Overview

The woes of traditional artwork approval and management are well known. The pain of managing files over endless email threads, confusion over the latest file versions, miscommunication, and feedback lost in this chaos of back-and-forth emails is hard to ignore.

Critical details can easily slip between the cracks with these dated processes and the smallest of errors, be it a slightly misaligned logo, text error, or color discrepancy can impact the go-to-market speed or crash the brand image.  

Product packaging is an important customer touchpoint and revenue generator. It is a key competitive differentiator and plays an important role in influencing purchasing decisions. Additionally, packaging artwork also plays a vital role in influencing brand capabilities to keep up with ever-evolving regulations and rapidly evolving market demands and opportunities.

Managing packaging artwork, with its multiple versions, approvals, and printing specifications, is a logistical nightmare. Artwork management systems emerge as the secret weapon that streamlines the packaging artwork process and waves goodbye to delays.

Top 5 Bottlenecks of Traditional Artwork Management‍

Traditional packaging artwork management presents several hurdles that impact go-to-market velocity and market responsiveness.  

Some of the major bottlenecks of the traditional artwork management process are:

1. Artwork Version Control Chaos‍

From design to production, packaging artwork does not follow a linear path. Maintaining granular version control at the individual content level and tracking and managing each piece of content can be a herculean task with manual, siloed processes.  

In the absence of artwork version control, brands end up wasting time on finding the most current and updated version of the artwork. This confusion often leads to errors that can lead to significant costs if the wrong artwork is used for product packaging.

2. Approval Logjams‍

Traditional processes also introduce approval logjams. The absence of complete transparency and seamless integration across artwork management teams and all stakeholders slow down the approval processes. Teams waste precious time and resources on getting approvals from different stakeholders across the organizations. This impedes performance velocity as  the artwork approval process is dependent on  sending endless emails and chasing signatures.

3. Compliance‍

Keeping up with the never-ending changes in the regulatory landscape introduces compliance challenges. Prompt adherence to packaging regulations is essential before getting products to market. Any delays or non-adherence to the same, open up the brand to potential recalls, fines, and penalties.

4. Communication Silos‍

Artwork approval is not a low-effort process.  Multiple departments contribute to the design, modification, and compliance check of the packaging artwork during the approval cycle.

Traditional artwork management processes introduce communication silos that make the process prone to errors. It also slows down the approval process significantly and delays the design-to-print process.  

Design, marketing, packaging, regulatory, and legal teams, and other stakeholders like printers need to be on the same page and look at the same artwork versions.  

Going through these review rounds and getting approvals through emails makes the process time-consuming and does not promise on-brand, compliant content.

5. Pack Copy Management‍

Pack copy management poses a significant challenge for brands using traditional, manual, email-dependent packaging artwork processes and workflows. As brands expand regionally and globally, adherence to local regulations and rules demand careful examination.

Some of the key challenges with dated and siloed systems are:

• Management of multiple languages and regional variations for each copy element.

• Packaging content localization  for different regions.

• Adherence to local linguistic and cultural nuances.

• Management of individual content element levels, a consistent voice, and identity across all products.

All these factors have a direct impact on the efficiency, productivity, and market responsiveness of brands and keep them from delivering cohesive brand experiences for customers.

‍How Do Artwork Management Systems Help  ‍

Modern, robust, and comprehensive artwork management systems have come to the rescue of brands and allow them to embrace efficiency and oust delays in the following ways:

1. Centralized Control and a Single Source of Truth‍

A comprehensive artwork management system allows brands to improve communication and accelerate artwork approval. It delivers robust features that permit version control, pack copy management, and artwork design management and navigate the multilingual packaging conundrum easily.  

Brands can create a single source of truth for all their packaging artwork while keeping all versions, from concept to final print, securely in one place and accessible to authorized users. Using copy management, brands can ensure the correctness of the packaging artwork and streamline the approval process.  

2. Automated Workflows ‍

Artwork management systems allow brands to improve workflows and accelerate the approval process. They also make the process more accurate by removing the need for manual entries and information uploads.

Brands can:

• Ensure minimized errors, fewer reprints, and greater accuracy with automated and streamlined workflows, copy management, and version control.

• Make bulk changes across multiple artwork pack copy

• Track approvals across artwork projects  and provide greater transparency.

• Simplify tedious tasks such as routing artwork for approvals, creating audit trails, and managing revisions with automation.

• Provide greater transparency while making it easier for stakeholders to approve or request changes to existing artwork.

• Avoid time-consuming reviews through email and deliver Right-first-time  artwork.

3. Built-In tools for Regulatory Compliance check‍

Using Artwork Management systems, brands can check artwork against relevant regulations and highlight potential issues before they cause delays or non-compliance related penalties . Robust proofing tools make version control, copy management, and review processes simper, agile, and effective. Automated proofing and comparison tools identify errors in digital designs and print proofs early on in the packaging process and elevate the compliance stand.

4. Improved Collaboration ‍

Brands can bring all stakeholders together in one platform for easier alignment and accelerate the approval process. Artwork management systems remove silos and ensure seamless communication between designers, marketing teams, and print vendors. This also contributes to getting the packing design right-first-time and leads to significant cost-savings.

‍Conclusion ‍

Brands can gain significantly by overcoming the barriers to packaging artwork management performance. Sufficient control over brand assets, complete and consistent information, and improved collaboration between teams and stakeholders reduces artwork management time and effort and increases overall productivity and efficiency.  

Reduced packaging and artwork management costs and sustainable business performance improvements are the added benefits that come from streamlining the artwork management process. Most importantly, this agility and velocity help drive brand value in the market by aligning people, processes, and brand assets in a way that scales readily and helps the brand navigate increasing complexities and fluctuating market demands.  

For more information on how artwork management can help your brand achieve the goal of the right-first-time implementation of packaging and artwork, visit https://www.manageartworks.com/  

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