21 March 2022
The real meaning of cultural adaptation.
In a global market, how do we build our brands, sell products or communicate our core messages effectively to new audiences? The process of cultural adaptation – or “transcreation” – can help.
Let’s start with an example. In countries right around the world, Volkswagen uses the classic strapline “Das Auto”. The two words instantly conjure up Volkswagen’s rich automotive heritage – and the use of the native language reinforces this cultural pedigree in non-German territories.
In Brazil, however, it went down like a lead balloon. As a major manufacturing centre for the Beetle, Brazilians had a different perception of the Volkswagen brand, distinctly tied to their own country. These were neatly expressed in the Portuguese strapline: “Você conhece, Você confia” or “You know, you trust”. “Das Auto”, in contrast, seemed almost insulting to the many who thought of Volkswagen as an “honorary” Brazilian brand. And, suitably chastened, Volkswagen quickly reversed gear.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and language does too. Words do not exist in splendid isolation from each other – they both reflect and create the world they inhabit. What they signify depends crucially on cultural connotation, emotional resonance, historical significance and social interpretation. Misunderstand the context in which they appear – even with a phrase as simple and seemingly inoffensive as “Das Auto” – and your market will misunderstand you.
Effective translation involves a faithful rendition of content from one language to another. But when we are trying to relocate creative ideas and concepts into new contexts, a whole new approach is required – one which moves away from linguistic literalism and draws on a deeper cultural knowledge.
This is something rather different from translation. It’s better described as “transcreation”: the adaptation of communications for regional audiences, retaining the key messages of the original but using a creative approach to ensure appropriate cultural adaptation. You could think of it as combining the art of the translator with the expertise of a local copywriter.
Transcreation is a relatively new term, but the concept has long been known to canny marketers and brand managers. Take Coca-Cola, for example. The soft drink was first sold in China in 1927, initially without a translation of the famous brand name. However, when employees started to consider that a translation would be a good idea, they struggled. Only 200 out of 40,000 Chinese characters matched to the four syllables the name consists of; combined, many of them were inappropriate.
In the absence of an alternative, local shopkeepers started coming up with their own. They sounded like Coca-Cola but had some strange literal translations, including (infamously) “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse fastened with wax”.
Necessity is the mother of invention and it wasn’t long before the company hit upon an ingenious solution. By dropping the exact phonetic equivalent of “La” (the symbol which had accounted for the repetition of “wax” in the local translations) in place of “Lê” (pronounced “ler” and associated with the concept of “joy”), it came up with the following: “K’o K’ou K’o Lê.” The trademark was registered in 1928, but what did it mean?
“To permit the mouth to be able to rejoice” – a pioneering piece of transcreation.
More recently, Intel was wise to consider the value of effective transcreation in commu nicating a global message to local audiences. In 2009, the microprocessor giant launched a major new campaign emphasising its future focus: “Intel: Sponsors of Tomorrow”. But for the massive Brazilian market, the translation would have had different connotations.
In fact, to Brazilian ears, “Sponsors of tomorrow” (literally translated) suggests a company that would fail to deliver – or perhaps didn’t even yet exist. Instead, in Brazil Intel opted for “Apaixonados pelo futuro” or “In love with the future”. It kept the spirit and message of the original but adapted it to suit the “passionate” tastes of the regional audience.
The examples from Volkswagen and Intel both come from high-level marketing/advertising campaigns. That’s no coincidence. This kind of copy relies on punchy rhythms, clever wordplay, implied cultural knowledge and an ear for the spoken word. Great advertising copy speaks to its target audience in a language it understands intuitively – the emotional response is as important as the intellectual understanding (indeed, in many cases, even more so). From “Guinness is good for you” to “Just do it” (Nike) or “Because I’m worth it” (L’Oréal), great straplines become a part of the vernacular because of their everyday authenticity.
In many cases, it is not enough simply to translate such copy. To ensure truly effective messaging, we need to transcreate. This is a notion that is particularly important when we look at the context of 21st-century translation methods.
Computer assisted translation (CAT) is now the norm across the industry, bringing with it important benefits such as increased speed, consistency and accuracy – and of course reduced costs. Translation memory (TM) tools can create a rich resource of client or projectspecific terminology which can be accessed instantly and grown over time. Across complex projects involving multiple translators, this kind of technology has significantly improved quality levels
And yet, for some projects, translating with CAT is like trying to trying to drink a cup of coffee with your hands tied behind your back. It’s going to get messy. If we actually visualise how a translator works with a CAT tool, it soon becomes clear why. It’s basically a two-column grid with the source text in one column (or row) and the target text in another. It’s fantastic for accuracy – source sentences map directly against target sentences so that the chances of omission are minimised.
But what happens when the translator needs to use their cultural knowledge to transcreate rather than translate? In fact, many CAT systems make it very difficult to even shift the order of sentences around, let alone take a creative approach which could develop a highly effective – albeit less literal – localised target version of the text.
Let’s think for a moment about the gaming market – now worth some £100 billion per year. Imagine some of the street dialogue of Grand Theft Auto translated into new languages on a literal basis. Ditto the army slang of Call of Duty. The world of video games is, by its very nature, an immersive one. Players are invited (and expect) to lose themselves in their on-screen experiences – and a poorly translated piece of dialogue or even a clunky instruction can shatter the illusion. Does the translated match commentary sound authentic? Does the quest riddle that works in one culture really work in another? A CATbased approach will not provide the answer to such questions.
One of the most commonly cited examples of the way transcreation can support a global brand is from German confectionary manufacturer Haribo – the sweets that are supposed to be for kids but we quite like eating too. In German, the original slogan perfectly captures their wide appeal: “Haribo macht Kinder froh, und Erwachsene ebenso”, or “Haribo makes children happy, and grown-ups too”. But the strength of this slogan is very much tied up with its catchy rhythm and rhyme, so how to transcreate it?
The company has clearly invested in its global message. “Kids and grown-ups love it so, the happy world of Haribo” is the simple-but-effective English solution. “Vive un sabor mágico, ven al mundo Haribo”, it says in Spanish, or “Experience a magical taste, come to the world of Haribo” (of course, the Spanish features a rhyme). In fact, Haribo’s message has been adapted in so many ways that there is even a game in which you can try to match the transcreated slogan to the language – try it here.
The Russian poet Yevgeny Yevgeniy Yevtushenko once wrote: “Translation is like a woman… If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful.” It is a quote that seems to capture the very heart of transcreation – the need to go beyond the literal to convey the true essence of the original in an entirely new context.
Of course, transcreation is an investment – in time and money. But, done effectively, it can mean the difference between the success or failure of a campaign, product launch, or new market entry. Ignoring its importance can prove costly. “Fly in leather” proclaimed a campaign by American Airlines, promoting its luxury firstclass seats. Unfortunately, the Spanish translation the airline used was not so enticing: “Vuela en cuero” literally meant “Fly naked”.
The pitfalls of failing to transcreate are many; but the rewards of doing it well are potentially huge. If, like us, you think your message should be not be launched into a new market without the culturally appropriate attire, we’d love to hear from you.
