DSM Composite Resins had been sending a static quarterly newsletter to all customers and prospects (in English). Due to the diverse end-user readership it was not possible for a single magazine to fullfil the information needs of every target group. A decision was therefore taken to produce market-segmented newsletters via PoD.

Objectives

• Provide customers with information specific to their needs
• Allow for printed material in multiple languages
• Reduce design and lay-out costs

Significant results reported by user

• Information is 100% industry specific
• Newsletters are now in five to six languages for five customer segments
• News is delivered more frequently
• Use of templates has eliminated custom design and layout expense

The company wanted to tailor each newsletter to the needs of the specific audience. Each country has its own specifications and resin needs, so local adaptation is important. Equally important was the need to deliver the information in the local language.

The company started with one newsletter in three versions and progressed to versioned newsletters for five different end-user segments. Thanks to the verstaility of Publish-on-Demand, it has gone from one issue per quarter to a total of 32 versions customized to five market areas - some in five or six languages. DSM plans to continue expanding its custom-publishing program for maximum effectiveness in its external communications.

To create the customized newsletters, four and eight-page templates are used to accommodate articles of interest to all customers, and then industry specific information is added. Staff from across the world enter articles written in English into a content management program and then an editor corrects them and harmonizes the style. The corrected articles move on to the Editor-in-Chief for approval and then to a translator.

Multiple language versions are now much easier to produce. Previously, the DSM editors had to finish writing the articles, then have them translated and then proceed  to layout and production. Now, each article is approved and frozen so the translator does not have to wait for the whole newsletter to be finished. Not only are Spanish, Italian and French versions produced concurrently, but DSM is also doing newsletters in Central European languages with worldwide fulfillment. With these workflow changes, Cordeo has made the whole newsletter production process of DSM considerably more efficient. Finished newsletter files are sent as PDF files to the digital printers at the company’s print provider facilities. DSM orders only the quantity they need for that particular issue and language, saving money on warehousing printed materials. And because the newsletter is template based, DSM is now able to create the brochures itself, reducing the company’s expense for external design services. Cyril Reijnen, one of Cordeo’s partners, predicts that the next step for DSM will be to personalize its messages in direct mail campaigns.

DSM

DSM is a global producer of high quality biotechnological and chemical products for the life science industry and specialty materials markets. It has 13 business units and around 25,000 employees. DSM Composite Resins supplies resins to many industries such as automotive, boat building, construction and civil engineering.

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