Content needs vary by language, by market, by culture, by platform.

Crafting a single message to be delivered to a wide constituency without taking these variables into consideration breeds ineffective communications. Wasted opportunities at the very least or harmful messages in worst-case scenarios.

There are endless examples of botched communications when a literal translation meets its market like a brick against a cement wall. The thump is painful and means the marketer has not only to re-create their messaging, but also compensate for the damage.

Transcreation is the process by which content is carefully crafted for its audience taking into consideration multiple variables: demographics, industry trends, social and political climate, etc. Each message has its own set of variables and the time taken to clarify those idiosyncrasies and the ultimate objective are well worth the time and energy.

Key in this equation is that a marketer may not have the core competence to determine and weigh in on market variables. And no one presumes that all marketers should have infinite and intimate capabilities to understand all markets. It’s just not realistic or practical.

Even in cases where a native from a given market serves as the liaison for a firm’s local operations they are asked to be able to straddle both markets—origin and destination—which means a deep understanding of objectives, original messaging and destination messaging. This may all get muddled in translation.

There is an airtight reason to call upon outside expertise for transcreation. When a firm’s objectives and original marketing messages are finalized in the original language for the original key stakeholder, the process begins. It is then up to the transcreation team to ask key questions about the market, objectives, times, delivery systems, hurdles, history and other variables that will color the final in-language content.

It is more effective to have the curiosity, skills and input of a team that has the ability to see beyond the original content. They need to be able to stand in the shoes of the in-market reader/viewer, respond appropriately, feel trusting, engaged and compelled to respond. That is, able to fulfill the marketer’s objectives while feeling that they, the consumer, are the one making the choice that is right for them.

Transcreation is a complex, sophisticated method of multilingual and multi-cultural communications. It leaves translation in the dust, where it should be, for messaging that must be precise, effective and that will nurture the original author’s legacy and achieve the desired response.