How we manage our marketing projects

Photo by Twona
Image of Twona AMS system showing artwork uploaded and options for artwork details, project, preview and communication with messages
Photo by Twona

A few months ago, we were contacted by the marketing team of one of our Pharmaceutical clients to check if our solution could help them process their work, collaborate, and get approvals in a simpler manner than what they currently do. Our response was that yes, of course it can! You know why we know it? Because we use it ourselves!

In my role as Marketing manager, we use Twona to process our design deliverables. Like in many other companies with a small department, we used to handle everything through Slack/Google Chat or email, and store the files in drive. Since our type of work is very similar to what our clients are using for packaging designs, we also needed a better way to discuss things that are not lost in a myriad of chat messages, approvals of the work, and an organized archive of all the versions and easy tracking of the final approved one.

Using the system has proven a much better way to manage all this process.

  • Everyone in the team has access to it, and can find the latest version of a logo, a linkedin graphic or a brochure. Our project structure and naming convention help with this, even if the file itself would be called something generic, it is easy to find it with the search functionality.
  • We created a simple project workflow that fits our needs as a small team. Now, I get an overview of all the open projects, which ones are for review, or need attention, and can manage and rearrange the priorities better.
  • There are clear deadlines and assignment of responsibilities.
  • When the team is low on work, they can easily take older, less priority projects without these being forgotten, and without losing time.
  • Everyone involved gets notifications when something comes their way, so either to take a look at the information before a briefing meeting/discussion, or to go review the uploaded designs.
  • All communication related to a project and all files linked to it are in one place, so if we want to go back to something, it is always available.
  • Creating new design requests based on earlier files is much faster now, without having to re-attach all files to an email or include links. Also we can hide attachments that are no longer relevant, avoiding risk of using the wrong information.
  • We have no limitation on what to store so also high resolution and raw files can be included, in case someone else needs to work on those later.
  • We are able to send files safely for review through the tool to external parties such as partners or printers, always knowing that we are choosing the right files.
  • As we can leave annotations in the files, or attach other documents, the designers know what to change, and anyone (this is our choice) can access the feedback, so if a person is sick, someone else can take up the work without much of an issue as all the files are there, and all the notes/changes requested are also included in one place.
  • We can review that all changes requested have been made, or that the printer has not introduced anything strange when sending the final print proof, by using the native comparison tool.

Moreover, the team is happy with using Twona AMS for our own marketing projects, and it was a quick and simple transition for us.

We have made small adjustments as we progressed and introduced different types of projects, to be able to put projects on hold, or make material available for our partners, amongst others.

If you are considering a more organized way to manage your communication and collaboration around marketing projects, check out Twona and see if it can be of help for your team too!

Zuriñe García
Marketing

Standardizing products in the pharmaceutical industry

patrick tomasso unsplash

Homogeneize/Standardize is the process to harmonize or confer homogeneity or unity to the elements of a set or an area. When it comes to our packaging, it has many other implications:

  • Identification & communication of attributes and visibility.
  • Item Distribution Strategy.
  • Increase in perceived value of the product.
  • Brand recognition.
  • Loyalty.

With the term defined and considering the high strategic importance of standardizing our packaging, we are going to focus on how to deal with the production of (standardize) materials.

What is the best way to guarantee that our team of designers produce homogeneous materials?

Without a doubt, it is the use of templates. These templates, which are expected to be a shared resource, must be unique and protected to avoid changes and therefore generate unwanted deviations.

It is important to develop as many templates as types of products are in our portfolio. These types or groups of products have similar content, form and distribution:

  • Blister box
  • Vertical box
  • Label
  • Leaflet
  • Blister

Using a Folding Box as an example, our template must contain: logos and corporate identity signs, road safety or photosensitivity icon, recycling symbol(s), dosage chart and a long etcetera depending on the complexity of our design.

