Driving BranD Performance with Key Performance inDicators | Page 1

In the development and production

phases of branded materials, errors and

ineffi ciencies always have root causes.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) help

you locate and identify those causes and

give you the facts you need to correct

them. KPIs foster collaborative analysis

among the brand owner and all supply-

chain partners to promote effi cient and

effective processes – and to improve and

innovate on them continuously.

of course that’s what KPIs should to do

for almost any process in almost any

kind of industry. Where the activation

and production of branded materials

is concerned, the key questions are,

“What are the right KPIs and how can

we implement and act on them?”

Surprisingly, many brand owners aren’t

clear on these answers. They’re missing

a huge opportunity. This paper will help

provide those answers.

eXecutive summary

a white paperDriving Brand Performance with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Driving Brand Performance with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)Driving Brand Performance with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Driving BranD Performance with Key Performance inDicators | Page 2

what Do KPis achieve?

In short, KPI data leads to insights that encourage concrete steps to improvements that increase a brand’s profitability, efficiency, agility and faithfulness to its core essence and guidelines. Simultaneously, these improvements drive brand performance by increasing desirability and decreasing errors, time to market and costs. Specifically, these improvements can include:

Better briefs. Inefficient brands have poorly conceived and vaguely written briefs that result in time delays and extra cost driven by vague, missing or incorrect information resulting in additional work cycles. Effective KPIs facilitate a deeper understanding of communication priorities that contributes to the success of a project.

Clear communication hierarchy. This leads to improvement in fewer fast-tracked projects, fewer revision cycles and faster approval time.

Greater visibility of projects in the pipeline. This drives process efficiency and flexibility through effective resource allocation.

In contrast, companies with weak or no KPIs suffer from:

Lack of benchmarks to measure against

Limited data to quantify performance

Little or no supply chain visibility

Weaknesses in efficiency, agility and brand fidelity, and the resulting bottom-line detriments.

seeing the value of KPis

Within brands, sometimes the departments of marketing and procurement have distinct value priorities. This doesn’t need to be the case with KPIs. When decision-makers align to common values across domains, they see the mutual benefits.

Brand owners should be interested in how briefs are developed and how clear, concise and effective they are. Procurement typically wants to drive costs out of the process. Both teams benefit from tracking the activities we will suggest below.

At most companies, procurement manages RFPs and often develops pricing matrices; but these are only the first stage of brand process management, relating to the basic costs of materials and services. These don’t shed light on a brand’s effectiveness in:

The on-time delivery of materials at each stage in the evolution of a project

The accuracy of branded materials as they’re produced and copy as it’s deployed on those materials – a key issue where regulations are concerned

The preservation of the brand values and equity that are represented in all materials

These benefits are not what the brand is paying for directly from their agency and production partners, and there is no line item price for effectiveness, dependability or consistency in any RFP or pricing matrix. But KPIs make it clear how the brand and its agency and production partners need to function to achieve these benefits – and then KPIs measure performance toward them. Marketers and procurement organizations simply need to agree on this and then establish KPI’s that drive brand performance.

incorPorating KPis

The basic steps in incorporating KPIs are quite logical. But the devil is sometimes in the details. There are independent consultants who advise brands on this process; integrated design and production firms also can offer this service as part of their overall delivery. This second option has the logical advantage of streamlining communication. Regardless of who oversees the process, the key steps are:

Identify what to measure and what the measurements should tell you. Here you are building a hierarchy of activities you want to measure and an understanding of how they relate to your ultimate goals of efficiency, agility and accuracy of materials through optimized briefing, review and approval processes.

Determine the best ways to gather and measure the information. Although some KPIs are basic, some can be arduous to track if the brand lacks the tools, technology or resources – for example, if the brand does not use an electronic communication routing tool, or if its tool is inferior to one available from a production partner. Ultimately there must be a consistent process to capture data on the activities measured as part of the KPI.

Determine baseline performance goals. What levels of performance for the development and production activities will translate to the overall goals you’ve set?

Articulate and interpret the findings and translate them to actionable measures. This step is fairly straightforward when the previous steps have been handled effectively.

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which KPis shoulD you tracK?

Many brands focus on the “base level” KPIs listed immediately below. The first two may be important in tracking what has been done, but they provide limited forward-looking value; the rest provide insight into process, technical or organizational issues and are more valuable for driving improvements.

For a more effective program, SGK has formulated set of eight essential KPIs. You can see that these promote an analysis of core workflow processes and point to solutions for problems that are uncovered.

