Brand Point Management

Creating Compelling and Consistent Brand Experiences

WHITE PAPER 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary 3

Brand Performance in Today’s Global Marketplace 4

»The New World for Brands: More Segments, More Locations, More Noise
»The New World for Manufacturers and Retailers: Collaboration
»Brand Performance and the Consumer Experience

What is Brand Point Management? 6

brand point management illustrated: Continuity Framework 7

Deployment Architecture 8

Delivering Brand Point Management 9

»Strategic Expertise
»Creative Expertise
»Executional Expertise

Where It Happens: Environments 11

»At Home
»On the Go
»At the Store
»On the Shelf

Sustainability and Brand Point Management 13

The Future of Brand Point Management 14

Schawk: Positioned to Lead 15

Brand Point Management 2

Executive Summary
Consumer-products companies are facing the most challenging period in
their history. Long-standing marketing realities are changing radically, and
as a result, manufacturers and retailers must redefine how they engage
with shoppers.
Here are the realities:

» Product choices are mushrooming, and new-product offerings are growing in importance as nimble, low-priced
manufacturers muscle in on traditional territory.
» Consumers are reacting to choice and price competition by becoming less brand- and channel-loyal.
» Consumers are taking in their media in more-fragmented, less-predictable ways, requiring marketers to reach
them closer to the purchase itself, in contexts that were relatively overlooked before.

Manufacturers and retailers must focus their attention – and develop processes – to create very compelling and
consistent brand experiences where those experiences can have the most impact. This can be at home, “on the
go,” at many places around or inside the store, and on the store shelf itself. The common thread is that these are
environments where the consumer is in a purchase mode. In a world rife with fragmented marketing channels
and messages, these environments are crucial to creating a powerful brand – and to generating sales.

Furthermore, in a world of shrinking margins, where time-to-market is increasingly important and global
integration – at all stages in the development and production process – is essential to building a brand, it is
imperative to create brand messages that are both compelling and consistent – messages that are efficient to
deliver and powerful, that turn shoppers into buyers. This is brand point management, and it applies to every
stage of a product’s life.

Brand point management requires broad and deep capabilities in strategy, creative and execution. And it
requires collaboration around the globe. With a framework that addresses brand points at home, on the go, at the
store and on the shelf, Schawk is uniquely positioned to lead the industry in delivering brand point management.

Brand Point Management 3

Brand Performance in Today’s Global Marketplace
It used to be that marketers could hope that a brand’s lifespan would be
measured in decades, growing in strength over time. In today’s fast-paced, over-
stimulated, consumer-driven world, a brand has a very short window to prove
itself, and a much tougher time holding its market-share. This is where the
brand experience becomes paramount.
New World for Brands: More Segments, More Locations, More Noise

The changing household. The demands of busy lifestyles. The growing market for health and wellness, for
consumer electronics, for sustainable products. These are just a few of the dynamics that have created an
explosion of new market segments and a push for more personalized products. This has fueled innovation and,
as a result, higher expectations and shorter attention spans among shoppers. Shoppers are getting harder to win
and harder to keep.

In the United States and Europe, nearly half (45 percent) of consumers believe that there is too much choice
available for most purchase decisions.1 Yet manufacturers feel pressure to innovate and expand, and in the U.S.,
more than 30,000 new products were introduced in 2006 alone. As a result, brand loyalty is decreasing among
consumers: only one in 20 consumers is loyal to one brand in a given category.2

Making matters more challenging for brands is the shift in global population. By 2050, Europe will have 70
million fewer people than today, while Africa will have almost a billion more.3 This population change has already
added to the diversity of our world and signals a near future in which certain cultures will exert new influences
in commerce.

At the same time, technology is connecting people around the world in powerful new ways and will only increase
its impact on how and where consumers make brand choices. In the fourth quarter of 2007 alone, broadband
subscriptions worldwide grew by nearly five percent – 16 million new subscriptions.4 It’s no surprise that
consumers are moving more to the internet to research and learn about products and that brands are
following them there. But this is also part of the reason the typical consumer now receives 3,000 marketing
messages a day.5

The New World for Manufacturers and Retailers: Collaboration

The challenge of satisfying demanding shoppers in more market segments is coupled with the fact that
successful, lower-cost competition is putting even greater pressure on established manufacturers to get
products to market quickly, and at a competitive price. At the same time, price is becoming more prominent in
consumers’ selections of goods and services.

