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How Technology Enables Better Label and Artwork Approval Decisions

By BLUE Software

People have the ability to easily monitor many aspects of their lives. By employing their own personal army of technology, perhaps consisting of a Nest Learning Thermostat, a Fitbit, MyFitnessPal, a Hum device, Class Dojo, Facebook, and Twitter, individuals receive streams of information about the energy consumption of their house, their health and fitness, their diet, their vehicle, their kids’ classroom behavior, their social network, and the status of important events in the world. After measuring data, people can make informed improvement plans for just about any situation.

This concept goes well beyond the scope of individuals striving to be their best or exert control over their personal lives. Companies now use software that keeps them connected to each other, delivers critical information, and monitors processes. By enabling teams to access data that’s housed in a centralized location from anywhere in the world, businesses are benefiting from better-informed decision-making across roles and departments. Marketing and packaging departments are utilizing tracking and monitoring for their label and artwork approval processes for brand assets, die lines, and collateral with great results.

 

What is the equivalent of a Fitbit for label and artwork approvals?

Label and Artwork Management (LAM) software. LAM automates the label and artwork approval workflow, tracks progress or delays automatically, alerts individuals when they need to perform a task, enables them to complete their tasks from anywhere with an internet connection, measures durations against a baseline, and produces powerful Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reports.

If a $150 Fitbit can give you information to make better decisions to improve your health and sleep, how much does one benefit? If LAM software can provide information to individuals making approval decisions to help increase their speed to market and reduce the risk of product recall, how much does a company benefit? These business savings can be measured. Let’s look at how.

 

The Problem with Slow

When a person wants to lose a few extra pounds, they usually know the problem is based on a few key factors such as caloric intake or lack of proper exercise. A Fitbit or MyFitnessPal can give you useful data to help you modify your behavior. See how many steps you’ve taken, stairs you’ve climbed, and calories you’ve consumed, and you’ve got a picture of what your goals should be and whether you’re reaching them.

As calories equal weight, time equals money. A company struggling with problems such as missed ship dates or product launch delays needs to shed time from its processes. And like a Fitbit or MyFitnessTracker, LAM software can be used to help companies bring their packaging and marketing label and artwork approval processes back to full health. LAM software can give you access to information in the same way a fitness tracker can. Suddenly it’s no longer a guessing game. Are long cycle times slowing you down? What is the most common reason why packaging, labels, or freestanding inserts (FSIs) get rejected? A LAM system can deliver KPIs that make the causes of your problems clear, enabling you to be proactive about improving your label and artwork approval process.

And like a fitness tracker which automatically reminds you to exercise and tracks your activity, LAM software automatically prompts individuals to perform their tasks throughout the workflow and measures their timing and activities. Each individual on the label and artwork approval chain receives his or her task, and when completed, the next task is automatically triggered. Remote and traveling employees can log in from anywhere and make annotations on hi-res files through a cloud-based interface in real-time. This allows you to see who contributed what and when, which raises accountability. Errors and delays are reduced; expensive recalls are avoided. Most important: profitability, the primary health metric of your company, is maintained.

 

The Problem of Brand Compliance

With the increasing number of channels through which products can be purchased (online retailer, online wholesaler, big-box warehouse, corner store, national grocery chain, national retailer, dollar-store, etc.), it’s difficult to control just how products are being represented for consumer purchase. Some websites simply present the contents of the box, the dimensions, and the weight. Other sites may list product reviews, but overlook a product’s attributes or romance copy. Inconsistent information and product imagery means your investment in those marketing assets isn’t working for you all the time, which results in sub-optimal sales performance and ROI.

The fact is: brand compliance requires you to keep an eye on many different areas where your brand can either be mis- or under-represented. Like maintaining your car, overseeing the health of your brand’s image is a lot easier when you have a tool to help you do it. The same way drivers use Hum to make sure everything about their car is running properly, LAM software can help you ensure product information, romance copy, and imagery is uniform across all digital outlets. When you have a single source of truth, a Digital Asset Manager, that’s accessible to both your team and third parties, the return on each investment dollar increases and the weight of concern over brand compliance is dropped (to the bottom line).

 

The Problem of Signature Compliance

For some companies, barriers to optimization appear in the form of cumbersome practices impairing the health of the whole operation. LAM software can record important label and artwork approval information, and thereby automatically compose audit trails in compliance with your company’s quality processes, without manual effort. Audits are becoming inevitable, but you can automate your compliance with FDA Title 21 CFR Part 11 using LAM software to record electronic signatures. Then, when you need to know how a change was made, by whom, and when, you’ll be able to easily find all the required information.

 

Get Connected with BLUE for Better Label and Artwork Approval

The good news is there’s an app for that. These capabilities already exist. In fact, just like the many automated and configurable solutions people already use to manage their lives, Label and Artwork Management software from BLUE can get your marketing and packaging workflow processes running at optimal speed and in compliance both with regulations and your brand strategy. Using our 20 years of experience and more than one million successful brand projects for customers, we have developed industry-leading technology to support your brand’s assets and processes from creation through execution. LAM software protects your company from marketing and packaging errors that can result in lawsuits and recall while maximizing the return on your investment in marketing assets and improving speed to market.

Many of the world’s leading companies use BLUE to make better decisions that protect their profitability and brand equity every day.

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