SPEnd In PRodUcTIon ART, PREMEdIA, AdAPTIvE cREATIvE (HISToRIcAl) Number/perceNtage of jobs

fast tracked/rushed at some poiNt iN the schedule

this helps uncover risks to quality and consistency and helps determine if pricing is fair to both client and production partner. this also allows the production partner to forecast demand for services more accurately and can indicate when smart-sourcing for additional capacity should be considered.

Number of revisioN cycles aNd their drivers

this typically involves a comparison of revision cycle numbers across brand teams or portfolios. When there’s a difference in the sample groups, their respective processes are analyzed for evidence of problems, such as the quality of incoming information, too little involvement of higher-ranking decision-makers early in the process, etc.

clieNt approval time

disparities between products or categories can signal flaws in the client’s approval process and point to the need for better visibility or workflow technology.

average cost per job relative to total speNd

projects with similar scopes and deliverables can be compared for insights.

Number/perceNtage of iNcomiNg errors oN desigN files

this can help to start pinpointing the source of workflow issues upstream.

productioN cycle time

this can give the first indication of inefficient processes.

Number/perceNtage of jobs doNe right the first time

this is a crucial baseline kpi that relates to the quality of processes and communication.

overall oN-time performaNce

this kpi can be slightly more difficult to outline. measuring “on-time performance” requires a hard start date and delivery date; when these are fluid, it’s difficult to achieve consensus.

SPEnd BY SUBSTRATE, FlExIBlE PAcKAGInG, cARTon PAcKAGInG, AlUMInUM (HISToRIcAl)

PRojEcT dURATIon TIME (PRocESS/TEcHnIcAl/oRGAnIzATIonAl)

REWoRK cYclES (PRocESS/TEcHnIcAl/oRGAnIzATIonAl)

IncoMInG ERRoRS (PRocESS/TEcHnIcAl/oRGAnIzATIonAl)

on-TIME PERFoRMAncE (PRocESS/TEcHnIcAl/oRGAnIzATIonAl)

Driving BranD Performance with Key Performance inDicators | Page 4

seeing KPis through to their Benefits

Brand owners must take a few steps to ensure that KPI data is translated into concrete actions and continued improvements. Several steps are key:

Make sure there’s a steering committee or leadership team that performs a regular (for instance, quarterly) business review. Without a formal venue and scheduled meetings, KPI data may be reported but not acted on.

The steering committee must see to it that information and recommendations are delivered to the appropriate business process owners, and that concrete plans are made.

The brand owner must be committed to long-term, sustainable relationships and to letting their agency and production partners collaborate with marketing and other key players within the brand. This allows procurement to do its job of sharing information without assigning blame.

The process of the steering committee driving the results down through workflow-chain partners in creative and production is vital,

especially early in the relationship

sgK, KPis anD BranD Performance

SGK collaborates with clients on KPIs that give insight into client and shared processes, to drive the benefits described above: agility, efficiency, cost savings and materials that meet brand standards and regulatory requirements. This collaboration – and the focus on optimizing processes that cross multiple disciplines, departments and partners – helps make brands more desirable and profitable. It’s a key component of SGK’s delivery of brand performance.

a kpi specific to sgk

the health of a production relationship depends on many factors beyond those measured by traditional kpis – such as whether the production partner is knowledgeable, engaged, and responsive. so for many clients, sgk performs surveys of our delivery of key services. We survey everyone we work with on an account – as many as 80 people, including our contacts at other partners, such as printers. the results are statistically significant. We share these findings with the overall brand team at regular business meetings. this is something brands should expect from a production partner.

2 kpi treNds

sgk is seeing traditional barriers coming down regarding the sharing of kpi data within organizations. 1. the sharing of results and analysis across product categories. 2. the sharing across geographical regions. these trends are enabled by technologies such as graphics lifecycle management tools and cloud-based print quality management tools. these encourage the collection of extensive data, quick reporting, insightful analysis and easy sharing.

but just as crucial is the willingness within brands to share insights and acknowledge process weaknesses that can be addressed, especially with the help of powerful data and brand performance partners who are also committed to

optimum brand activation workflows.

Here is more on this subject, from SGK expert Michael Leeds.

kNoWledgeable

respoNsive

eNgaged

SGK is a leading global brand development, activation and deployment company that drives brand performance. By creating brands, helping to sell brands, producing brand assets and protecting brand equities, we help our clients achieve higher brand performance. For more information visit: http://www.sgkinc.com

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