Which pack shot is the right one? Managing product images across retailers and channels

The relaunch nobody told the flyer about

In March, Anna's brand relaunches its best-selling shower gel with a new bottle. Same name, new shape, new EAN. The packaging team sends the new pack shots to the marketing shared drive, in a folder called "FINAL_new_v3".

In April, a supermarket flyer goes to print with the old bottle. The agency had taken the image from the previous adaptation: it was the one in the last email. In May, an online pharmacy banner shows a size that was delisted in January, because that channel never sold the new one anyway.

The retailer's category manager calls. Customers are looking for a bottle that isn't on the shelf.

The business problem

Trade marketers manage hundreds of SKUs across grocery, pharmacy and online. Each channel stocks a different subset, and packaging changes several times a year. When the pack shot isn't tied to the EAN and to the channel where it's sold, every adaptation becomes a guess.

The cost: reprints, retailer complaints, wasted media space, and a brand that looks careless just when it's spending to look its best.

How does RMM keep pack shots correct?

• One catalogue, keyed by EAN. Every product has one current pack shot, its category, its line and the channels it's sold in (grocery, pharmacy, online). Imported from Excel in minutes.
• Only the SKUs that fit the channel. When you brief a pharmacy touchpoint, RMM offers only products sold in pharmacy. A delisted SKU never appears.
• Pack shots travel with the brief. The agency downloads the exact images, named by EAN, together with the spec and the open files.
• Old files are blocked from reuse. Replace a pack shot and RMM marks every file built on the old one as out of date, so it can't be carried into a new job by mistake.