X-Rite Incorporated and Pantone LLC, global leaders in color science and technology, announced that No7 Beauty Company implemented X-Rite digital color solutions, including PantoneLIVE™ and ColorCert Suite, across its Soap & Glory brand and packaging supply chain.

For its 15 year anniversary, Soap & Glory partnered with X-Rite to create a new, bespoke pink that is instantly recognizable. This allows Soap & Glory to establish one clearly specified digital target and significantly reduce color variance across print suppliers and packaging materials. To ensure brand equity, Soap & Glory now have immediate visibility into the color quality of its global packaging supply chain. Watch the Soap & Glory team discuss the brand refresh and the new bespoke pink.

“Moving from physical color references and visual evaluation to a digital color program has dramatically improved Soap & Glory’s printed packaging color consistency,” said Craig Davids, Global Artwork and Print Manager, No7 Beauty Company. “Instead of spending time and money relating to the subjective acceptance or rejection of printed colors from Soap & Glory printers from around the world, we can now monitor print quality across multiple sites through X-Rite and Pantone’s connected software solutions. Giving printers ownership over print quality means they don’t ship if color isn’t right, preserving our brand identity on the shelf. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Establishing and Monitoring Print Quality

Soap & Glory’s distinctive pink color draws customers to the brand’s Indulgent Bathing, Skincare, Cosmetics, Gifts and Accessories products. Previously, Soap & Glory used a physical reference to communicate color expectations and get quick alignment from print suppliers. Based on Pantone 701C initially, this Pantone color reference helped simplify brand color communication for print suppliers but over time, Soap & Glory noticed a lack of color consistency across printed packaging, point of sale, merchandising, and marketing materials.

Working with the X-Rite and Pantone team, No7 Beauty Company selected a new, bespoke pink brand color for Soap & Glory as part of a brand visual identity (BVI) re-design. The brand standard was digitally defined by X-Rite and stored in the PantoneLIVE cloud for easy access by everyone in the design, artwork creation, and packaging production workflow. The digital PantoneLIVE standard enables the entire packaging supply chain to understand the achievability of the Soap & Glory pink on 30 different print process and substrate variables. Printers can also access spectral data for ink formulation and print quality checks.

X-Rite ColorCert Scorecard Server was installed to evaluate and control printed packaging colors. Print suppliers measure production into ColorCert and submit a job score into the No7 Beauty Company Scorecard server. This empowers No7 Beauty Company to view supplier performance and printers to monitor their own print quality.

“Using X-Rite digital color standards and workflow solutions, No7 Beauty Company can ensure brand consistency across multiple products, packaging materials and suppliers,” said Cindy Cooperman, Vice President, Brand Global Strategic Accounts, X-Rite. "The Soap & Glory brand managers have access to objective color results and can work directly with print suppliers to identify areas for improved efficiencies and cost savings.”

To read the full Soap & Glory case study visit https://www.xrite.com/learning-color-education/case-studies/no7-beauty-company