1
Datamonitor, “How to Create Brand Loyalty Among Today’s Consumers.” June 29, 2007.
2
Deloitte, “Shopper Marketing: Capturing a Shopper’s Mind, Heart and Wallet.” 2007.
3 
The Nielson Company, “Marketing to the Global Consumer: Understanding the Complexities of a Diverse Population.”
http://us.acnielsen.com/pubs/2006_q2_ci_global.shtml
4
Point Topic, “World Broadband Statistics, Q4 2007.”
5
Deloitte.

Brand Point Management 4

More than three-quarters of consumer-product companies now say new-product development is one driver – or
the driver – of revenue, profit and marketshare growth.6 This is forcing companies to develop more efficient
product-development infrastructures and requires more integrated collaboration across a wide range of internal
and external partners in supply, design, manufacturing and service to reduce costs while getting to market faster
than ever before.

And while new products are top of mind, the same forces are pushing manufacturers to revitalize existing
products through quality improvements and new packaging. Indeed, the average lifespan between package
makeovers is now two years, compared to seven or more a decade ago.7 The aim is to make the shopping
experience more fun, more educational and more compelling – just like good advertising itself.

In store, retailers are trying to create a faster, easier and less-cluttered experience. Store brands are also
gaining market share, with approximately 80 percent of consumers stating that private label brands are a good
alternative to other brands.8 In the past decade, retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Sainsburys and Carrefour have
gone heavily into proprietary brands. Safeway took this one step further in 2005, consolidating 70 store brands
into 10 “power brands” to eliminate redundancy and underperforming items. As of early 2008, those brands
represented 17 percent of its sales.9

This puts pressure on manufacturer brands, no doubt. But it also opens up opportunities for collaboration
between retailers and manufacturers to develop mutually beneficial products and promotional strategies. It
also puts a spotlight on the very beginning of a product’s life, as a crucial point for the beginning of
collaboration with all manner of vendors. As one report put it, “Consumer companies must develop a highly
efficient product development infrastructure that supports a high degree of collaboration, control and reuse
across a distributed environment of engineers and other business functions, as well as external supply, design,
manufacturing and service partners.”10 (Figure 1)

promotional promotional
agencies agencies

printers printers Figure 1: Meeting the demands

of today’s marketplace requires
greater collaboration up and
down the supply chain, but most
designers retailer manufacturer designers importantly, winning the consumer
requires collaborative solutions
that leverage both retailer and
manufacturer brands to create
regulatory regulatory an experience.
agencies agencies

research/ research/
analytics firms analytics firms

collaboration

collaboration collaboration

6
Aberdeen Group, “Product Development in Consumer Industries Benchmark.” 2004
7
The New York Times, “Product Packages Now Shout to Get Your Attention.” August, 10, 2007.
8
McKinsey & Company, “Competing in the New World of Brands: The Next Wave of Private Label.” 2007.
9
Stores Magazine, “Betting the House on Private Brands.” February 2008.
10
Aberdeen Group.

Brand Point Management 5

Brand Performance and the Consumer Experience

Going forward, the winning brands – both manufacturer and store brands – will be those that are managed with
the most insight into the consumer. For instance, statistics show that traditional advertising no longer generates
the revenue boosts it once did. And stand-alone traditional merchandising methods are losing their leverage.
Today, manufacturers realize that the greatest impact comes when brands are made meaningful and relevant
across every consumer touchpoint. And it’s increasingly clear that the most influential touchpoints are those that
are closest to the point of purchase.

While the details change across geographies, marketing principles remain the same: consumers want high
perceived value bolstered by affinity for the brand. Manufacturers must leverage the uniqueness of their
brands for each key market segment, and connect with consumers in a way that creates a compelling and
consistent brand experience, creating the lift they seek and turning shoppers into buyers. This calls for brand
point management.

What is Brand Point Management?

