Thinking about expanding your business to a global scale? You surely know the importance of marketing to effectively attract new customers. Positioning your company internationally will depend on a localized marketing effort, combined with dedicated translation services.
Today, companies are increasingly looking to integrate transcreation in their marketing strategy. And that has proved to be quite a profitable decision.
If you would like to know what marketing transcreation is and why it’s vital for your global marketing strategy, this post will explain all you need to know about it.
Let’s get started.
Transcreation in the Marketing World
We live in a globalized world where companies constantly tend to expand their business to new, overseas markets. To this effect, careful strategy planning becomes a top priority.
Truth is that a successful marketing strategy depends on language, to a great extent. People want brands to speak their language, and that is a statistically proven fact.
According to CSA Research, 65% of users prefer content in their native language. Meanwhile, 76% of consumers will only buy from companies that provide them with product information in their native tongue.
If your global marketing strategy goal is to improve sales and customer engagement, a coordinated marketing transcreation effort is your solution.
But what is marketing transcreation? Let’s explain the concept.
The Definition of Marketing Transcreation
Transcreation is a professional translation service that combines the process of translation with the process of content creation. Marketing material is first translated and rewritten creatively according to the brand’s identity and the audience’s expectations. Along this process, the message’s original tone and intention must be maintained.
For successful transcreation, marketing translation services must rely on translation professionals who are experts in marketing, advertising, and sales. The language professional must ensure that the text meets the objectives initially set in conjunction with the client.
Marketing transcreation cover different types of advertising content, including:
- Slogans
- Ad scripts
- Print ads
- Banners
- Social media posts
- Blog posts
- On-page copy
- Email marketing campaigns
What Should Transcreation Include?
Good transcreation should cover the basic requirements of any translation, such as grammatical correctness and cross-cultural adaptation. But it must also:
- Appropriately communicate with your target audience.
- Be faithful to your brand’s tone of voice.
- Go beyond your source material, using language flexibly and creatively.
- Have a well-defined style and intentionality.
- When appropriate, comply with your SEO strategy.
- Consider the audiovisual material that will go with the textual content.
Transcreation is a matter of advertising impact. It allows marketers to recreate a one-of-a-kind message, adapting wording, images, and videos, so it resonates with your target culture and conveys the brand’s identity.
With transcreation, your marketing strategy can come to life and become meaningful to audiences across the globe.
A Case Study: Samsung
Keeping the meaning and identity of a slogan can be difficult, but it is, by all means, possible. Samsung was able to do this successfully by adapting the Samsung S6 model campaign slogan from English to Arabic.
In English the slogan was ”NEXT IS NOW”. A message aimed at highlighting that Samsung uses technology that no one else is using, they represent the technology of tomorrow.
Samsung’s transcreation marketing team seized the opportunity by translating the marketing material into Arabic, adapting the phrase to “سابق عصره”, which means “beyond the present”, a phrase that not only maintains the core message, but it’s also commonly used by Arabic-speakers.
A literal translation could have spoiled the essence of the message. Through transcreation, Samsung found the way to make an impact abroad.
Translation, Localization, and Marketing Transcreation: Uses & Differences
It’s crucial to recognize the differences between translation, localization, and transcreation. Although the distinction between the three concepts may seem minimal, certain features differ between them.
What is translation? And what’s localization? Let’s see.
Translation: from Source to Target
Translation is the act of translating from one language to another. Any translation project requires, from the language professional, determination and the ability to capture the spirit of the source text.
In a translation, the content of the original text is paramount, as it operates within a practically literal word-for-word system. Although translation adapts to cultural nuances of the target language, images, layout, and vocabulary are usually kept invariant.
Localization: Cultural Product Adaptation
Localization adjusts the formal characteristics of a product to the target culture. It must consider legal, cultural, and political specificities.
Localization covers a wider range of aspects than just basic translation. It takes into account images, layouts, date and time formats, colors, etc.
Localization and transcreation are closely related. Localization needs transcreation to deliver an original and creative message and adapt to new markets.
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How Transcreation Differs from Translation and Localization
1- Marketing Transcreation means creative freedom. Translators convey texts from one language and culture to another and often work under the restriction of literality. On the other hand, creative marketing translation allows for more expression leeway.
3- Transcreation demands marketing knowledge. Translators and localizers are concerned with technical and cultural nuances. A transcreator’s skill-set, however, further includes marketing and advertising considerations. It’s true that transcreation seeks to break down barriers for effective communication, but it essentially goes as far as to inject a piece of content with elements that ensure persuasive and engaging messaging for a specific audience.
