A new buzz word is born

In the mid 20^th century, many translation theories were brewing around the world, and Brazilian translator and poet Haroldo Campos added his theory and neologism, transcriaÇão (transcreation), to the author-oriented vs audience-oriented debate.

Decades later, in her book “Puentes sobre el mundo: (Bridges over the world..)”, Dora Sales Salvador provided perhaps the best description of  what transcreation allows:

[…] transcreation is a conscious act of aesthetic recreation, in which the translator makes use of all possible aesthetic devices and deviations for communicating the ideas of the original text effectively to the target audience. In this way, transcreation can be said to be a target-oriented, aesthetic recreation.

Campos resorts to any deviation necessary to make his works readable and to obtain the intended effect. This conscious act, also called ‘free’ adaptation, brings up the question about faithfulness to the original text as well.

Transcreation has become a trendy word among translation companies seeking to differentiate themselves from their competition and machine translation. In the same manner as localization, transcreation fits under the umbrella of terms for the many cognitive processes that take place during the act of translating.

But unlike straight up translating, transcreation goes beyond simply word-for-word translation. With the growth of globalization, the ability to translate local content for a global audience becomes a great opportunity to step into new markets, however it also brings new challenges:

• Consumers’ access to the Internet changes their buying behavior;
• Specialized translation professionals are insufficient to deal with the huge volumes of content produced every day;
• Business executives need any help they can get to optimize conversion rates and accelerate sales cycles.

So, if international businesses want to succeed in passing their message across borders with even more precision, they have to revisit their communications strategies. No wonder then, translation companies have recognized this need and started marketing transcreation services.

Translating complete ideas

In a western fashion, these translation providers choose to position their offerings in dichotomies: translation vs. transcreation, translation vs. localization, transcreation vs. marketing translation, a few of them sometimes even undermining translation. But I believe that an interdisciplinary approach to the internationalization of products and/or services, fostering creative teams to complement each other in favor of an idea, produces the best results.

If international businesses want to avoid intercultural blunders overseas, their marketing teams should work together with translators. As transcreators the two disciplines should compromise and meet in the middle, in pursuit of the same goal – that is meeting the client’s expectations.

The backbone of the idea behind the message should elicit certain emotions from, and resonate with, the target audience. It may contain visual, verbal or non-verbal, auditory, olfactory, tactile elements, requiring skills beyond simple translation, focused on results and benefits to persuade consumers to change their perception about a product or service.

For the purpose of transcreating these elements, expert translators will take the key elements of an idea and creatively adapt them across media, whether printed or digital. You may find especially useful Rachel Weissbrod’s article “From Translation to Transfer” to understand how transcreation works its way from the literary field into the film-making and computer games, among other media.

As mentioned earlier, to effectively allure consumers with words requires trained minds specializing in marketing that sells, particularly relevant in these days of digital marketing, and copywriting. That is, translators as transcreators should train in the art of persuading with words and be able to culturally resonate with the target audience in their mother tongue. During the creative process of bringing the fundamental idea of your marketing campaign into words, transcreators will employ:

• their cross-cultural competences in translation;
• their business mindset and persuasive skills with words in copywriting;
• their competence in the local nuances of the target language in localization;
• and, on occasion, their skills of standardization to, for example, tone down certain elements in the message;
• as well as their comprehension of any other complementary discipline they deem important for the project.

The benefits transcreation brings for your business

Transcreation does not work as a one-time order that will bring immediate success. Businesses should approach this service as a strategy to resort to when planning their international marketing campaigns. When bringing your message across different media, it may require a few deviations in the process, but the fundamental idea should still remain – eliciting the expected reaction from the target audience. This means that you will benefit from:

• branding consistency over time;
• improvement in retention levels—for example, product descriptions is the second reason why 7 out of 10 Argentineans become repeat buyers from the same website.
• and an increase in time to market, and profit.

This list is not at all exhaustive, but it can show you the difference between cutting corners and viewing language services as a strategic investment. So, what would you do if you only have a few-second chance to attract your target audience into a buying decision? And why would you risk it to a poorly written message?

Researchers point out that cross-cultural shortcomings are a major reason for failure in international business. The development of cross-cultural competencies therefore deserves the attention of those who want to achieve positive commercial outcomes in the international arena.

If you are considering taking your business into a new global market, building cross-cultural competency in that region is crucial to your success in entering that market.

