If your public or private organization is in need of effective multicultural marketing solutions, then you should be aware of multicultural transcreation practices and how they can positively impact your multicultural marketing campaign; with these practices, your organization will be able to more effectively target diverse market groups, while also avoiding the pitfalls which oftentimes plague companies who aren’t aware of the sometimes subtle differences that exist between different cultures.
What exactly is transcreation? The best way to showcase an example is through a brief review of Chevrolet’s marketing in the 1970s of the Chevy “Nova” car to the Latin American market. Although the “Nova” brand-name had an appealing ring to it in English-speaking markets, in Spanish, “Nova” when pronounced a little differently sounded like “No va,” which means “It doesn’t go.” This failure to recognize cultural differences ended up as an embarrassing marketing error for Chevrolet and cost the company millions of dollars. As expected, the car name had to change, and through transcreation, the new name for the car became “Caribe,” which led the company to more sales success. However, transcreation goes far beyond just avoiding translation errors; at its core, it also takes into account the target market’s priorities, values, and other culturally-relevant characteristics.
As organizations begin to enter different markets, many of those Hispanic or other diverse market groups, the need for transcreation will continue to remain important. Your organization’s successful entry and engagement of multicultural markets will rely on effective and thoughtful transcreation.
