Translation vs. Transcreation Services: Which Is Better for Global Branding?

Let’s imagine the following scenario:

A soft drink company launches a marketing campaign in France—winning several hearts, engaging with consumers, and boosting sales. However, when the company used the same campaign in Spain, it fell flat. The reason? The marketing campaign message didn’t feel right to the Spanish consumers. Although the company made sure to translate all the content into accurate Spanish, it wasn’t enough. What the company missed was partnering with reliable transcreation services.

Today, global brands need to meticulously craft marketing campaigns that communicate across borders.

They need to consider the following nuances:

• The language is understood by the target consumers.
• The content is culturally appropriate.
• The tone of the content fits the local requirements.
• The content “feels native” to the consumers.

But in their quest to create an accurate multilingual branding strategy, many fail to consider the following question:

“Is translation enough, or do we need transcreation services too?”

In this blog, we will dive deep into the differences between translation and transcreation for branding and understand why the latter is becoming a key component for a successful global marketing campaign.

Translation vs. Transcreation Services

Let’s break it down comprehensively:

Aspect	Translation	Transcreation
Goal	Complete accuracy and clarity.	Ensure cultural relevance and emotional drive.
Process	Translated word by word.	Creatively imagined and adapted.
Used For	High-stakes documents like legal documents, technical manuals, and medical reports.	Used for ads, banners, brand slogans, and product catalogs.
Tools Used	Glossaries, computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools.	Creative briefs, cultural insights, and client expectation summary.
Result	Faithful to the source document.	Faithful to the impact in the target region.

 

Translation is a process that revolves around linguistic precision, while transcreation is used to drive engagement and conversions, hence making it useful for marketing content.

If you love the idea of transcreation and want to learn more about how global brands use it for marketing content, check out this blog: Transcreation Services: Say It Right, Everywhere.

Why is Transcreation Used Over Translation for Marketing Content?

Brand transcreation is often used over translation for better results in the marketing domain.

Here’s why:

• Transcreation offers a high and creative level of adaptation that ensures true connection with the target audience.
• Transcreation services are also mindful of emotional relevance and cultural appropriateness, which results in better conversion rates.
• Professional transcreation services understand the international brand voice and messaging and possess the skills to align it with the values and beliefs of the target region.
• Taglines, an essential marketing tool, are transcreated effectively to ensure they maintain the impact but in a different language, enhancing their appeal.

For instance, when Coca-Cola launched its “Share a Coke” campaign globally, it didn’t stop at translating the tagline. To ensure higher engagement from overseas consumers, Coca-Cola used local names in their marketing snippets, such as Arjun in India and Pedro in Brazil. This appealed to the audiences on an emotional level, ensuring global brand success for the cola giants.

Some Facts That Might Make You Rethink Brand Strategy

• According to CSA Research, 65% of consumers prefer brand content in their native language.
• Companies using brand transcreation outperform translated content by 2.5 times in engagement metrics.
• Global brands that invest in market localization for diverse regions report 30% higher recall values.

Why Wait for Crafting Messages That Truly Resonate?

Brands that aim to expand globally always seem to ask themselves, “How do we make them feel the same way?” And the answer is always transcreation services. It goes beyond translation of words and weaves your messages in a way that engages target audiences in an organic way.

Hence, it is vital to look for a linguistic partner that understands both the language and the emotion of the target region. Somya Translators, an ISO 17100:2015-certified, premium translation company in India, offers impeccable transcreation services to global brands. We are globally revered thanks to our 170+ language solutions, exceptionally skilled native linguists, and comprehensive transcreation and creative translation services.

So, if you want your global marketing campaign to achieve the desired results and engagement, reach out to us today and get a free quote.