In order to complete our template, we are currently still missing a fundamental element. It is of vital importance to have a mockup in our template so that designers can use the elements that compose it when building new products.

Back to our example of a Folding Box. In our mock-up there will be a set of elements in the front face such as the name of the product/component in the correct corporate font, size and formatting that would help the designer create the final material. Very important is to make sure that these elements are not to be specific and refer to a real product/component. These should contain a generic text, such to avoid human errors by not replacing the correct text from the Medicines Agency.

For example: Molecule Brand 00 xx xxxxxxx xxxxxx EFG – all these in the correct font and sizes/styling.

Austrian national library – unsplash

Besides reducing risk of mistakes, another benefit of using templates is to exponentially speed up the design process. The template is expected to already solve many questions when starting producing a material: What font should I use? Where are the logos and icons? What were these products like that I haven’t worked on lately?…

To finish with our recommendations to standardize your designs with the use of templates, it is important to highlight that a template is subject to real and common cases. What does this mean? The template should be simplified as much as possible so that its use is agile and efficient, therefore, they should not include exceptions or extreme cases when creating the template.

Our template must encompass the common elements of at least 90% of our materials, as well as our guide or procedure for a material that you can see in a previous article: Facing a Rebranding without stress.

Rafael Cruz Núñez
Artwork Manager

Stress-Free Packaging Rebranding

Photo by myriam-zilles-KltoLK6Mk-g-unsplash

Image of pills, different types, formats and colors.
Photo by myriam-zilles-KltoLK6Mk

As difficult as it may be to recognize it, we sometimes have a hard time adjusting to change. It is that adaptation process what seems like an uphill task.

For a pharmaceutical lab to be competitive, it needs to keep adjusting their processes; using new tools that make work more efficient, or renewing their brand image, for example. And that is the aspect we are going to focus on.

Rebranding and its feared companion: the new Guideline

A rebranding is a brand image change that affects a company’s products and packaging and which rules are collected in a document, named a guideline. Some of the changes that these entail are:

  • New corporate design.
  • New color ranges.
  • Fonts.
  • Icons, logos.

Finding the necessary information to adjust your designs in a document of 30, 60 or maybe even 150 pages, can be complex. Do you imagine working each day with such a lengthy document?

If you have never gone through a rebranding process, here is a shocker: no guideline, none at all, ever, has covered all possible cases. I mean exceptions, nearly impossible implementations, small formats like a label or adjusting those rules to a double molecule, with hidroclorotiazide, for instance.

How to handle a rebranding in an efficient manner?

When you first get introduced to a new guideline, a mix of feelings arise: it is both exciting and challenging at the same time. Before you start hyperventilating at the thought of how complicated it can become to check that or another details, make sure you do this: simplify the document into smaller sections, so you can solve each case separately, focusing on what is important.

The key is to divide the information in several areas, one way is for instance by type of product:

  • Folding Box
  • Leaflet
  • Labels

Whatever division you choose from, it should answer one question: “How do I design/ review a …” > For example, for a Folding box, as it is a very common product that has a rather high complexity.

The procedure to design a box from the guideline is then dissected into smaller pieces that compose it: front face/back face/secondary faces/closing sleeve…

Each section of the divided guidelines will obviously have to contain all its specific rules, and always have images/drawings of real examples. Make sure to also define margins, corporate elements, proportions, and colors, besides the actual content of that box face.

My recommendation is to leave exceptions or special cases to the end. Make sure that the section covers 90% of the cases and leave the 10% for the end of the section.

Similarly, from my experience, besides splitting up information into more agile documents, I would recommend creating templates for the most common cases. It is also very useful to generate checklists that contain the key elements that cannot be missed. Both of these will help you tremendously on the final review.

And you? What tricks do you use to make your rebranding projects simpler and less stressful?

If you are currently going through a rebranding process or it is in the planning, and you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me. Good luck with that rebranding process!

Rafael Cruz Núñez
Artwork Manager