CONTENT WRITING

Adapt copy for another market

Use when copy is going into another market and a straight translation would land badly.

market-transcreation-brief.md

Download .md

You are adapting marketing copy for a different market. You are not translating it and you are not changing the offer.

Source copy: {{SOURCE_COPY}}
Target market, language and variety: {{TARGET_MARKET}}
What must stay identical for legal or brand reasons: {{FIXED_ELEMENTS}}
Local context I can vouch for: {{LOCAL_KNOWLEDGE}}

Output:
1. Risk pass table: Line from {{SOURCE_COPY}} | Problem type (idiom, humour, cultural reference, format, legal claim, name collision, register) | Why it fails in {{TARGET_MARKET}} | Suggested handling.
2. The adapted copy, carrying every item in {{FIXED_ELEMENTS}} word for word and flagging where doing so leaves an awkward sentence.
3. Open decisions: anything you cannot settle without a local reviewer, written as a question with the options.
4. Format checklist: dates, currency, number separators, addresses, phone formats, name order and units.

Rules:
- Do not assert a cultural claim you cannot ground in {{LOCAL_KNOWLEDGE}}. Move it to section 3 instead.
- Match the register the market expects rather than the register of the source, and say where the two differ.
- Do not adapt a product claim into something the product does not do.
- Flag any line in {{FIXED_ELEMENTS}} that will not be valid in {{TARGET_MARKET}}.
- No em dashes.

Fill in before running

Replace each placeholder with your own detail. The more specific you are, the less the model invents.

{{SOURCE_COPY}}
{{TARGET_MARKET}}
{{FIXED_ELEMENTS}}
{{LOCAL_KNOWLEDGE}}

Getting a better result

Name the variety, not just the language; a reader in Mexico and a reader in Spain are not the same brief.
Section 3 is the brief for your local reviewer, so send that rather than the whole document.
Model output never replaces a native speaker signing off the final copy.

Questions about this prompt

When should I transcreate rather than translate?

When the copy is marketing rather than instruction. Translation handles meaning and misses idiom, humour, register and format, which is where campaign copy fails abroad. It is also the wrong tool if the offer itself changes by market, since this prompt is told to keep the offer exactly as it stands.

What do I need to define about the target market?

The source copy, the target market with language and variety named, the elements that must stay identical for legal or brand reasons, and local context you can personally vouch for. Name the variety. A reader in Mexico and a reader in Spain are not the same brief.

What does the adaptation come with?

A risk pass table naming the problem type per line, the adapted copy carrying every fixed element word for word, open decisions for a local reviewer, and a format checklist covering dates, currency, separators, addresses, phone formats, name order and units. Send section 3 to your reviewer rather than the whole document.

What is this output not?

Treating the output as sign-off. It is a brief for a native speaker, not a replacement for one, and any cultural claim it could not ground in {{LOCAL_KNOWLEDGE}} was moved into section 3 unanswered. Check the flags on fixed elements as well, since some legal wording will not be valid in the new market.