We live in an ever-globalised world, one that enables us to transcend borders like never before, heightening our sense of interconnectedness to others. In a world with seemingly fewer physical limits, the opportunities - for expansion and reaching new markets - might too, appear limitless. Yet the language barriers to effective cross-cultural communication remain ever-present, even when it might not appear so on the surface. This is most certainly the case when marketing your business to a new audience. Be it a product or a service, you must ‘speak their language’. But what does ‘speaking your audience’s language’ really entail?

Put simply, it is expressing an idea in a way that aligns with that audience’s preferences and motivations. It is communicating with them on an emotional level. Naturally, a literal translation approach might work at face value, with the audience capable of understanding surface meaning, however, this approach will fail to resonate with them beyond the words.

This is where intercultural knowledge, such as knowledge of the target audience’s behaviours and preferences, becomes essential to successful localisation and transcreation projects in which motivating customers to carry out an action is the central aim. Be it transcreation of a print ad campaign, or localisation of an ecommerce website, you can count on me to ensure it strikes the right chord.