Businesses are constantly faced with the challenge of reaching diverse audiences across different languages and cultures. Translation is often the go-to solution for overcoming language barriers.
However, when it comes to conveying a message in a way that resonates emotionally with audiences, translation alone is not always enough. This is where transcreation comes into play. Transcreation goes beyond simply converting text from one language to another. It adapts the core message, tone, and emotion of the content to make it relevant and impactful for the target audience.
Understanding Transcreation
At its core, transcreation is the process of adapting content for a new audience while preserving its original intent, tone, and emotional impact. The term itself is a blend of "translation" and "creation," reflecting the creative nature of the process.
Unlike translation, which focuses on accurately converting words from one language to another, transcreation involves reshaping the content to evoke the same feelings and reactions in the target audience as it does in the original.
Transcreation is often used in marketing, advertising, and branding, where the goal is not just to inform but to inspire, persuade, and emotionally connect with an audience.
The process requires a deep understanding of both the source and target cultures, ensuring that the message remains culturally relevant and emotionally resonant in the new market.
Transcreation vs. Translation: Key Differences
While translation and transcreation share some similarities, they serve different purposes.
Translation aims for linguistic accuracy and is often used for technical documents, legal texts, and any content where clarity and precision are paramount.
Transcreation, on the other hand, is all about creative adaptation—it’s less about literal accuracy and more about ensuring the message has the same emotional and cultural impact on the new audience.
Here are some key differences between the two:
- Focus on Creativity: Translation typically focuses on accuracy and maintaining the original structure. Transcreation, however, allows for more creative freedom, often resulting in entirely new content that conveys the same core message but in a culturally appropriate way.
- Emotional Engagement: While translation is effective for conveying information, transcreation is designed to evoke an emotional response. It goes beyond words to adapt the tone, humor, and cultural nuances of the content.
- Cultural Sensitivity: Transcreation is not just about changing words; it’s about changing the message in a way that resonates with the target culture. What works in one country might not work in another, and transcreation ensures that your content speaks directly to the new audience’s values, beliefs, and emotions.
- Application: Translation is commonly used for legal, technical, and instructional content where precision is key. Transcreation is typically used in marketing campaigns, slogans, and advertising—where the goal is to connect with audiences emotionally and motivate action.
Why Businesses Need Transcreation
In today’s globalized and digitized marketplace, transcreation is essential for brands looking to expand into new territories.
Simply translating your content may not be enough to connect with your target audience, especially when cultural differences come into play.
Here’s why transcreation is so important for businesses:
- Cultural Relevance: Transcreation ensures that your brand message is adapted to fit the cultural context of the target market. This is critical in avoiding misunderstandings or even offending your audience. For example, humor, idioms, and colloquial expressions don’t always translate well and can lose their impact without proper cultural adaptation.
- Maintaining Brand Consistency: While transcreation allows for creative freedom, it also ensures that your core brand identity remains intact. This is particularly important for global brands that need to maintain consistency across different markets without diluting their message. Transcreators work to ensure that the essence of your brand is preserved, even as the content is adapted.
- Engaging the Audience Emotionally: One of the main goals of transcreation is to evoke the same emotional response in the target audience as in the original audience. This is especially important for advertising campaigns, where the success of the campaign often hinges on its ability to connect with people on an emotional level.
- Improving Market Penetration: Successful transcreation helps businesses break through cultural barriers and build stronger connections with their audience, ultimately leading to increased engagement, customer loyalty, and sales.
The Transcreation Process: How Does It Work?
The transcreation process is more complex than straightforward translation and involves several steps to ensure the final content resonates with the target audience while maintaining the original intent.
Here’s an overview of the key stages involved:
Step 1: Creative Brief
Every successful transcreation project begins with a thorough creative brief.
This document outlines the goals of the transcreation, the core message that needs to be adapted, and details about the target audience, such as cultural preferences, values, and expectations. It may also include brand guidelines, tone of voice, and visual elements that need to be maintained.
A good creative brief is essential for guiding transcreators through the process, ensuring that they understand not just the words that need to be adapted, but the emotional and cultural context behind them.
Step 2: Cultural and Market Research
Before the adaptation process, transcreators need to conduct cultural and market research. This helps them gain a deep understanding of the target market and identify any potential challenges, such as cultural sensitivities, taboos, or preferences that could impact how the message is received.
For example, a slogan that works in one country may have a completely different meaning in another due to differences in language, values, or societal norms. Cultural research ensures that the adapted message is appropriate and effective in the new context.
Step 3: Adaptation and Rewriting
Once the research is complete, transcreators begin the process of adaptation. This involves rewriting the content in the target language, making sure to preserve the original message’s intent, tone, and emotional impact.
At this stage, transcreators may adjust idioms, humor, metaphors, or references that don’t translate well into the target language. They may also suggest changes to the overall message, structure, or even visual elements to ensure that the content resonates with the new audience.
Step 4: Back Translation and Quality Control
After the transcreation is completed, a back translation is often done to compare the original content with the adapted version. This helps ensure that the core message remains intact, even if the wording has changed. The back translation is reviewed by the client to ensure that the adapted content meets their expectations and aligns with the original objectives outlined in the creative brief.
Step 5: Final Review and Approval
Once the client approves the transcreated content, it’s ready for launch. However, it’s important to note that transcreation often requires ongoing collaboration between the client and the transcreation team to ensure that the final product achieves the desired results.
Examples of Successful Transcreation
Many global brands have successfully used creative adaptation to tailor their content to different markets. Here are some examples:
- Coca-Cola: One of Coca-Cola’s famous slogans, “Open Happiness,” was transcreated for the Chinese market to avoid literal translation issues. The phonetic translation of the slogan resulted in “tadpoles bite wax,” which had no meaningful connection to the brand. Instead, the transcreated version, “Delicious, Tasty Happiness,” resonated much more effectively with the Chinese audience.
- Mercedes-Benz: When Mercedes-Benz entered the Chinese market, its name was initially translated as “Bensi,” which meant “rush to die.” After realizing the negative connotation, the company transcreated its name to “Ben Chi,” which refers to “dashing speed” and aligns more closely with the brand’s identity.
These examples illustrate how transcreation can prevent misunderstandings and ensure that the brand message connects with audiences across different cultures.
Why Transcreation is Crucial for Global Success
As businesses continue to expand into new markets, the need for culturally relevant and emotionally resonant content becomes increasingly important. Transcreation offers a powerful solution for brands looking to engage with global audiences on a deeper level.
By adapting not just the words, but the entire message, tone, and emotion of the content, transcreation ensures that your brand remains relevant and impactful across cultures.
At Mirora, our experts meticulously transfer the message of your brand and ensure you build meaningful relationships with your audience—wherever they may be.
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