The label could make or break the sale in categories such as wine, where many shoppers are novice buyers. Here’s a fun exercise to strengthen the power of your label and grab them.

One author's observations suggest this possibility. Consumers may be turned off by unappealing graphics and question brew quality when certain information is absent.

If you’re a brand manager who hasn’t considered these labels lately, they’re doing wonders for solving complexity and quickly turning out promotional packaging.

The FDA is cracking down on labels that deceive consumers. But at a time when money-strapped consumers are demanding honesty in their brands, doesn’t it make good sense for CPG companies to be policing themselves?

When you think of the label's potential broadly, it can wield marketing muscle as a sophisticated and strategic weapon that offers brand managers another way to justify investments in packaging to senior management as a core element of product-marketing efforts. Why? The label's value advances beyond its traditional role as a decorative add-on.

By instituting a liquid-nitrogen injection packaging process, AriZona Beverage Co. has extended the shelf life of its products by 12 to 18 weeks. That change enables the company's inventive promotional products to stay on the shelf longer than normal.

Food marketers in more categories are looking for ways to intensify their package's graphics to heighten visibility.

Packaging plays a key role in authenticating a brand to win over consumer trust.

Shape and functional convenience are two key benefits that give Dead Down Wind Scent Prevent Field Spray shelf distinction and an edge at the point of use.

Digital printing allows for customized packaging, giving marketers the visual impact they need for "in-season" promotional packaging to help build incremental product sales.

The leading edge of healthcare product marketing is beginning to tap the power of the package as a marketing vehicle.

ConAgra needed a package offering both purchase appeal and user convenience for its Ro*Tel Ready to Eat Queso Dip. It found the answer in a custom-molded polypropylene cup with a shrink label.

White-coated aluminum cans provide the canvas for labels with glitzy graffiti graphics that introduce AriZona Beverages' All City NRG green-tea-based, pomegranate-juice-flavored energy drinks.

When LypSyl, a 100-year-old Swedish lip-balm brand, debuted in the U.S., Lornamead Inc. tweaked product formulations and rolled out enticing and functional packaging.

Packages that intuitively inform consumers about the products they contain have an edge in boosting brand sales. A key tactic these packages share is the ability to focus on a single message.

Taste appeal is everything for Galliker Dairy Co.'s Galliker's White Tea with Blueberry iced tea brand. Galliker delivers this "curb appeal" with full-body PVC shrink-sleeve labels from Seal-It Inc., a division of Printpack Inc.

The 10-color rotogravure-printed labels feature artwork of an Asian tea-set vignette on a background of pagodas and blueberry graphics.

The print graphics include the Galliker's name in prominent red color. Galliker markets the tea in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia.

Hormel Foods Corp. brings the colored pull-tab to the chili aisle with several varieties of chili in full-panel, steel easy-opening 15-oz cans. The red tabs provide a visual difference on store shelves.

"We felt that the red tab really brought attention to the can end," explains Marty Wolesky, Hormel Product Manager. "We stated the clear objective of being ready for chili season, and we worked closely with Silgan Containers to ensure a smooth and timely conversion with our production facilities."

Silgan provides the ends, tabs, and cans.

The redesigned paper label for the new chili can retains the familiar Hormel red background. The label emphasizes the chili's healthful benefits in ribbon colors that coordinate with each product variety. Suggested retail price is $1.49 to $2.49.

Speed-to-market is an essential advantage for any marketer of health care products. Sageant LLC received new labels in less than two weeks that reflect well on its brand of health supplements and vitamins. In the process, Sageant gained the flexibility to rapidly produce cost-effective label short-runs for sales samples and promotional campaigns, says Kelly Gaisford, Sageant President.

Soul Critic, a flavored malt beverage, is quenching thirsts throughout Mexico with a twist in beverage packaging. A distinctive triple label maximizes visual appeal in convenience stores throughout the country.

