Recent product introductions highlight several tactics that elevate the impact of the label.
The marketing power of the label is expanding into roles that go beyond merely identifying a product. And marketers who clearly understand their objectives can join the evolution toward more sophisticated labels and achieve their goals more effectively.
New ways of thinking about the shelf impact of the label are reflected in three trends that are emerging on retail shelves today.
• Marketers are finding new and relevant ways to make the package and the Internet team players in engaging consumers in the experience of their brand.
• Attention is beginning to focus on areas of the package, such as the cap, as additional billboard space to speak to consumers and bring a call to action in promotional efforts. Secondary labels on caps—a highly visible component of the package that marketers don’t use often enough—can influence purchases by engaging consumers to participate in events that matter to them.
• Counterfeiting is a very real concern for product brand owners, and they’re responding with labels that pull double duty. These labels let consumers see the product or the package surface when it has special effects such as a metallic-like finish and also provide tamper evidence.
The following examples describe how these and other labeling tactics are executed on specific packages.
1. Highlighting innovative shape
Kids want to drink their favorite beverage out of bottles that are different from what appeals to mom and dad. And they want fun and adventure. Clear Beverage Corp. is one beverage marketer signaling this thinking with its Kid Fuel naturally flavored water. The package’s colorful full-body shrink-sleeve label highlights a distinctive bottle shape resembling a sports bottle and appeals to kids ages 4 to 10.
Rounded shoulders and a pinched waist make the custom PETE bottle easy for small hands to grip. Another dimension of convenience is the flip-top lid. These features enable the bottle to double as a squirt gun after the beverage has been consumed and the bottle is filled with water.
PET label designs for each flavor variety in the line were created by Brand Engine and satisfy two marketing objectives, says Tony Rago, Clear Beverage CEO. First, they entertain kids. Color animated graphics introduce them to Professor Smart, who sends Nikki, Skye, T.J., and Shinichi on various adventures and leads kids on an educational journey that continues at www.kidfuel.com.
Labels are gravure-printed in four process colors by SleeveCo. The back of each label also receives two passes of white, except for a die-cut window. That area contains the answer to a quiz question from Professor Smart. Kids can view the answer after consuming the beverage and refilling the bottle with water, which magnifies the quiz answer to make it legible. This approach to encourage product consumption often is used in kids’ cereal packaging.
The label also satisfies a second objective by winning parents’ trust in the brand. The label is printed with messages such as “Key Nutrients for Growing Bodies” to convey Kid Fuel’s natural health benefits.
2. Sizzling as bacon’s main ‘touchpoint’
Marketers of premium products often give short shrift to the potential of a label’s emotional cues. And when a package’s visual appeal doesn’t reflect the quality of the product, brand equity erodes.
Tyson Foods, working with Interbrand, overcame this challenge by conducting consumer research and repositioning its Wright Brand thick-cut bacon as “More of what you love about bacon.” The label, from York Label, features a gold-outlined shield/crest area containing red, white, and gold elements on a blue background. The label leaves ample room for viewing the meat through the clear, flexible brick pack.
The label is the brand’s main “touchpoint” in elevating consumer perceptions of the product and improving product visibility on shelf. In eye-tracking testing with the new design, consumers foremost noticed the brand name—91% of the time. In quantitative research, the design was noted within 4 seconds by 26% of consumers—a significant improvement from the previous design.
New design elements make the brand visually relevant to consumers and move Wright Brand beyond “word-of-mouth” packaging. Those benefits satisfy Tyson’s objectives of encouraging consumer trial and establishing the brand nationally.
“Wright Brand’s new brand identity and packaging design significantly increase our ‘findability’ on shelf. It also had the highest ratings for purchase intent,” says Harold Heinze, Wright Brand Senior Director of Marketing.
3. Encouraging participation
For more than 70 years the Campbell Soup Co. has cultivated seeds that American farmers use to grow tomatoes for its soup. This year, Campbell’s has modified the iconic label on its tomato soup cans to announce to consumers a special program and remind them of the source and quality of the ingredients in its condensed soups.
Working with Anthem Worldwide, a Schawk Strategic Design Company, Campbell produced 7.5 million special-edition labels as part of its “Help Grow Your Soup” campaign. By going to www.HelpGrowYourSoup.com and entering the code on any can of condensed soup they purchase, consumers received a free pack of Campbell’s proprietary tomato seeds. With each request for seeds, Campbell’s also donated 100 seeds to plant gardens in urban communities and schools across the nation—all in collaboration with the National FFA Organization, a Campbell’s-sponsored group. Campbell donated 22.5 million seeds.
“We work with numerous local farmers, as well as organizations that support American agriculture, and we want to learn what those relationships mean for the quality of our soups,” explains Darralyn Rieth, Campbell’s Director of Global Design.
The main challenge, says Andrew Vollo, Anthem’s Director of Client Services (New Jersey), was for the labels to look distinctive on shelf but also to visually resemble Campbell’s classic soup labels. A key addition on the promotional labels is the photo of a plump, juicy tomato.
Next to the product variety appears a small image of a tomato growing on a vine, accompanied by the words “Free Seeds. See back for details.”
Campbell gives these special elements visual pop, Rieth says, by using a whiter paper stock with a glossier finish. A six-color stochastic process using UV inks and coatings enhances fine image details such as water droplets on the tomato. The paper labels are supplied and printed by Hammer Packaging .
4. Pulling double duty
Brand marketers face tougher challenges to provide visual appeal on their products while also protecting against theft and counterfeiting. Nutrex Research, a sports nutrition company, found an inventive use for labels to serve both purposes for its Pro-Gram Performance Super Protein powdered formula. The product’s shrink-sleeve label, from Printpack, provides the marketing muscle Nutrex needs and also protects the product from tampering.
The glossy-film PVC labels are gravure-printed in seven colors and cover a proprietary silver HDPE bottle. Clear sections of the label allow the silver bottle to show through and provide an eye-catching, metallic look.
From a product-protection perspective, the label’s tamper-evident band closes over the top of the cap. A horizontal perforation allows the band to be removed while the label remains on the container, and provides the tamper evidence.
“Security is critical to the product,” says Seth Reese, Nutrex Operations Manager. “The inclusion of the tamper-evident band as part of the sleeve made this the perfect component for Nutrex.”
5. Signaling cause marketing
What can happen if you think of a package as a vehicle to help distressed people?
That’s what Procter & Gamble is doing to aid people affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav and other disasters. It has created promotional labels for specially marked bottles of its Tide 2X Ultra laundry detergent to publicize its Loads of Hope program.
Landor Associates led the creative expression of the program on pack. On Tide HDPE bottles, the design includes front and back adhesive labels describing the program and shows photos of disaster victims.
A clear shrink-sleeve label decorates the special yellow cap that helps to signal the Loads of Hope bottles. The cap color provides shelf pop that makes call-to-action text prominent in the package’s visual hierarchy with the words “You can help.” The on-cap label directs consumers to www.tideloadsofhope.com, where they can enter the product code from their bottle to have 10 cents of the purchase price donated to P&G’s relief effort that provides clean clothes for disaster victims. The Web site also explains other ways consumers can support the relief effort.
-By Jim George
The author, Jim George, is the Editor-in-Chief of Shelf Impact!
