An Introduction to Product Labeling
By Steve Smith, President - Lightning Labels Inc.
Copyright 2006 - Lightning Labels
Inc.
Labeling my
Products – where do I start?
Okay, I have an idea for a new product – what next?
What about packaging?
I have the product, I have containers – what’s next?
How big should the
labels be?
What about label design?
How do
I know what the colors will print like?
What
material should my labels be made of?
Now I
have my artwork designed – what next?
Should I use a flexo or digital printer for my labels?
If you'd like
to download a printable version of this article,
click here.
You will need the Adobe Acrobat
Reader in order to view the PDF file - if you don't already have the
Adobe Reader it
can be downloaded for free from this link...
Labeling my
Products – Where do I Start?
The process of bringing new
products to market is a very complicated one and can be quite
confusing to the uninitiated. The purpose of this discussion
document is to introduce you to the various steps involved in
this process – particularly in relation to the labeling part of
the equation. After all, attractive labels that reflect the
image you wish to portray about your company (and its products)
are a very important factor in their ultimate acceptance in the
marketplace. How many times have you bought products because one
“looked better” than its neighbors? – this is a very common (and
very human) approach to purchasing, so professional labels can
make or break a product.
Okay, I have an
idea for a new product – what next?
The answer depends on what the
product is. If you want to produce bath-and-body products
(shampoos, creams, scrubs etc) the first step is probably to
formulate and test them – this is often done in the “kitchen
sink” by start-up entrepreneurs, but it is also frequently
performed in consultation with professional formulators. These
are companies who specialize in mixing and packaging the
products to your specification, and they bring lots of
experience and knowledge to the table – but we also have many
customers who have done it the “hard way” and sourced all the
components themselves (for example in the food and condiments
market, where family recipes are often jealously guarded). Which
direction you should take depends on how complex the products
are, how confident you are about the process, and how much time
(and money) you have to get the product to the marketing stage.
It’s also important to
recognize that many products have governmental regulations that
need to be observed – particularly anything related to the
“health and/or wellbeing” of customers – so consider these
carefully before going too far, and you may find that a
professional formulator can offer valuable guidance in this
area.
Top of page
What about Packaging?
Before labeling can be
realistically considered, you need to decide what your products
will be contained in – whether it be bottles, jars, packets,
tubes, pump dispensers etc. There is an enormous variety of
options available to you – but you need to consider how the
packaging will affect the customer’s “ease of use” and whether
there are any special requirements associated with your
particular products. For example, some formulations can
deteriorate quickly unless they are kept out of direct light –
in which case clear containers would not be a good choice.
Similarly, many food products are kept under refrigeration for
lengthy periods – which may also affect the choice of container.
These packaging decisions can have long-term implications for
your products, so consider them carefully – you may also be
required to purchase the containers in bulk, so it makes sense
to make the right choice before getting in too deeply.
I
have the product, I have containers – what’s next?
Now we get into labeling –
which is after all the main purpose of this document, and we
will therefore go into it in more detail. When it comes to
labeling, it’s important to remember that the label is the
“face” of your product – and it makes no sense to take shortcuts
in this crucial step. What your product looks like will
undoubtedly affect its marketability – so take your time and
carefully consider the image you want to portray.
How big should the
labels be?
Only you can decide the answer
to that question. Take each container and try to visualize the
finished product – indeed, it’s useful to hand-cut some blanks
from ordinary paper and experiment with various sizes before
deciding what looks good to you. Some useful tips to consider….
1. Depending on the size and
shape of the container, you may need more than one label – many
products have a “marketing label” on the front (with nice images
and/or marketing material) and a “back label” that contains all
the ingredients or other supporting data like regulatory
information. Alternatively, it’s often possible to combine those
two styles into a single design – it’s completely up to you.
Also consult your label printer to see which approach is more
cost-effective – while cost might not ultimately be the deciding
factor, you should at least know the impact your decision will
have on the overall cost-to-market.
• Tip – if you do decide to go
with two labels, it’s usually more cost-effective to keep them
the same size if you can (particularly if you’re using a Digital
print-shop, which is discussed later in this document). By using
the same size and shape, it’s often possible to “gang” multiple
designs into a single print-run, thereby achieving substantial
cost savings.
• Another factor in the “label
size” decision is whether your label printer already has a
cutting “die” of that particular size. A die is a metal device
that cuts the labels after printing (similar to a cookie-cutter
in concept) – if your label printer needs to get a special die
made to cater to your need, that can add some hundreds of
dollars to the overall cost. Hence, you may decide to accept a
slightly different size if it will still work with your
packaging and label design. Consult your label printer for sizes
already in stock.
• Tip – don’t get too far into
the design phase until you have chosen the label size(s). While
designers can re-size artwork if necessary, this frequently
incurs extra time and cost – and may even affect the layout to
such an extent that the design needs to be started again.
