
âColor is a key driver to a winâa.k.a. saleâat the First Moment of Truth, the four to five seconds a shopper spends looking at a package on a store shelf in deciding to reach for the product or pass it by.â
With those remarks, Procter & Gambleâs Paul France left about 170 flexographers and Flexographic Technical Association members with this question to open the organizationâs fall conference Oct 5 in Ronkonkoma, NY: âWhat can we do together?â France, principal engineer, technology entrepreneur for printing, substrates, and packaging development at P&G, stressed during his keynote presentation that consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are looking to partner with innovators in assessing whatâs needed at shelf, and then implementing whatâs possible. CPG companiesâ overriding concerns, France said, are shelf-stopping power, holding power, and buying power.
France identified CPG companiesâ major needs as scale and speed, global distribution, and material and technology range, noting that P&G owns and manufactures 23 billion-dollar brands packaged in pouches, bottles, cartons, blister packs, and aerosol cans. These packages increasingly contain photography and rely heavily on halftones and vignettes. Photos even might be printed on holographic foil or other decorative and challenging materials.
P&G commonly puts multifaceted challenges to its printer partners. France listed five that matter most:
⢠Getting it right the first time. âPrinting materials must match the target artwork and align on both color and content, which can be the hardest part of the job,â France said.
⢠Repeatability. Quality must be consistent from print run to print run.
⢠Color simplification. France mentioned that P&G is consolidating its color library. âP&Gâs hope is to move from 2,000 colors to 400 or 500,â he said.
⢠Common first moment of truth language parameters. said France: âConsumers donât speak L*a*b* or Delta E. They say, âwarm and fuzzy.â Designers, color separators, and printers have to understand those words and easily translate them back to technical terms.â
⢠Consumer-relevant andânoticeable First Moments of Truth. âHas anyone heard of sustainability and e-commerce?â France asked.