Brands spend a lot of time, effort, and money on getting their product packaging right because it deeply influences consumer purchase decisions. The appearance of the product package has a direct impact on the customer’s perception of the product quality and parameters like freshness, consistency, taste, and so on. And the color is a vital element in brand equity, playing a crucial role in building customer trust, and recognition, and driving engagement. Lets examine how we can maintain and control consistency of brand colours in the supply chain.
However, it is challenging to maintain color consistency throughout the supply chain. That is because of the sheer number of variables brands must pay attention to in the process: the substrates, the material for printing, the packaging types, the inks, and the printing processes.
Here are a few aspects that brands must keep in mind in order to manage and achieve color accuracy:
1) Define a reproducible standard for color specification
Successful reproduction of colors across different mediums is critical for maintaining the sanctity of the supply chain. Brands rely upon color reference libraries or color standards charts like Pantone for doing so. Widely accepted across geographies, these charts enable color communication in the same language and minimize errors. Since colors can appear starkly different on different materials like, say, fabric vs. glossy paper, Pantone standards come in handy for defining the right specification for each.
2) Run color tests on various substrate prototypes
The brand’s colors may vary in different kinds of substrates, meaning that it is essential to test and perfect the desired color specification at the prototyping stage itself. Testing color accuracy in plastic components, for example, would produce different results from assessing it on a rubber substrate. Quality control at the initial phase makes business sense from a cost-time-effort perspective, because even a slight variation of color in the final product can lead to confusion or mistrust at the consumer end, directly affecting sales.
3) Make color spectral data visible across all points in the supply chain
The supply chain may consist of suppliers across several sites, and it is crucial that the color spectral data be visible to each of them. Sophisticated technology such as color measurement software makes this possible for brands. The value of spectral data to a company is tantamount to knowing the very DNA of the color. In retail, a color-critical item like a formal shirt, for instance, may well need to be coordinated with other apparel items; so the color-tolerance standards would be especially high-and that is where spectral data would be highly prized!
4) Assess color under different lighting conditions
Lighting plays a significant role in product appearance. That’s why leading brands always include visual assessment standards for product color and appearance. They lay down standard operating procedures for checking the SKUs under standardized viewing conditions to simulate the experience with in-store lighting like LED. Color specification assessment with different lighting conditions is, thus, a very useful step in the quality control process in maintaining the color consistency in the supply chain.
5) Make effective use of instrument auditing tools
Manufacturers understand the criticality of adhering to the color specifications, and their trusted suppliers do, too. However, the quality of the testing equipment available at all the touchpoints in the supply chain may not be equal. Here is where the brand can take the help of instrument auditing tools which enable all the stakeholders to measure the color specifications against the required yardstick and course-correct wherever needed.
Quality-conscious brands lay special emphasis on managing all these elements, which is why they also look for printing and packaging partners that live up to these steep challenges. At Manipal Digital, our best-in-class infrastructure and high-end technological advances support us in surpassing our customers’ expectations consistently.
Reach out now to discuss how we can help the colors of YOUR brand sparkle across the supply chain! The tiniest color variation can create brand mistrust. No wonder leading brands pay so much importance to color consistency across the supply chain!
