December 2009 — In an age with more than its fair share of anxiety, where many are given over to introspection, feeling good and looking good have become important, witness the growth in gym membership and the investment made by some of the world’s leading brand owners in the development and marketing of so-called nutraceutical products.
Encompassing items such as vitamin supplements, sports drinks, energy boosters, herbal teas and much more beside, nutraceutical products offer brand owners high returns but the returns do not come without costs. The label space is sometimes the only chance a manufacturer has to communicate with the consumer, consequently product marketers are constantly on the lookout for ways to expand informational content and hold a potential consumers attention. Many nutraceutical items are also subject to scrutiny by food and drug agencies and consequently a certain amount of label and package real estate is given over to product ingredient listing, disclaimers and warnings.
Given the limited labeling space on many packaged items, the competitive nature of the market and the fact that many of the products may be regarded as a non-essential item, product managers and their converting suppliers employ a variety of techniques, from 360 degree shrink labeling to the use of complex graphics and vibrant colours to get noticed and get the product message across.
Tom Kerchiss of colour communication technology specialist RK Print Coat Instruments Ltd, says: “Bold colours, high-end graphics and easy to read fonts helps make for a label of distinction. Peel-back labels have been an important breakthrough in this market, providing manufacturers with the opportunity to display a relatively un-crowded front of label with much of the required legislative and ingredient content on the labeling reverse side. In addition, the variety of substrates available for packaging purposes together with different print and finishing techniques extends decorative possibilities allowing for a degree of differentiation that was simply not available a decade or so ago.”
Players in this market take a serious and professional approach to developing a strong brand identity with package and label colour critical elements. “Colour is vital but adding special high gloss coatings and other techniques such as foil stamping and embossing the product logo, perhaps to give it a textured look can add even more pop. Creative opportunities seem almost limitless,” says RK’s Tom Kerchiss
Not as conservative as many sectors, packaging professionals, designers and the print provider of nutraceutical products are perhaps subject to fewer creative constraints. Nevertheless, the need to maintain colour and other quality standards is the same as for any other packaging product sector. Failure to meet quality control standards has the potential for devastating commercial consequences all down the line. Apart from the embarrassment of customer returns, inconsistencies such as deviation in colour results in un-warranted machine downtime for ink and other adjustments, excessive waste (material, consumables, energy) and poor machine/man management.
Taking all of the variables into consideration and given the critical role colour plays in communication, in marketing products, shifting products off the shelf, it’s hardly surprising that printers, converters and others pay so much attention to getting it right.
RK Print Coat Instruments bench top colour communication devices enable users ranging from ink and coating formulators to printers, converters and substrate producers, and many more beside, to bring process variables under control, quickly, off-line and with minimal waste. The K Printing Proofer is just one example. The K Printing Proofer produces high quality proofs in an instance using gravure, gravure-offset or flexo inks. This device, when fitted with the gravure head and RK’s own K-Lam laminating accessories – enables users to produce wet and dry laminated samples, making this a very versatile system.
For UV litho, web offset and letterpress inks the UV Paste Ink Proofer (PIP) enables the user to produce multiple proofs. This bench top unit is believed to be unique in its use of an automatic ink metering system, eliminating the need to weigh or measure ink samples. Interchangeable engraved ceramic rollers are used to produce proofs of various ink densities.
For troubleshooting purposes flexo user around the world are benefitting from the EsiProof, a portable hand held unit fro producing solid or half tone flexo proofs quickly and economically. This go-anywhere device can be taken from machine to machine and surprisingly for such as compact device incorporates a doctor blade on the anilox roller, facilitating the proofing of fine tones and higher viscosity inks such as UV curable flexo inks.
Other systems and devices include the award-winning FlexiProof 100 and variant FlexiProof UV. A scaled down but component precise version of a full sized flexo production press the FlexiProof has found favour across all flexo sectors and in all parts of the world. Both devices can be used for trialing unfamiliar materials; to determine printability, ensure consistency of performance of inks and substrates over time; computer colour matching, data presentation and for educational duties.
An additional benefit of the systems are that presentation samples can be quickly produced so that designers, marketers and the brand owner can see what does and does not work when a product is printed.
For further information email sales@rkprint.com, www.rkprint.com
Source: RK Print Press Release
|
