New technology helps clients judge a product by its package - Memphis Business Journal:

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And since packaging plays such an important rolein point-of-salee marketing, is using a new graphic desigh and printing system that allows for a wide varietuy of store-quality demonstration packages. "What we'rwe able to do now is a mock-up of any package and make it look like theactuap product," account supervisor Kathy Edmundson "It looks like something they ran on the The system has three components: a Preview 500 a Splash PCI 1280 color server and a Xero x DocuColor 5799 copier/printer.
The Preview cost $25,00o0 and the company leases the Splash PCI and Owner Steve Rutland says the substantial investment he made four months ago is worth it because the company can nowcreate four-color packages on the material to be used in productioj in less time. And it costs less than packaging manufacturers could do on afull press. They have produced many demonstration packages for and are trying to entee theautomotive after-market arena. Before buying this equipment the companh used freelancers to do lesserquality mock-ups that took from four days to a week and a With this system it can take from a half hour to two. The new methoxd also makes a betterlooking mock-up.
The old method meanty printing the design on a piece of paper and pastinvg it toa carton. The Preview system prints directly on to the same type of stock that will be usedin production. That meansd any problems with colors or types of inks can be mitigatedf before the actual packagingis run. This is very important when dealintwith foils, embossing and pearlescent. "Foiling is almost impossible to do withouythis system," Art Director Mark Miller says. "Before this, you couldn'tg really show a client what it would be Potato chip bags were nearly impossibls because regularprinters don't print on the material that chips are sold in. But this systemm does.
It also prints on shrink-wrapp material that slip over regular soft drinj cans so they appear almost exactly like they would if actually printed ona can. Accuracyu is important to manufacturers if they want to get the product into certain storeslike Wal-Mart. Many chainsw ask to see what the item will look like on the shelcf before agreeing tocarryg it. "We can do packagintg jobs for them one or two at a Edmundson says. "If something has to changs on the planogram, we can do A planogram is a merchandisinf tool used to plan whers products will be and how they will look on astorre shelf.
It is very competitive becausee every brand wants to be at eye level with plenty ofshelfd space, Edmundson says. "For a packaged or any other product, companieds must consider how their package will look on the Edmundson says. "The Preview process allows the brandx marketer to consider designn elements before implementing a printrun -- withou t interfering with workflow and with little cost -- and the packagew looks just like the real thing.
There is no guess work Keri Henry, a product manager in International Paper'a beverage packaging division, says the company turns to the Rutlanrd Group for graphics design becausee although it has graphics capabilitty it lacks the design Rutland Group's ability to produc e high-quality mock-ups is important because that is what Internationao Paper is capable of doing. Henry uses the mock-upp demo packages as marketing tools to show clients innovations available. "We've had a lot of interestr among our customer base and are currentlt working onseveral projects," Henry One area International Paper is developing is bringingf dairy packaging to life.
For juice companies use lively packages to catchu consumer eyes and Henry says she wants to use the packaginhg innovations to do the same thingfor dairy. "Whatt we want to do is use those capabilities to buildrtheir brands," Henry says. Contact stafft writer Morgan Minchat 259-1727 or by e-maipl at mminch@amcity.com