Web Transcreation in The Spanish Business Context: The Case of Healthcare SMEs

Abstract

A new trend has arisen in the sphere of the globalised market known as transcreation, the intra or intralinguistic reinterpretation of a text for its adaptation to the target public (Gaballo, 2012). In the case of interlinguistic reinterpretation, transcreation gives rise to a type of translation in which both the words and meaning of original texts can be greatly modified with the aim of producing the same effect in the target recipients as in the original audience (taking into account that cultural, and not just linguistic, differences exist between both publics). Given its nature, the spheres where transcreation has reached a greater development are those related to marketing, communication and publicity, due to the need on the part of companies to adapt advertising campaigns or marketing actions to other markets. The need to favour the communication and dissemination of corporate information, and interaction with potential consumers, makes it essential for companies to achieve an Internet presence that is solid, professional and adapted to target markets. This aspect becomes even more relevant in the case of small and medium enterprises, for whom using the Internet offers a multitude of opportunities at reduced cost. The Web presence of transcreated corporate sites has been analysed from a sample of SMEs dedicated to healthcare activities. A contrastive study has been carried out wherein we have compared original websites with translated ones in order to determine how often and in which areas transcreations are implemented or, in contrast, whether the mere localisation or translation of texts is the most habitually employed procedure.