This renowned South African retailer operates in Africa and the Middle East. It is one of only a handful of major retailers worldwide with a 'single brand' philosophy and the only store of its kind in South Africa that offers textiles, food, homeware, and financial services under its own brand name. The value and consistency of the brand is critically important to shareholders.

The Challenge – Simplifying a Complex Process

The in-house food product development team needed a simple way to manage the product development process, including all the packaging, from beginning to end. With an untarnished reputation for superb quality, based on meticulous standards that only deliver the best, this retailer’s process is complex – involving everything from food recipes and quality processes, through photographs and copyrighting, to post launch analysis.

The brand is implemented through fifteen design and advertising agencies, plus several repro houses and printers. A large Foods New Product Development (NPD) team within the organization launches thousands of new products per year, and brand delivery requires the co-ordinated production of products, campaigns, packaging, and in-store material. The business case for automation shows massive potential returns through faster cycle times and lower costs.

The Solution: BrandDirector

BrandDirector was identified as the single-system solution capable of meeting rigorous requirements to manage the Company’s design and packaging operations, for managing marketing campaigns, and for foods new product development. The system will be extended to provide the core food product information database.

BrandDirector has enabled this organization to achieve:

• Faster time to market through online approvals
• Reduced cost of NPD through enforcing approval ‘gates’
• Integrated product development and packaging processes that reduce re-keying of data and simplify project management
• Planning ability through forward loading forecasts
• Simpler re-use of marketing assets through library searches and downloads
• Easier detection of project hold-ups, which are highlighted through traffic-light reports and system-generated e-mails
• Simpler communication between marketers, packaging suppliers, and food manufacturers
• Reduced data entry through system-generated forms