2. The shape of the label is
also important to consider. While most label printers have an
array of common shapes and sizes (circles, rectangles, ovals
etc), your product or container may benefit from a unique shape.
For instance, a regular rectangular label may not work on a
“tapered” container – so once again experiment with hand-cut
blanks to achieve the fit you require. If your label printer
doesn’t have a die already made to that specific size/shape, you
should ask for a quote to have the die made and factor that cost
into your decision whether or not to pursue that approach. Keep
in mind that die costs vary widely depending on the cutting
equipment being used by the printer – so don’t assume that all
printers will quote the same die costs.
Top of page
What about label design?
Now we’re getting to the “fun”
part – but it can also be fraught with frustration. Depending on
your own technical skills, you may choose to do the design
yourself – but unless you have excellent familiarity with
professional design tools (e.g. Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop),
do not assume that the label printer can work with what you
spent countless hours creating. Commercial printers have
specific needs in order to produce quality products, so consult
your printer BEFORE starting the design – otherwise you may be
forced to start again. Most printers will have a page on their
website devoted to “Artwork Specs” or something similar – this
is where they explain all sorts of technical data that will make
the job run more smoothly from start to finish, so it’s always
wise to invest the time to understand the requirements and
follow the instructions.
Given that most customers don’t
have the professional design tools and skills required to take
the “DIY” approach, you can either use an experienced graphic
designer or you may find that your printer has a design staff
available to you – just ask. By all means shop around and ask
friends and associates whether they know somebody they can
recommend – but be cautious about going too far into the design
before checking that your printer’s needs are being properly
addressed. If you do use “Bob’s sister’s nephew in high school
who’s a computer whiz”, you should feel free to pass an initial
draft piece of artwork to your printer and ask them to check the
approach. It makes much more sense to do this up front than have
your designer produce a whole range of label designs only to be
told the printer can’t work with the files. If your printer
doesn’t want to check the artwork (or wants to charge for the
privilege), find another printer. It makes good business sense
for the printer to help in this process up front, rather than
having to deal with unusable artwork when it comes to print
time. Having said that, don’t expect your printer to act as an
unpaid design service – checking an initial approach is one
thing, but adjusting and “fixing” an endless supply of
badly-engineered artwork files is certain to strain the
relationship.
So, let’s assume you now have a
designer to work with. It’s important to remember that the
design phase is where your personality and vision can often
clash with reality and/or a designer’s personal preferences. We
can’t offer any “silver bullet” to this challenge – it’s a
matter of experimentation and seeing whether the relationship
“gels”. If you do use a professional designer, also keep in mind
that they may know all sorts of things about what actually
“works” in reality (as opposed to being a “neat idea”), and you
may need to accept that some of your vision is impractical. As
stated earlier, this phase can be both lots of fun AND/OR
enormously frustrating – and it’s unfortunately not uncommon to
have some false-starts before getting into a workable groove.
Have patience – rushing the design is an absolute guarantee of
dissatisfaction with the end result.
Top of page
How do I
know what the colors will print like?
Ouch! – this is an area that is
worthy of a 500-page novel all on its own, but we’ll try to
paraphrase it here. The first thing that many people don’t
understand is that computer screens, desktop printers and
commercial printing presses use very different technologies to
produce colors. A computer monitor uses an approach known as
“RGB” (which stands for Red/Green/Blue) and the colors you see
on the screen are all made up of various proportions of those
three primary colors.
Desktop printers (like the one
probably connected to your computer) have their own variations –
but most work with a system called “CMYK” (which loosely
translates to Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black) – yes, the K actually
means Black. What this means is that the colors you print are
made up of various proportions of those four colors – NOT the
same 3 colors your monitor uses to represent the same values.
Sound confusing? – welcome to the world of challenges faced by
all commercial printers. To compound this problem even further,
there are often (very often in fact) substantial differences
between monitors and printers (even of the same make and model).
It’s quite likely that if you displayed the same file on 10
identical monitors, you would see some variations – and the same
applies to 10 printers of the same model. In essence, it’s
vitally important to understand that what you see at home (or
even at your designer’s office) is NO guarantee of what will
come off the printing press.
What’s more (and just when you
thought this was already difficult enough), printing presses
also use various approaches to producing colors. The traditional
large mechanical presses that you’ve probably seen in the movies
(commonly known as “flexographic” presses or “flexo” for short)
use pre-mixed inks and “plates” to apply the various layers of
ink to the material. Conversely, there is a growing family of
newer “digital” presses being used that adopt the CMYK approach
described above (known as “4-color process” in the printing
industry) – each color is made up automatically from the 4 prime
colors as it’s printed. Accordingly, there can be substantial
disparity between a “flat color” and its 4-color process
equivalent. If you’ve heard of Pantone (or PMS) colors, you may
think that a single PMS color will always reproduce the same
way, but in fact each PMS color actually has two versions – the
flat (single ink) version and its 4-color (mixed) cousin. Often,
the two versions are very close to identical, but some flat
colors cannot be closely matched using the 4-color process and
the differences are quite noticeable.