Here are the top five reasons why you should develop cultural knowledge early on in your market entry plan.

1. Consumer behavior

Consumer behavior continues to evolve. At present, targeting potential clients requires an increasing level of accuracy. People are busy. Their attention spans have decreased dramatically (to an average of 20 seconds), and they’ve become more selective and more receptive to personalized customer service.

Whether you choose to connect with them in-person or digitally, identifying their concerns and challenges in advance will enable you to better cater to their needs.

Understanding the nuances and history of your target audience’s particular culture is key to identifying their needs.

2. The costs of cultural unawareness

Cultural forces play a significant role in business operations. Serious conflicts and loss of revenue are often the results of cultural unawareness. As early as 2006, James P. Johnson et al. reported that the costs of cultural shortcomings by executives at international companies ranged from $250,000 to $1 million.

Later in 2011, executives from 68 countries named cross-cultural leadership as their greatest management challenge for this century in a survey run by “The Economist” Intelligence Unit. If you look closer at your past failed projects or present relationships with international vendors, partners, leads and customers, you may also find hidden costs that are already taking a toll on your business.

3. Costly, embarrassing false assumptions

Mutual understanding is our first and foremost goal in intercultural business interactions, right? You might assume that having a lingua franca such as English in the international arena, or Spanish in the Spanish-speaking countries of South America, should be enough to efficiently conduct business. Well, basic understanding doesn’t always mean agreement.

According to Nancy Adler,

There is the false assumption that just because we can reach anyone in the world so easily, through e-mail or Skype, we are, therefore, all the same.

You may start a conversation by finding a common ground and/or addressing similarities. Appealing to your audience’s complicity is an effective strategy at the beginning, but don’t dwell on it too much.

You need to bring something worth their time if you don’t want to lose their attention. You should get past this stage by showing respect and genuine interest for their culture. Otherwise, you’ll be perceived as reckless, unthoughtful, rude and even prejudiced. Projecting the status quo and stereotyping are perhaps the most harmful behaviors hindering effective communication in a new global market.

4. Cultural awareness

For a long time, we’ve seen multinationals like Coca-Cola land their products overseas, almost always with success, yet this kind of effort was almost unthinkable for small-medium businesses. This was particularly true in emerging markets like in South America, until more recent years. The Internet, as a faster and more cost-effective means of showcasing products and services overseas through digital media, and public development programs have encouraged more companies to plunge into exporting goods and services.

However, intercultural competencies still elude many SME owners and their staff. Knowing how to speak a language is not enough to perform effectively in cross-cultural contexts, whether at home or abroad. For the most part, a comprehensive understanding of what globalization implies for local businesses, in terms of opportunities and competition, is still missing.

A global mind-set and cross-cultural competencies don’t develop overnight, they’re part of an ongoing process of research and learning experiences. So, look for ways to better tune in to cultural sensitivity. Be open to new ideas and tolerant to diversity, because globalization has already knocked on your door.

5. Professionals with cross-cultural competence

You might be thinking, “But I’m already internationalizing my company. How can I make up for lost time and stop draining my efforts?”

My suggestions:

• Surround yourself with professionals with cross-cultural competence. They should not only have cultural literacy, but also the ability to uncover unfamiliar concepts, to change their perspectives in context and have the drive to adjust their behavior to achieve successful business
• Provide your personnel with cross-cultural training programs. Becoming aware of unfamiliar or already assimilated familiar concepts of another’s culture requires constant coaching and practice. Take, for example, the difference in risk perception between British and American oil exploration teams uncovered by Marcelo Baudino, Cross-Cultural Consultant for Latin America at Iceberg Cultural Intelligence. This made me realize that my own cultural knowledge on Anglo-Saxon cultures is very specific, yet bringing cultural differences into consciousness still eludes me in many circumstances.
• Do you know that “an early bird gets the worm in U.S. and EU, but the first bird in the flock gets shot down in China”? Values tend to differ between cultures as well (Frano Ljubić et al., 2009).

Finally, some food for thought. President Obama recently visited Argentina and held a town hall with young leaders. During his introduction he tells the audience about his fascination for Argentine authors like Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar, as well as for Buenos Aires City, and that he’s taken mate for the first time. Why do you think he chose these topics, and not soccer, politics, religion?

