Great packaging increases sales and optimises customer perception of your products. Brands are increasingly choosing digital – opting for a streamlined packaging content management system to introduce their products successfully to market.
Packaging content management involves coordinating all the artwork and content displayed on an item of packaging. Good content management ensures all these elements are up to date, approved smoothly, and that they meet the regulatory requirements for their market.
The challenges of packaging content management
Putting together a coherent, attractive packaging artwork design throws up many challenges. Packaging Managers who oversee the packaging development process must coordinate internal departments – like legal, marketing, quality and regulatory – and external parties like design agencies and printers.
If we consider a typical juice box, it displays a surprising amount of information from different sources:
- Ingredient lists (often in several languages)
- Nutritional values
- Allergen information
- Weight/Volume
- Bar code, packaging code or QR code
- Recycling advice and icons
- Marketing elements – logos, promotions, socials, links to website
- Customer service contact details
Marketing Teams face unrelenting pressure in a time-sensitive environment – grappling with frequently changing regulations and extensive information checks. Problems can easily occur in this kind of error-prone context.
The challenges of packaging content management:
Non-standardised processes
Ad-hoc processes disadvantage everyone involved in creating graphic files and digital content. Without a centralised system in place, the stress levels of Marketing Teams soar, brand consistency is at risk, and content approval processes lengthen.
Inefficiencies and stifled collaboration
When Packaging Marketing Teams spend a disproportionate amount of time on content management, productivity plummets and time to market increases. A streamlined, efficient system reduces stress levels, allowing staff to focus more on high-value tasks and collaborate transparently to produce better-quality packaging, more quickly.
Packaging design errors
It’s all too easy for brand-damaging packaging design errors to creep in if a company is not working with a centralised artwork approval solution. Technology that can manage packaging data means brands are better placed to secure coherent, consistent and accurate packaging design.
Regional differences
Variations in the compliance information required for different international markets introduce a further layer of complexity. This goes far beyond simple translation. Failing to meet the compliance requirements of a target market can lead to significant snarl-ups in terms of unsaleable goods and unnecessary expenses that eat into the bottom line.
Millnet streamlines packaging content management
Simplify your packaging content management
Designed by and for packaging industry professionals, Millnet is a collaborative packaging content management solution. Millnet reduces time to market through custom workflows, efficient approval cycles, and an intuitive and easy-to-use design.
It has a modular structure so brands can streamline and secure their packaging design process – from design to print. Millnet is scalable and created to support brands of every size, in every sector.
Millnet is a unique platform with custom access options that allow packaging design stakeholders to access designs online, contributing to a:
- Shorter time to market
- Improved productivity
- Enhanced collaboration between departments
- Compliant printed packaging from the outset
Packaging Directors can adapt Millnet to reflect existing workflows so staff can easily integrate the content management system into their processes. Millnet’s automated features help improve productivity levels and guarantee regulatory compliance, taking some of the pressure off staff.
A single solution for all your packaging content management needs
A centralised packaging content management system plays a crucial role in updating packaging files for several reasons:
Consistency and coherence: managing packaging data centrally ensures coherent packaging information. Updates are done uniformly, avoiding errors and inconsistencies that can occur with ad hoc management systems.
Traceability: a centralised platform allows any changes to be easily tracked in the design files. This is essential for regulatory compliance and risk management.
Operational efficiency: working with a centralised system makes it easy to perform updates as there’s no need to distribute separate files on different systems. This makes it easier to manage the PDF packaging files, reduces timelines, and improves responsiveness to changes to any regulatory text.
Error reduction: centralising packaging content management reduces the risk of human error when it comes to files needing any amendments. Any changes are done centrally, eliminating discrepancies between versions.
Regulatory compliance: managing packaging data centrally makes it easier to achieve regulatory compliance including meeting GS1 standards.
Time and cost efficiencies: storing packaging information in a central location streamlines the packaging process and reduces costs related to file management and updates.
Adaptable to changes: regulations change frequently. Responsive, centralised packaging content management makes it possible to respond quickly and correctly to any required packaging updates. These might be related to regulatory changes, marketing (e.g. promotions, special offers), or other requirements.
Managing packaging data centrally is a reliable, responsive and swift strategy for locking in packaging compliance in a competitive global market.
The functionality of the ‘Content Management’ module from Millnet
Shorten your processes, enhance collaboration, and produce high-impact packaging that complies with GS1 standards more quickly with Millnet’s ‘Content Management’ module acts as a MDM solution (Master Data Management):
- Automatically produced packaging artwork: via a link between the internal location where packaging data is stored (Excel, PIM, DAM, etc.) and Millnet. Packaging and label templates are automatically filled with product information like regulatory text, bar codes, EAN codes, and product details.
- Streamlined management of product information: real-time generation of PDF packaging files and instant approval of amendments.
- Management of the different languages featured on packaging: generate multilingual artworks in a few clicks.
The above functions are coming on top of those already available in Millnet MDM:
- Simple version control – no more tracking versions in long email chains or Excel sheets. Our version control tool means all stakeholders are on the same page and your packaging artwork files are perfect and print-ready more quickly.
- Collaboration tools – maximising collaboration for optimum output lies at the heart of Millnet. Improve problem-solving, prioritise accountability and bring your teams together. Increasing PDF compliance standardises the packaging process and improves wellbeing at work.
- Modular structure – create a custom workflow that meets your unique needs and allows teams to work naturally. Use only the modules you need.
- Simplified workflow management – Centralising artwork design and approval on a single collaborative packaging management platform secures and tracks the packaging process.
Internal as well as external stakeholders like design agencies and printers can log into Millnet online with their unique usernames and passwords. Depending on their access rights they can manage pack design updates and range extensions on a secure platform in a completely transparent way. Accessible 24/7, every exchange can be traced and files don’t leave the platform. They move seamlessly from design (the agency uploads the file) to print (the printer downloads the file).
Get in touch with one of our packaging experts. You can explore how Millnet and Content MDM (dynamic data management) operate, what they can do, and assess how they can support your organisation.