Brand point management is the strengthening of a brand through the delivery
of compelling and consistent brand experiences that create greater affinity
between consumer and brand. Brand point management touches all phases of
a product’s life – from ideation to design to market implementation – because
all phases contribute to that moment of interaction between that consumer and
the brand.
Brand point management is focused primarily on the areas of contact with a shopper that will enhance desire
for a brand and ultimately entice purchase. It does not necessarily include broad forms of advertising, such as
television and radio – although brand point management needs to take a brand’s advertising strategy carefully
into account. The key distinction is this: while advertising’s chief role is to create awareness and drive interest
in new products and keep established brands top-of-mind, brand point management is sharply focused on those
make-or-break moments when a consumer is in shopping mode. Its purpose is focused on turning shoppers
into buyers.

Wherever shoppers and brands interact – at home, on the go, at the store or on the shelf – all brand points
within those environments must be compelling and consistent. For a single product to travel from conception to
production to packaging to marketing and to the shelf, brand point management must be incorporated through
the entire process:

» Brand research and strategy, category audits and process management

» Concept design, including naming, branding, package design, sales collateral
and environmental design
» Retail marketing, such as FSIs, direct mail and point-of-sale displays
» Production implementation, including a huge range of graphic services and premedia
» Enterprise support, including digital asset management, online proofing and project management
» Tools and processes along the workflow supply chain, and a footprint large enough to mirror the
product’s own geographical market
» Global collaboration and local delivery

Brand Point Management 6

The results are significant: brand point management can help streamline brand portfolios; create time,
production and budget efficiencies; and offer increased speed to market and quicker reaction to market trends
and needs. These practical benefits dovetail with benefits perceived by the consumer: brand messages that
speak to a shopper’s needs and desires and do so consistently wherever that shopper touches the brand.

Brand Point Management Illustrated: Continuity Framework

The promise of brand point management is the strengthening of a brand’s connection with the consumer.
Schawk has developed a framework that focuses on the continuity of compelling brand experiences as the active
consumer moves through multiple environments: at home, on the go, at the store and on the shelf. Brand points
in each of these are made compelling and consistent through three core competencies: strategic planning,
creative design and executional excellence. (Figure 2)

These competencies help marketers better execute product innovation in creating the structure and graphics
for packaging, in facilitating and managing the printing of packaging, in designing the store environment and
in-store displays, and in creating the promotional work that drives consumers to the store.

This framework is even more important as these environments can both stand alone and overlap. Brand
point management’s strict aim is to ensure that brand points in each of these environments complement and
strengthen each other. For example, messaging and imaging in a catalogue should be carried over to a billboard
and to store-floor graphics and on the product package itself.

In fact, some of these contexts overlap quite literally. Outdoor signage can share visual space with the store
itself, and in-store environmental signage can be strategically close to the product on the shelf. In today’s
marketplace, brand points are everywhere, and they must be mutually reinforcing. Brand point management is
the framework and guide for this.

YOUR BRAND

AT HOME ON THE GO STRATEGIC EXPERTISE Figure 2: Your brand touches the

consumer most compellingly when
CONSUMER a synthesis of strategic, creative
CREATIVE EXPERTISE
and executional expertise carries
the message consistently through
AT THE STORE ON THE SHELF four key shopper environments.
EXECUTIONAL EXPERTISE

Brand Point Management 7

Deployment Architecture
Brand point management is the creation of compelling and consistent brand-
point experiences that generate greater affinity and turn shoppers into buyers,
across multiple shopping environments and across broad geographies.

At Home, On the Go, At the Store, On the Shelf

Figure 3: Ensuring compelling
and consistent brand experiences
across shopper environments
experiential functional requires synthesizing and
Strategic Planning, Premedia, Prepress, coordinating expertise relating
Creative Design Print Management to the shopper’s experience and
to the functional requirements of
producing creative elements.
Workflow Management
Global Footprint

In today’s quickly changing global marketplace, brand point management means that a package on the shelf
in San Francisco must present brand attributes that are consistent with a POP display in Shenzhen and with
a newspaper insert in London. To help understand this coordination, brand point management can be seen as
having two components within a deployment architecture. (Figure 3)

The experiential component is executed through strategic planning and creative design, and its goal is to ensure
that brand experiences are compelling.

