Hoogvliet is a supermarket chain with 69 stores in North Holland, South Holland, Utrecht and Gelderland. The distribution and service center and the central butchery are located in Alphen aan den Rijn. In the Hoogvliet bakery in Bleiswijk, fresh, traditional bread is baked several times a day for all branches. The organization has more than 6,000 employees.
Every week, Hoogvliet Supermarkets distributes a door-to-door brochure containing all the weekly offers. Various teams are involved in the preparation and planning of the weekly campaigns: marketing, category managers, photographers and designers. All disciplines regularly consult with each other, whereby new insights are constantly created. Changes to the layout are therefore often necessary. Because Hoogvliet has outsourced the creative process to an external agency, a well-oiled process and seamless collaboration are indispensable.
With that goal in mind, Hoogvliet joined forces with Qonqord. The goal: to largely automate the folder layout process. The software platform: Publication Organizer from Qonqord consisting of digital asset management , workflow management and automatic layout with Adobe InDesign automation . What does the new working method look like and what has it achieved?
Hoogvliet manages the product texts for the website and for all offline communication in a promotion system. An Excel file is drawn from this weekly. This contains all product descriptions, prices and image references for the weekly campaigns, including the correct positioning on the pages. The folder coordinator uploads this file to the platform. The system then generates an Adobe InDesign layout of the folder fully automatically. This is shared internally with those involved, who can make changes to the familiar Excel file.
This process is repeated three times, without the involvement of a designer. After that, a final version is automatically created in Adobe InDesign, in which specific wishes regarding the layout can be included as annotations via the supporting workflow.
When the file is ready, the advertising agency will receive a notification via the workflow management module. It’s time for them to further shape the Adobe InDesign file to give the folder the right look. The agency shares the files via the same workflow, so that Hoogvliet can view them in the web browser and (if necessary) provide annotations about changes. The digital shelf and workflow allow anyone to view and approve the status of the pages. The process is repeated until Hoogvliet is completely satisfied.
In addition, Publication Organizer offers a complete image bank or Digital Asset Management module. All images for the folders, the POS material and the website are managed here. The DAM module provides automatic delivery of images in the correct format for all channels.
The process has progressed considerably with Publication Organiser . Hoogvliet and the advertising agency work together seamlessly on the platform. With the push of a button, the many people involved can generate folder pages themselves to view them online and make changes. They can also request and approve changes to the layout.
Hoogvliet now has full control over the folder, which means it can monitor the quality and consistency much better. The degree of flexibility has also been increased enormously, because the implementation of (last minute) corrections takes place entirely internally.
In the words of the supermarket chain:
Anneke van Kempen – Marketing Manager at Hoogvliet Supermarkets
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