Consumer Browsing Supermarket Shelves

We are all Brand Guardians

We are all familiar with brands. We have many that we love and trust. Think of any company you like—to name a few; there’s Coca Cola, Nike, Frosted Flakes, and Tide. With this in mind, let’s think about the flexo industry, an industry that Anderson & Vreeland supports in all aspects and works behind every brand’s scenes. We have brand managers at the end-user level that may or may not know anything about graphics or prepress. They are there to develop and promote a brand name in any medium possible. Also involved in the process is the press operator, who balances impression, ink, registration, and hundreds of other variables in the flexo process. These operators’ expertise is to operate a mechanical piece of equipment, but they don’t know or have not been trained to think of the end result…the brand. They only need to worry about printing the product, on time and with quality, which is then sent to a filling plant or converted into a total package. When the branded product finally reaches the customers, the brand managers have completed their duties as a brand guardian, and this cycle begins anew. This cycle is the circle of life known as the brand.

Now let’s think about everyone else we skipped in that entire process: sales, distribution, operations, marketing analysis, design, prepress, color management, platemaking, mounting, maintenance, converting, shipping, warehousing, and, … I can keep going. Everything supports the brand, the critical element that impacts a buyer’s decision when they see that a product in their local store. Essentially, a brand influences everyday people.

Every point of reference in the process described above is part of brand guardianship. It is up to that person in that department to do their job well and make sure the brand fits the image. A salesperson sells the right solutions, equipment, and consumables to the printing facility or trade shop. A designer creates the perfect package with color-adjusted art, logos, and text that meet regulatory standards. There is a print production manager that has approved the color proof with marketing and knows how to address color approvals with a chosen printer. There is a prepress operator that understands the intricacies of the printing press selected and can adapt trapping and separations to meet the color standard. There is a plate room manager that knows all the correct procedures to make the sequence of plates correctly and a mounting operator that mounts properly to reduce a variable for the press operator. Then, the shipping department gets that job out for fulfillment to create the total package, which ultimately becomes the end product that enters the store and into the hands of a fulfilled customer. Whether they know it or not, every person at every point of exchange in the process is doing their job to guard the brand’s image.

We are all Brand Guardians in this business, and doing our job well is crucial to that brand. Having a partner that can provide the skills and resources to manage each of these areas to the best of their ability is where Anderson & Vreeland shines. We have a comprehensive portfolio of solutions for every process within the flexo industry, and that ultimately controls how that brand impacts the customer.

Reach out to Anderson & Vreeland to see how we can help your business own the brand management process.

Bryan ThrasherBy Bryan Thrasher
Account Manager
Anderson & Vreeland Inc.
bthrasher@andvre.com