» Strategic planning includes research into consumer preferences and competitive offerings, and determining
how to optimize the presentation of key brand attributes throughout the relevant shopper environments.

» Creative design is the manifestation of those determinations in terms of copy, design and materials.

The functional component is executed through premedia, prepress and print management, and its goal is
to ensure that brand experiences are consistent globally and that brand equity and intellectual property are
protected, as well.

» Premedia, prepress and print management are where most of the ideas and energy involved in the
previous stages are brought to life, in the form of materials that present brand messages at all brand points.
In several ways, this large and vital functional stage can have a great influence on improving product agility
and lowering production cost:
» When taken into account during the strategic and creative phases, there are proven cost-savings
long-term, resulting from superior designs and strategies and from production efficiencies.
» In a world where products and services can be sourced worldwide, deft vendor management
can create significant time savings and cost savings, to meet shopper demand and
bottom-line mandates.

Brand Point Management 8

Workflow management coordinates the deployment of resources – financial and human – across collaborating
divisions and with outside partners, over a product’s geographic footprint. Along with digital asset management,
a subset of workflow management, it reduces costs at all stages and improves agility in bringing products and
brand messages to market quickly and effectively.

In today’s marketplace, when these functions are executed over a global footprint, a brand’s marketing power is
maximized and there are cost efficiencies throughout the product lifecycle.

Delivering Brand Point Management

Today’s consumers expect everything and compromise on almost nothing.
They want a more personal shopping experience – at all points in their decision-making process. For the
manufacturer, this requires precise strategy, creative excellence and flawless execution, for it’s vital to
understand a consumer’s demands, create compelling communications and deliver those consistently no matter
the brand point.

Strategic expertise

Compelling and consistent do not happen without strategy. There must be objective insights (through brand and
channel audits and audience analysis) and instinctive insights (into human behavior) for a brand’s message to
be compelling – to resonate with increasingly demanding shoppers at all touchpoints.

There must be similar insight into retailers and the changing retail environment. As retail channels increase
– but the number of retailers overall shrinks – there are complex dynamics that must be considered, in how
retailers interact with brands and with consumers. With large retailers now setting the agenda for issues like
in-store marketing and product sustainability, strategists must consider these as well. And with retailers and
brands facing many individual pressures, strategies that achieve collaboration between the two can have
excellent results – although this can require some deft politics.

Finally, considerable thought must be put into how all strategic elements will be executed in the creative and
production phases of brand materials. Raw materials are increasingly expensive today, but burgeoning global
production efficiencies can offset this.

In light of all these factors, strategy is a vast, complex expertise. From product ideation to marketing to
design to pre-production and production – all tied together by workflow management – strategy is crucial in
setting the context for a successful brand. Brand point management must be brought to bear throughout the
strategic stage.

Brand Point Management 9

Creative expertise

The stakes have never been higher for the creative element in product marketing.
The pressures facing brands and retailers – growing product choice, global competition, diminishing shopper
loyalty, the pressure to innovate, fragmented media, brand-message overload – all call for a very high level of
creative sophistication if a brand is to generate affinity and make sales.

Through its creative features, packaging must command attention and convey brand attributes attractively, and
do so consistently wherever that product and its promotional materials appear.

This has to be considered at the brand-development stage and be executed through strategic design,
structural design, environmental design, retail design and more. It goes more granular, too – in retouching, in
adaptive design across individual SKUs and distinct cultures globally, in dimensional imaging, 3D imaging and
more. Brand compliance and digital asset management are foundational services that apply throughout the
creative stage.

Within brand point management, the creative component in a product’s lifecycle will synergize with strategy and
execution, and the most effective vendors of creative services will have deep institutional knowledge of those
other services – and thus be able either to provide them for stronger solutions and cost savings or to collaborate
with other vendors for superior results for the shared client.

In either case, this is brand point management at its most effective.

Executional expertise

As the stakes rise for strategy and creative, they rise for execution as well.
Strategies increasingly encompass a broader range of media, and as creative efforts increase to keep pace with
strategies, execution must keep pace with both.

