Esko and MediaBeacon, along with Pantone, X-Rite and AVT, have released a new white paper, “The Digital Maturity Model for Brand Packaging,” highlighting the levels of digitization within the brand packaging process.

Consumer packaged goods companies (CPG) today experience pressures to produce products quickly, forcing them to gain deeper insights into the importance of consumer packaging processes. Senior leadership at many CPGs are adopting digital technologies and implementing digital automation to cultivate packaging as a core business capability.

“Brands today realize the benefit of streamlining packaging processes in order to expedite the speed-to-market,” says Esko’s senior director, global brand owner sales, John Elworthy. “Our digital maturity model for brand packaging is a tool that brings more clarity to many major CPG companies. Brands can identify their level of maturity within the context of digital capabilities and define a future vision that increases their ability to drive both revenue and efficiencies.”

The “Digital Maturity Model for Brand Packaging” defines five levels of maturity: Reactive, Organized, Digitized, Connected, and Intelligent. In the white paper, each of the five stages is clearly described, as well as 14 dimensions that comprise the maturity levels. For each level, there are descriptions of what motivates a business to level-up their capabilities. The five main levels of the maturity model are as follows:

•     Reactive: Manual, offline tasks and processes are triggered by external pressures.
•     Organized: Tasks are triggered for established stakeholders by defined processes, timelines and physical quality measures using basic computerized tools.
•     Digitized: Projects, tasks and processes are increasingly completed and measured digitally using configured hardware and software.
•     Connected: Packaging software and hardware is continuously integrated with other business processes and systems of record.
•     Intelligent: An integrated ecosystem of full product information and imagery automatically improves and synchronizes across internal and external interfaces.

Tracy Askam, global director of strategic accounts at MediaBeacon, adds, “While many of the tools discussed in the white paper serve to streamline the packaging industry, marketing departments within the brand organizations also benefit from the tools used – allowing for deeper collaboration and simpler approval processes through digital asset management solutions.”