Your eCommerce business needs to make sure that you’re using the right language, tone of voice, and that your content is written in a way that will make people want to read it.
When bringing your brand overseas, it’s critical to understand the cultural intricacies of the target location and tailor your message to the target audience in this new location.
Why do brand voice, tone, and context matter for global growth?
Keep reading to find out why transcreation is critical to global brands.
What Is Transcreation?
Strong translators are an essential component of any project where a brand is going to appear in a new geographical area or marketing to a new audience in a new language, but translation alone isn’t always enough.
This is especially true in the case of idioms or figures of speech that aren’t widely understood. This is where the concept of transcreation comes into play.
Transcreation vs. Translation
The act of modifying a text’s meaning to make it culturally fit for a specific market is known as transcreation (translation + creation).
The verbatim transfer of text from one language to another is known as translation, even doing this can sometimes have a blurry line in finding perfection.
Transcreation takes into account little inconsistencies that could go unnoticed but potentially become an issue as they don’t hold the same meaning.
Brand Voice, Tone, And Context
There are certain cases where you may think a direct translation wouldn’t matter, and that’s true. But when you’re looking at the following list, sometimes transcreation is necessary since a direct translation might miss the mark:
- Idioms like “feeling under the weather”
- Taglines might not translate perfectly
- General Branding Materials may need to be adapted in case a product or service is called something different
- Humor in marketing material might need to be adapted culturally to fit the new country
- Wordplay, like an art transportation company calling itself “Art.Van.Go”. It’s clever but it wouldn’t translate properly
Do you see how your translation services need to be clever with the way in which they allow your brand voice to commute to your new language? It’s really important that consumers in your new audience understand that your brand is quirky or fun or serious or trustworthy, depending on the language that you choose to communicate with them in.
eCommerce stores and websites that don’t necessarily have a physical presence need to ensure that their translations or transcreations are not just done by bots, click for more.
Transcreate Carefully And Creatively
Transcreation is the wonderful world where you get to shape your brand boldly for entry into a new market. It’s the space where you get to be a little creative as you mold the business for new audiences.
The importance of hiring a professional translator and transcreation service cannot be stressed enough, you don’t want your brand giving off the wrong vibes when it opens its doors!
Don’t go just yet, if your business is branching out then you definitely need to visit our digital marketing section for more great content.