This means that premedia, prepress and print management must continue to make technological advances,
and that workflow management and digital asset management must encompass those advances. It means that
these services must be delivered over an ever-larger geographical footprint and with increasing sensitivity to the
distinct characteristics of cultures worldwide.

Vendors of services in the execution area must become experts in – or at least highly versed in – strategy
and creative, as technological advances and globalization threaten to turn certain elements of execution into
commodities. Actually, for those vendors, this is an opportunity to ensure their viability and to improve the
finished product for clients, as experts in premedia and printing have unique insights into what’s possible in the
way of strategy and creative.

As many experts point out, this argues for partnering with executional vendors earlier and earlier in a brand’s
lifecycle, and like so many of the scenarios described in this white paper, this calls for brand point management.

Brand Point Management 10

Where It Happens: Environments
It is instructive – in fact, vital – to see brand points occurring in four key
environments where there is the greatest opportunity to turn shoppers into
buyers: At Home, On the Go, At the Store and On the Shelf.
At Home

The home is the most effective environment in which to begin creating desire for brands and their products. But
the home is also where the consumer’s attention is potentially most fragmented. Domestic responsibilities and
distractions can prevent concentration on media delivering brand messages, and these media are themselves
under pressure. For example, the fragmentation of the television audience and the effects of digital video
recorders like TiVo are well documented, as is the cannibalization of television by the internet.

At the same time, consumers view the home as a private place and resist the obtrusive delivery of ad messages
there. Nevertheless, they do welcome advertising that is useful to them and will help them make purchasing
decisions. Numerous recent studies have corroborated the enduring strength of newspaper advertising, including
FSIs. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults use inserts to make shopping decisions in a given month, according to
one study.11

And we see retailers and brands becoming more targeted in how they reach shoppers at home. Increasingly,
catalogues are printed in regional variations – which emphasizes strategy, creative and execution in the brand
management scheme. Or retailers and brands that formerly produced broad marketing materials now produce
smaller, more targeted and more attractive materials. And these materials now often have a new aim: to send
shoppers to the web for more detailed information or to make purchases – calling for new messaging and
imaging strategies.

Brands must understand all of these unique dynamics in order to execute in a way that elicits both a positive
response and a measurable one. It’s both art and science combined.

Direct mail, catalogs, FSIs and other types of printed communications targeted to consumers in the home can
be extremely effective when manufacturers and retailers understand the category and the dynamics of how the
products are shopped for and bought. Getting inside shoppers’ minds and influencing their decisions from the
earliest stages is where smart companies can gain distinct competitive advantage in the marketplace.

On the Go

Brand points encountered on the go are quite different from those at home. Billboards, posters, bus shelters,
bus backs and sides, building wraps – the consumer interacts with these for a matter of seconds, rarely more,
but the interaction can be intense and effective if the message is noticeable, easy to understand, not confusing
verbally and visually, and memorable.

The unusual sizes of these brand materials put emphasis on premedia and printing/production. There are special
demands put on photography, retouching and creative imaging to ensure that the communications leverage
the advantages of their large formats. The printing of such materials is a complex expertise in itself. From
conception to production, on-the-go brand experiences are a special science, but the results can be exceptional
when the strategy, creative and execution are done right.

11
MORI Research, “Consumer Usage of Newspaper Advertising 2006.”

Brand Point Management 11

at the Store

The store has become a critical environment for brand points.

This is illustrated by the fact that roughly three-quarters of purchase decisions are now made in-store, and a
similar share on impulse, according to several studies. Creating compelling and consistent brand experiences
in the store is extremely challenging for manufacturers, as every retail store is different, with varying levels of
control exercised by the retailer.

Thus there is an increasing focus on “shopper marketing” in its many definitions – all of them referring to
sophisticated methods of influencing people in their roles as conscious consumers of products and brand
messages. Shopper marketing acknowledges that many traditional types of “broadcast” marketing can’t be
counted on today to deliver customary results. Therefore, greater emphasis is being placed on viewing the store
as a marketing medium.