In a global context where people are fond of brands capturing their hearts and minds, localization and marketing transcreation processes are vital.
So if you want to expand your brand to global markets, you will certainly need transcreation. Not considering this asset can mean the early failure of your marketing campaign.
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The Importance Of Transcreation for Your Marketing Strategy
In this section, we’ll take a look at the top benefits of transcreation for your global marketing strategy.
Professional Native-Speaking Copywriters and Transcreators
Marketing transcreation ensures that the message is translated as well as rewritten. It’s why transcreation work is done by target language native speakers who also have perfect knowledge of the source language and are fully familiarized with the local idiosyncrasies of the country of origin. They rewrite your content, from your website to landing and product pages. And besides maintaining creative impact, they also always maintain the original strength of your brand values.
Bridging More than Just Language Gaps
Transcreation indeed allows you to overcome linguistic barriers, but even more it seeks to bridge cultural gaps and embed your brand into the eyes and minds of your global users by creating a connection that feels locally-tailored and specially thought for them.
Transcription considers current affairs, sensible nuances, cultural references, etc. This is beneficial for keeping your content up to target market standards. And this goes beyond your written content. So, besides the fact that transcreation professionals will suggest ideas for slogans or copies, if deemed necessary to appeal to the cultural characteristics of the target audience, they’ll often advise on visual elements that may contain offensive material to the audiences’ cultures.
Performance in Target Markets
Professional transcreators approach your efforts (and marketing content) with a holistic approach. For instance, they recognize the importance of not only translating but crafting subject lines that appeal to basic human nature, that is curiosity, for a good open rate in email marketing. They also know the adequate verb tenses, the length, and the ideal character limit for the type of content and its target audience. And they distinguish the proper tone for blog posts, emails, and CTAs.
In other words, a transcreator can determine the right style for your brand to achieve greater engagement, which is the essence of transcreation. And with that in mind, professional transcreation can help you avoid mistakes that can severely damage a brand’s perception or reputation.
An example that shows the damage that poorly-implemented marketing transcreation (or the lack of it) can cause to a brand is a company as recognized as Puma.
In 2011, Puma launched a sneaker model with the flag of the United Arab Emirates in honor of its 40th national day, which despite their good intention, provoked a backlash by the people and caused great displeasure in the targeted market. In Arab culture, shoes are considered dirty. The flag is a symbol that represents the highest values, principles and standards of a society.
The mixture of these two conceptions makes the results evident: the target audience felt offended by the brand. Puma had to cease production of that edition immediately.
Not understanding the culture you want to operate in can do great harm to your brand, even if it has a large trajectory, like Puma.
It’s ROI-effective
Transcreation can be more persuasive than mere translation, which directly affects conversion rates. So, when transcreation achieves your goal of gaining your customer bases’ trust and loyalty, that’ll reflect on your business ROI.
The combined elements of creativity and cultural context in transcreation offers refreshing customer experience, for example, with creative ads that can be funny and get customers laughing while remaining memorable.
An excellent example of memorable experiences transcreation can build is Coca-Cola. The company launched their campaign “Share a Coke” (2012) in which they put common names on packaging, causing people to search for their names on the product, or to give someone they loved a can with their name on it.
But this campaign didn’t just refer to English names, it spread across diverse cultures and markets successfully.
After the campaign launched, +1,000 names were printed on different packagings, over 150,000,000 personalized products were sold and #ShareACoke became number one global trending topic with 1 billion impressions. This campaign earned Coca-Cola 7 awards from The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and increased sales in the United States by 2.7%,
Main Tips To Use Transcreation in Your Marketing Strategy
the following factors:
. Detailed briefing. Campaign briefing will be the guide you can refer to from the beginning. It should provide relevant information about the objectives of the advertising proposal and details of the buyer persona from the target country. To this effect, the transcreation team must do deep research on the product to be promoted.
Get Your Business to the Top, Work With a Leading Language Services Provider
Planning to expand to a new market? At bayantech, we provide transcreation services that adapt to your unique marketing needs.
We gather almost two decades of experience in professional transcreation services, having worked alongside the most influential companies in MENA. Our multidisciplinary team of transcreators, editors, proofreaders, and project managers will ensure that your expectations are exceeded at all times.
bayantech offers the best quality transcreation service in 120 languages, matching cost-effectiveness and fast turnaround times with unparalleled quality. Looking for a transcreation solution by a seasoned and trustworthy company? Trust our team of experts.
Let’s talk about your project. Contact us .