So, now that we recognize that
color-matching is a nightmare waiting to happen, the smart
approach is to see what the press is actually going to print
before going into production – then you at least have the option
to make adjustments in the artwork to achieve the look you’re
seeking. Ask your label printer for color proofs – depending on
the technology they use, these may come at an additional cost
but some printers willingly provide them free of charge.
Companies with digital presses are far more likely to be
accommodating here, as they print direct from the artwork rather
than having to make plates.
The key point of this section
is that if specific color rendition is an important part of your
need, you are strongly advised to consult your label printer for
options that will allow you to see the result before going into
full-scale production. Print shops typically require you to
“sign off” on proofs to limit their liability and exposure –
which will come as no comfort to you if the resulting production
run has different colors than expected. Always ask to see what
the press will produce first.
Top of page
What
material should my labels be made of?
Again, this decision is an
important one that should be made early in the design process.
Label printers typically have a range of materials that will
satisfy most needs, but some work better than others depending
on the circumstances. For example, labels for bath and body
products should be printed on polypropylene (or equivalent)
material that will withstand constant exposure to moisture and
oils – whereas labels printed on paper will not survive well in
the shower or after repeated use. In addition, many label
printers “over-laminate” the labels with a very thin layer of
clear film, thereby protecting the inks and preventing scratches
or other damage due to handling.
The reason it’s important to
consider the material early is that the design can often be
affected by that decision. For instance, labels intended to be
printed on clear (see through) materials may need a different
design approach – particularly if the container or the contents
have strong colors in them. To demonstrate this, try to
visualize a clear label with yellow design elements. If you were
to apply that label to a blue bottle, the yellow ink would
suddenly assume a green color (when the blue background shows
through the yellow ink). Clear labels can definitely provide a
wonderful “no label” look in the right circumstances, but care
should be taken to ensure that there are no color conflicts that
will change the visual result.
Now I have
my artwork designed – what next?
This is where the label printer
normally comes into the equation. Very often, it’s the first
time they even know there’s a job on the table. With your
artwork in hand, contact your chosen printer and discuss how to
proceed with them. Most often, that will start with getting
quotes for the various sizes you’ve designed – so you need to
have some quantities in mind for the printer to quote upon. As
with most printing, the unit price (price per label) comes down
as the volume goes up – so feel free to have a range of
quantities that the printer can quote for. That way, you get to
see the impact of a slightly larger order – it’s not uncommon
for twice the quantity to only cost a few dollars more.
Let’s make a big assumption for
the purposes of demonstrating pricing options. If you’re reading
this document and are still following along, then we’ll assume
you’re somewhat new to the label-printing business. In that
case, it’s reasonable to assume that you’re not looking to print
tens of thousands of labels on the first run. Accordingly, you
now have one of the BIG choices to make – and that is the
selection of a printer…..
Should I use a Flexo or Digital printer for my labels?
As explained briefly earlier,
flexo printers use the large mechanical presses (and plates)
that many people are familiar with. Each color requires its own
“plate” to be made to impart that particular color in all the
right spots – and these plates cost money. Hence, if you have a
single label design with (say) four colors, the printer will
need to make 4 plates before they can start printing. Plate
charges vary widely, but an average market cost would be between
$30 and $40 per plate (or $120 - $160 for the 4-plate set).
To properly justify this
expense, it makes sense that you’d need to print a lot of labels
AND be satisfied that nothing in the design will change in the
short term (as you’d need to get new plates made in that case).
Digital printing, on the other
hand, does not use plates – the artwork is printed directly on
the press. Setup time is usually much less than for flexo
presses – but digital presses are by nature much slower at doing
the actual printing. So it becomes a trade-off – if the volume
is large enough, flexo is the way to go, but if the volume is
relatively small then digital wins hands-down. While it’s
extremely difficult to generalize, industry experience would
seem to indicate that flexo printing starts to become more
cost-effective once the quantity exceeds 10,000 labels (of a
single design). This will vary somewhat according to size and
other factors, but it’s a reasonable rule of thumb that you can
easily test by getting quotes from both kinds of printers –
flexo and digital.
The other factor to consider is
whether you have a single label design or multiple designs.
Because there are no plates involved, digital printers can
“gang” (or combine) many pieces of artwork into a single “run” –
so long as the designs are all the same size and on the same
material. So if you have a line of similar products – say body
lotions for instance – where you have 10 different recipes,
scents, flavors or whatever you might call them, you can combine
those orders into a single job with a digital printer – thereby
avoiding substantial plate costs (10 complete sets in this case)
AND getting the price breaks associated with running a single
job for the TOTAL quantity of all 10 designs.
In short, flexo and digital
printers each have their “sweet spots” – flexo is an excellent
solution for large-volume runs per design, whereas digital
provides the best answer for customers with multiple variations
of similar designs and/or smaller volumes. If in doubt, get
quotes both ways and form your own conclusions.