Accordingly, manufacturers and retailers are working hard to modify the shopper’s in-store experience.
No longer able to count on space for traditional POP materials, brands are creating more eye-catching, larger
and more interactive displays. But this depends on a superior relationship with retailers, who allocate such
space judiciously.

Another area of focus for manufacturers and retailers is trip-based merchandising, considering the types of trips
people make to the store – from short jaunts to longer pantry-stocking trips, to special-occasion purchases or
impulse trips. This is spurring the migration of products to new areas of the store, with cross-merchandising
efforts such as combining food products to suggest a dinner, or combining certain wines with certain foods or
certain cosmetics with certain age-group products, as examples in the grocery context.

Category management is still another area of focus, with manufacturers and retailers working to create aisles
that cater to specific categories, such as organic, ethnic or breakfast-specific sections.

In-store marketing is a brave new world. Creating compelling and consistent brand experiences in every
one of the instances described here requires strategy, creative and execution on local, regional, national
and global levels.

On the Shelf

The shelf is ground zero for product marketing today.

It is where shoppers are most engaged with a product and most inclined to buy. That’s why retailers and
manufacturers are making enormous efforts to control this brand point.

Shelf space is becoming even more crowded and competitive, as new brands fight for space, iconic brands
re-invent themselves to attract attention and house brands become as sophisticated and popular as traditional
national brands – and even become national brands themselves, distributed outside of their “home” chain.
For all players, design and packaging are playing a key role, primarily to offer compelling, emotionally resonant
brand experiences but also to comply with widely varied labeling requirements for contents and nutritional facts.

On the shelf is where the revolution is happening. Packaging changes at record speed today, with all
manufacturers tweaking designs on a regular basis, and iconic packages undergoing radical aesthetic
and ergonomic changes.

Brand Point Management 12

From a packaging standpoint, a product’s route to the shelf is long and complex – not surprising, given the
importance of the on-the-shelf brand point. It includes package ideation, creative structural design (often using
3D visualization), photography/retouching/creative imaging, the adaptation of graphics for different cultures,
digital asset management and print management.

And the on-the-shelf brand point doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The power of a great package is increased when
previous brand point experiences – At Home, On the Go and At the Store – are consistent with the message of the
package itself. This is a crucial synergy.

Sustainability and Brand Point Management

Schawk’s Seven Pledges
for Sustainability
Sustainability is more than a buzzword today: it is a rapidly evolving business
practice that can positively impact manufacturers’ and retailers’ bottom lines Schawk’s sustainability efforts
while conferring significant environmental benefits. go beyond direct reductions in
resource use, to the streamlining
Wal-Mart has supported this movement by pledging to reduce overall packaging by five percent over the next five of workflows and the production
years. It is putting pressure on its suppliers by developing a packaging “scorecard” that evaluates and rates its of goods and services that exceed
suppliers and is available to its buyers as they make purchasing decisions. And this, in turn, is putting pressure regulatory standards. Schawk’s
on its competitors to match the efficiencies that will result and the consumer goodwill it will generate. seven pledges for sustainability
cover the full range of its – and
Because every one of the four brand point environments described in this document involves packaging
its clients’ – business practices:
and/or other manufactured materials, sustainability is a critical feature of brand point management going
forward. It encompasses: • Use clean production
technologies
» Environmentally friendly technologies and production practices
» Goods and services in line with regulatory and proprietary environmental aims • Provide goods/services that
enable clients to meet and
» Relationships with partners throughout the supply chain to share ideas and leverage knowledge,
exceed regulatory initiatives
and an in-house philosophy that fosters the same
» Workflow streamlining • Build/develop idea exchange
with clients, suppliers,
» Promoting healthy environments in one’s own community and those of supply-chain partners
products and service providers
Sustainability initiatives fit hand-in-glove with the powerful technological momentum now driving the printing
• Help clients streamline brand
and packaging industries. Brand point management initiatives must address these innovations at all points in
development workflows through
the development process and across a wide geographical footprint.
technology, materials and
source reduction

• Innovate new services

and solutions that drive
environmentally friendly brand
development practices moving
forward

