now, if we’re talking about the gains of transcreation as a business practice aimed at cultivating cultural appreciation, awareness, and communication, why aren’t we focusing on localization? While similar, transcreating and localizing content is quite different, serving distinct purposes and demanding separate approaches in scope, intent, and execution.
Localization allows language experts to transfer text, images, and other elements from a source language to a target language and adapt it to the sociocultural context that befits its target audience. It involves the adjustment of linguistic, cultural, and functional elements (such as date formats, measurement units, etc.) to serve a specific region or country in an appropriate and clear manner. Transcreation, on the other hand, involves the creative adaptation of content, providing leeway in its delivery, while retaining the emotional aspects and required impact, so that it resonates with the target culture.
A main differentiating factor between these two translation practices is that localization involves moderate change; this means singling out and adapting the cultural elements but retaining the original structure and message of the content in a way that is understandable, functional, and respectful of the target culture. Transcreation, however, employs translation with a very high level of creative freedom, sometimes completely reinventing the original message of the content in order to achieve the same emotional and persuasive impact.
Example
Let’s see a very basic example to highlight the differences between these two translation practices. A company wants to launch a grocery-delivery application in multiple countries. If we opted for localization, we’d adjust the app’s currency, units of measurement, and stock items to align with regional preferences, ensuring that any stylistic (colors, symbols, etc.) and functional content (platform, product descriptions, etc.) are adapted appropriately and communicate the message clearly. By taking a transcreation route, we would have to reinvent the marketing slogan, brand messaging, and all promotional campaigns to resonate with local humor and cultural values because we want to achieve the strongest possible degree of emotional engagement.
It’s easy to confuse the two, but we can confidently say that transcreation is slightly different from localization based on intent, even if these methods all fall under the “translation” umbrella. Still, both are invaluable practices in helping businesses succeed in global markets and fostering cultural awareness.
Why Transcreation Is Exactly What You Need For The Success Of Your Business
Now, let’s see how transcreation specifically can help you serve your business objectives and bring you success in your target market and audience.
1. Global Brand Visibility
A well-executed transcreation strategy can help your business establish a global brand presence. Simultaneously, it also allows you to maintain and secure trust from local audiences because the content you provide is culturally appropriate and relatable. This way, you service multiple regions but you also remain loyal to your overarching mission, cultivating a consistent global identity that’s still context-appropriate, effectively communicating it across geographical and cultural lines. A brand’s success on the international business stage depends on its ability to connect with the people it caters to, after all. Transcreation ensures that your core message remains impactful across cultures and that your company endures and flourishes wherever it operates.
2. Resonating With A Diverse Audience
Customers are more likely to engage with a business that speaks their language, and not just literally. Beyond linguistics, tailored messaging involves an alignment with the cultural and emotional contexts and nuances of your target groups in order to avoid being seen as irrelevant or untrustworthy. Even if your business currently serves one country, you best believe that your audience is comprised of consumers from various cultures, backgrounds, and identities. It doesn’t matter if you are operating in a tight-knit niche or have specified your target audience down to their birth month; the goal of any business should be to offer high-quality services and forge deep connections with its audience. Through transcreation, you can tailor your message accordingly and highlight your presence as a business leader who should be trusted because they value inclusivity and representation.
3. Avoid Cultural Missteps
All seasoned business leaders dread potential marketing disasters, poorly executed campaigns, and failed PR strategies. Of course, we’re not saying that transcreation will save you from all this grief—it’s still something that requires expert handling and execution. But what we are saying is this: if your next campaign goes live and suddenly you’re viral for all the wrong reasons because your intended message got misconstrued, it means you didn’t take the extra time to consider its cultural implications in your target market. You can probably understand that an error like this could cost you thousands, if not millions, in lost profits and legal repercussions (depending on the severity), not to mention in overall brand sentiment. Don’t learn this lesson the hard way. Being respectful is not just a sound business practice; it’s an obligation to your audience and those who continue to support you.
4. Competitive Gains
If two brands operating in the same sector deliver the same app across regions, which one do you think will succeed? The one delivering a uniform, generic message in all serving regions, or the one that takes the time and invests effort to fully calibrate it in a culturally appropriate manner for maximum local impact? Effort is an investment, and so is transcreating your offerings. In a crowded market that’s flooded with similar goods and services, taking an extra step brings you a competitive advantage. Not only do you broaden your business’s horizons by making your organization and product accessible and serviceable to more people, but you also spotlight your business’s position among your competitors.
5. Cross-Cultural Communication
A common peril cited as a consequence of globalization is the loss of cultural nuances and practices. While transcreation is not a cure-all for this vital issue, it can become a stepping stone to fostering better cross-cultural communication channels, cultural awareness, and appreciation. Obviously, by prioritizing cross-cultural communication, businesses can collect deep cultural insights into consumer behaviors that can help them better serve their intended regions. But this is not just an incentive for extra revenue. Companies that do their part in establishing cross-cultural communication pathways can also aid in the retention of the distinctive cultural aspects and characteristics threatened with obscurity due to globalization. Let’s not ignore what makes each part of the world unique; instead, let’s spotlight it and do what we can to ensure its endurance.
Conclusion
Establishing yourself as a leader in your industry and maintaining strong business prospects requires vigilance, creativity, and awareness. Transcreation can be exactly what you need to take your business out of your domestic market and into the fascinating world of, well, the world. However, be careful; to globalize your business you mustn’t just start delivering the same thing to everyone, everywhere. That’s why we’re all for transcreation; take the time and devise a detailed strategy that will cater to the needs of your audience and watch your business stand out on an international level.