My guess is you don’t set the tone for a friendly conversation by being controversial.

Remember these tips:

• Cultural similarities and differences go hand in hand. Avoid stereotyping and respect individualities as well.
• Different ways of perceiving reality can be a deterrent to development. Detach yourself from your own cultural boundaries to be able to meet and embrace other people’s views.
• Training and exposure to other cultures will enable individuals, not only at the management level, to perform more effectively when necessary.

Finding the right language service provider overseas is very much like looking for your ideal client. Basically, it requires you to research, build a relationship and take risks.

In the process, you may learn more about the translation industry, how it can help grow your business and, hopefully, your vision for a translation expert.

1. What To search for

In the very beginning, you will come across your first dilemma: human or machine translation? Well, Google Translate, or any other automatic translator for that matter, is like the F-word – you don’t want to say it out-loud in public.

GT might help you with your casual communications, but bear in mind that outside informal contexts, it may get you into trouble.

Right now, I hear you saying “But it’s free!” or “I’ve got a small budget!”

I know it’s disappointing, but automation doesn’t solve everything and, for the sake of your international business plans, you really want to avoid translation blunders.

From the outset, you’ll need to invest in several linguistic aspects—copywriting, translating, adapting, editing, and proofreading, just to mention a few —if you expect a higher success rate when internationalizing your business.

So, whether you reach out for a sole translation expert or a translation company during your research, you’ll need to focus on a collaborative approach, one that allows both parties to consistently build a relationship of trust and growth through good business practices.

Then, you no longer look for any translator to simply translate your literature into Spanish.

You want a native Spanish translation expert. A close resourceful collaborator, who can work with other experts when your project needs it, and whose expertise enables engagement of the Spanish-speaking audience with your brand, products or services.

Such a translator should not only have full proficiency in translation competencies and subject area expertise, but also in-depth understanding of the challenges, issues and pains you and your company face, in order to be able to assist you in pursuing your commercial objectives.

For example, your analytics show some interest in your products from a few Spanish-speaking markets and you’d like to poke them a little harder by re-using company videos. Your translation-budget is limited, and due to the considerable Spanish variations across Latin America, you opt out of the localization strategy.

Instead, your translation expert could ‘culturally curate’ these videos and optimize them with International Spanish subtitles. That way, you give your audience a nudge to speed up their buying decision-making process by demonstrating you care about their language needs.

2. Why you need a translation expert

You’re probably wondering “Hey, I speak Spanish. Why would I need a translation expert?!”

It’s necessary because you’d prefer to focus on developing your cultural and communicational skills, rather than your translating competencies, in order to excel at face-to-face encounters, informal meetings, trade shows, interviews or long distance calls.

Your ultimate goal is driving business and keeping the relationship with your potential clients alive. So, let the translation experts be your support when it comes to dealing with the linguistic aspects of your international business plans.

3. Where to find them

Finding in-country accredited professionals should not be that hard, since most of them are listed at translators’ associations.  For example, in Argentina, it’s customary to find them at Colegios de Traductores. These are official registries whose certified members are sworn translation practitioners and bound to confidentiality by law.

You can also ask for referrals from governmental agencies, such as Global Affairs Canada, and international chambers of commerce. For example, in Santa Fe City, Argentina, CaCESFe helps members with translation services. Think of institutions that are closest to you or your potential clients.

4. How to handle the selection process

Thanks to the Internet, you can easily google translators’ professional websites and surf social media to get to know them. But, in order to establish your own assessment process and vet translators accordingly, you will have to contact them personally and start a conversation. Use email, chat and video-conference when necessary.

Remember these crucial tips:

• Using machine translation or having no budget for coping with the linguistic aspects of your international business plans will be like trying to tame a horse without a saddle. Every business transaction carries a certain degree of risk, so try to avoid it by building a strong, personalized, straightforward relationship with your translation expert.
• Language strategies can help you seize business opportunities in the different stages of your product/service development and its introduction to a new market – for example, transcreation during its marketing or keyword translation for website SEO. The impact of translation on your target audience should be close, if not the same, to that of the original version.
• Your translation expert should be able to help you introduce your products or services across Latin America by using International Spanish, a very well-known resource among most of Spanish language professionals. Alternatively they will help to localize them if you’ve decided to target a specific segment and/or go one country at a time.

How does your business deal with the linguistic aspects of entering new international markets?