• Nurture a climate of innovation

internally

• Create healthy environments in

the communities in which we
live and work

Brand Point Management 13

The Future of Brand Point Management
It's instructive and exciting to view tomorrow’s shopper marketplace as one in which yesterday’s distinctions
continue to be blurred. In past generations, a wide variety of retailers provided shelf space and brands provided
goods for sale and the marketing behind them. Vendors provided discrete services, ranging from strategic to
executional, and the brand took charge in coordinating these. The marketing of goods evolved from a local and
regional task to a national one, and vendors for packaging were sourced from relatively close to where the goods
were created, while vendors for marketing materials were sourced close to where the goods were sold.

All of these strict delineations have broken down and continue to be blurred today. Retailers – who are
consolidating in number – have taken the upper hand in the store. And in making decisions about in-store
marketing – and even in marketing their own brands – they have taken much turf from the brands. Brands
are responding with a push for new items and in revamps of existing items and packaging. In an era of
globalization, the traditional array of discrete vendors “close to home” is being replaced by a worldwide vendor
network to maximize speed to market, sourcing efficiencies and the bottom line. And vendors are striving to be
more things to more people, branching beyond their previous areas of expertise – both to maximize their own
usefulness and to respond to global forces that are commoditizing some executional functions while putting
greater emphasis on strategic and creative.

And all of this is being played out in a world of ever-shifting media, where wireless technology is making it
possible to serve up marketing images wherever a consumer might be, where design, premedia and printing
services that were once done manually and visually are now done online and automatically. It’s a world in which
a stunning percentage of product images are computer-generated – not simply photographs of real, tangible
objects – and where those images must be printed on myriad high-tech and eco-friendly substrates. And it’s a
world where printing technologies have become so powerful that every public surface is potentially a palette for
brand messages.

As these distinctions continue to blur, brands and retailers must take firmer control of all lifecycle phases of
the products they sell. They must see and coordinate the synergies of strategy, creative and execution across
all shopper environments, whether they handle this in-house, hire many discrete vendors or contract for
synthesized services from one or a few. To take this control, they – and their vendors – must practice brand point
management. In a shifting, changing world, the importance of the brand point – that powerful moment when all
forces converge and a shopper interacts with a brand – is the one constant.

Brand Point Management 14

Schawk: Positioned to Lead
Historical perspective helps when it comes to understanding the changes of today and tomorrow. Schawk
has seen them coming. Schawk’s historical roots stretch back more than 50 years into the execution of brand
marketing – into a very wide range of graphics and premedia services. But through intelligent growth and by
watching clients’ needs closely, Schawk has developed skills and services that guide the life of a brand from the
very concept of a new product to the printing of its packaging and promotional marketing materials, worldwide.

Schawk has forged deep relationships worldwide with manufacturers and retailers alike, and is in the special
position of being able to encourage collaboration among them.

With thousands of employees working on four continents, Schawk can prepare brands and retailers for
engagement with consumers at countless brand points around the globe – from consulting and strategic
planning, through the conception and design of every kind of printed brand material, to oversight of all premedia
processes and enterprise services that mesh with your strategy – and with all of our services – to ensure
compelling, consistent brand execution worldwide. There are international companies with offices worldwide, and
there are global companies, whose offices collaborate in ways that truly leverage that footprint.

Schawk’s history, people, skills and relationships are strongly oriented around brand point management in all
of its forms and nuances. In a marketplace where brand point management holds the key to compelling and
consistent brand experiences – and to bottom-line success – Schawk is positioned to lead.

Brand Point Management 15

Schawk, Inc., (NYSE: SGK), is a leading provider of brand point
management services, enabling companies of all sizes to connect their
brands with consumers to create deeper brand affinity. With a global
footprint of more than 60 offices, Schawk helps companies create
compelling and consistent brand experiences by providing integrated
strategic, creative and executional services across brand touchpoints.
Founded in 1953, Schawk is trusted by many of the world’s leading
organizations to help them achieve global brand consistency. For more
information about Schawk, visit http://www.schawk.com.

© 2008 Schawk, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the copyright
holder. SCHAWK is a registered trademark of Schawk, Inc.