Packaging colours to fall from the cloud

An agreement has been struck between a major consumer brand owner and a colour science and technology company.

Procter & Gamble, owner of brands including Gillette, Tide and Pampers has implemented PantoneLIVE from X-Rite and Pantone, a cloud-based colour service with the aim of improving operational efficiency in packaging execution.

According to Pantone, colour is critically tied to brand equity and therefore maintaining colour consistency on product packaging is essential for brand recognition.

“PantoneLIVE is an efficient, effective and seamless technology that saves time and money, and helps ensure design intent makes it to shelf, whether we are creating a new Charmin package design, proofing an Olay label, mixing ink for Tide packaging or assessing the quality of Gillette packaging on press,” said Phil Duncan, global design officer at P&G.

“PantoneLIVE is an excellent solution for simplifying how we access digital colour palettes for design, proofing and print.  When fully implemented, the productivity benefits will be significant – both internally for P&G and for our suppliers.”

To facilitate colour standardisation across all materials in the production process, P&G now has the ability to upload proprietary colour palettes onto PantoneLIVE’s secure, cloud-based portal, which suppliers can instantly access from around the world. This centralised colour communication process aims to minimise colour revisions and reduce approval times, creating go-to-market efficiencies and, ultimately, lower development costs.

“With supply chains located around the world, it is extremely difficult for large corporations to maintain universal colour consistency,” explained Dr. Sonia Megert, vice president of the Pantone Digital Business unit at X-Rite/Pantone.

“ThePantoneLIVE system is ideal for an innovative, global corporation like P&G because it provides a centralised online repository for managing, controlling and accessing official brand colour criteria.”