When Syndigo verifies package content, we have two goals at the top of the list:
- Accurately represent the information on the package
- Conform to retailer’s style and format requirements
For most information, those two goals work in harmony, but sometimes, there is a conflict between what the package says and what retailers need. When that happens, we use these guidelines:
- Syndigo does not capture or send any special characters: In general, that means we don’t capture or send non-ASCII characters. Common examples are registered trademark or copyright symbols, but also some common symbols like daggers that may be used to indicate footnotes with additional information on nutrition panels or in ingredient lists. Some retailers’ systems do not render these characters correctly (still very common in web-based systems), and some retailers do not accept these characters for readability’s sake.
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Asterisks and other keyboard characters. In the past, many data systems did not properly handle several standard keyboard characters, but they are more commonly handled today. Beginning July 1, 2024, Syndigo captures asterisks exactly as they appear on package. Beginning Sept. 1, 2024, we capture # @ | exactly as they appear on package.
We captured “” as they appear on package from 9/1/2024-8/31/2025, but due to several customer requests, we have reverted to our previous policy to remove “” when present in package text, replacing with “in.” if they were used to indicate inches.
- Syndigo follows AP Style in questions of formatting: One common scenario covered by this rule: Capitalization of brand names. We capitalize the first letter of a brand name, except for cases like iPhone where the first letter is intentionally lowercase. We do not capitalize the entire word of a brand name unless it is an acronym. Some brands do prefer to use all caps for brand names in both product titles and marketing copy, but retailers commonly do not allow this practice, since it treats some brands differently. In addition, words in all caps are harder to read, and retailers are looking for both standardization and ease of use for the consumer.
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Brand name requests: Occasionally a brand will ask Syndigo to change the way the brand is identified in data, compared to how it is presented on the package. When retailers receive verified data from Syndigo, their expectation is that the data is an accurate representation of the data on the package. We follow these guidelines as a result:
- Syndigo defines the brand name as the major text identifier of the brand on the package, and we typically see that US-manufactured products will have a trademark symbol at the end of the brand name.
- Syndigo does not add health claims or descriptions that fall outside the trademark into the Brand Name field. If these are prominent parts of the product description on the front of the package, they may be appropriate in the Variety or Flavor field.
- Syndigo does not shorten the brand name from the trademarked word/phrase on the package.
- When a brand name changes slightly, the brand may request a cleanup of older products in the Syndigo system. This work requires scripting and will be prioritized for our support team against other similar requests. Recent examples include a brand that includes the phrase “& Co.” adding the period where it had not been used before.
Brands are free to follow their own internal style guidelines for content that they create in the Products tab.
