Global chemical-industry leader Arkema seeks new agency to give its international employee magazine a boost

In 2008 global chemical-industry leader Arkema approached Arca Director Marc Stoerr to revamp the company’s international employee magazine, Arketypes. Arca specializes exclusively in corporate journalism, and is known for high writing standards, mastery of editorial processes, and excellence in international publications.

The agency’s challenge was threefold: to significantly improve the quality of the reporting and the readability of the magazine’s English version, transition the magazine from a print to an electronic format, and free up Arkema employees from time-intensive publication management duties.

Professional journalism and “trans-adaptation” make the difference

From the agency’s standpoint, the number-one priority was to produce an effective magazine. “It’s all about the reader. Our goal was to deliver a magazine that would make employees want to read it, regardless of the format.” said Marc. “We are corporate journalists, and the benefits of our approach and organization were immediately obvious to the customer, who was thrilled with the reporting from the very first issue.”

Arca Editorial Project Coordinator Véronique Stoeckel, who oversaw production of Arketypes from 2008 to 2009, added, “Right from the beginning the English version really resonated with our contacts at Arkema in the United States. SFM Traduction showed great skill in adopting the customer’s language, and hit just the right register.” Another of this ongoing project’s main challenges is the schedule. “Due to a complex publication cycle with various approvals, the deadlines are tight and often unpredictable. SFM Traduction gives us the responsiveness and flexibility we need to meet and exceed our customer’s expectations, maintaining the same level of enthusiasm and responsiveness right through the final draft rounds and corrections,” said Véronique.

A partnership based on service and professionalism

Arca has built a strong reputation for excellence in customer service, an ethic the agency’s partners must share. “We are in a service business. Arca’s reputation for service is what has helped us win national corporate contracts over the past 30 years, despite the fact that we are a small agency without a Paris office. SFM Traduction shares our high standards, enthusiasm, and professional approach to problem solving. Our conversations go far beyond per-word rates and deadlines. SFM Traduction is committed to the success of our projects.”

Communication department seeks strategies to streamline the writing process and add variety

As a member of the XRCE Communication Department, part of Claudia Heyer’s job is to write English-language articles about XRCE for the Xerox global corporate intranet platform, a task made all the more daunting by the fact that Claudia’s native language is German!

XRCE is a Xerox research and development center in Grenoble, France. XRCE researchers create innovative document technologies for the Xerox office and global solutions and services businesses. The center employs about 80 people and is part of the global Xerox Innovation Group.

The solution: a made-to-measure course covering the entire writing process

Claudia asked SFM Traduction to come up with a made-to-measure course to address her unique needs. The two-day course covered the writing process, effective writing for the web, different article types and their structures, developing a persona to target writing to a specific readership, and personalizing pieces with quotes and real-life anecdotes. And, because Claudia writes in her second language, English, the course also offered tailor-made tips and tricks for proofreading and correcting her own work to catch mistakes.

According to Claudia, “Sara’s training has been of great value to me. Her excitement about good structure and precise language has been downright infectious. Not only has she helped me to improve my English writing skills, she has also given me confidence in my ability to write in English.”

Ongoing progress on the job through real-time editing services

Once the two-day training course was completed, SFM continued to support Claudia by editing her pieces prior to publication. This service helped Claudia to meet deadlines and consolidate the skills learned during the training—she received all of the corrections for each article as well as a “clean” version of the improved article for publication. She adds, “When I send Sara draft articles in English they come back not only with the English corrected, but Sara also manages to add enthusiasm to them!”