During the past baseball season in the Caribbean, the Presidente brand in the Dominican Republic conducted a Viva la Pelota!, or Hurrah Baseball!, campaign for its beer in 12-oz glass bottles with promotional sleeve labels. Presidente Regular featured sleeves printed with images of a ball and bat, and Light featured sleeves showing a jersey and bat.

Providing sensory perception to increase brand differentiation and add a touch of luxury to traditionally packaged products, Sleever Intl. has launched a line of faux leather-relief shrink labels. These labels join the trend of packages creating distinction through tactile surfaces that enable shoppers to “feel the quality.”

Reily Foods Co., New Orleans, LA, slow-roasts its new 100% premium Arabica coffee, marketed under the Luzianne Coffee brand, in small batches to ensure a bold taste without the bitterness typical of dark-roast coffees. The company needed the right package to reflect both quality and southern authenticity.

The bottle and label work together in positioning the Aloe Breeze beverage line from Phoenix Beverage Co., Phoenix, AZ, as “the first USDA-certified organic drink line that harnesses the power of super-nutrient aloe vera and infuses it with exotic, naturally flavored waters.”

The challenge: The Stratis Group, Caldwell, NJ, wanted to reinforce the essence of Hawaiian fruit on the label to boost sales for its Hilo Gold Noni Juice. The solution: a decorative full-sleeve shrink label to stimulate maximum purchase impact.

Stratis turned to Seal-It, a division of Printpack, for the label. Hawaiian Noni fruit, also called Morinda citrifolia, inspired the graphics.

The PET-G label is heat-shrunk around the bottle. Rotogravure printing in seven colors and the gloss of the film give the label extra visual intensity.

The challenge: The Stratis Group, Caldwell, NJ, wanted to reinforce the essence of Hawaiian fruit on the label to boost sales for its Hilo Gold Noni Juice. The solution: a decorative full-sleeve shrink label to stimulate maximum purchase impact.

Woodford Reserve Distillery found an innovative way to leverage its sponsorship of the Kentucky Derby through packaging. The uniquely decorated bottles support the distillery’s Woodford Reserve bourbon whiskey as a super-premium brand that, like the beloved annual horse race, stands apart from competitors.

By changing the label, store chain maintains local appeal of coffee brand ’ s small batches

Overall flat consumption and ever-increasing competitive pressures in the U.S. beer industry have driven the market leaders to rely more on packaging as a tool to boost sales.

Icon brands that stay relevant and create symmetry between products in the brand “family” continue to endure in consumers’ hearts. Gerber, a long-trusted brand, is a recent example with a new packaging system for all three of its lines, which help consumers to shop the category more efficiently.

The ClearRX pharmacy bottle introduced at Target has won rave reviews from both consumers and pharmacists for its ease of use. Through color-coded rings on the bottles and easy-to-read labels with a logical hierarchy of information, weighted visually by importance, consumers know which bottle in the medicine cabinet is theirs, and how much medication to take and when.

Considering that the venerable bar code’s first commercial packaging application predates the Korean War, one would think the printed zebra stripes are about as cutting-edge as ring-pull tabs on two-piece steel cans.

The word from Osaka, Japan, is that Suntory Ltd., working with Kotobuki Seihan Printing Co. , has developed a label that can be easily peeled off glass bottles by hand. Asia Pulse reports that the label is highly water-resistant and will stay on the bottles that are refrigerated or put in vending machines.

Suntory is using the label on some bottles of Dekavita C, a vitamin-enriched carbonated soft drink. Suntory plans to use the label on other bottled soft drinks and liquors.

When good beer comes in great packaging, as is the case with Labatt Blue in the Cool2Go™ shrink label technology from DuPont, it’s just a wonderful thing.

While I typically opt to ramble in this column about aesthetics, functionality, or structure, this month I traveled the technology pure-play route and went for the “whoa” factor rather than the “wow” factor.

I say “whoa” because for the beer-swigging consumer at large, it’ll take a few seconds to drink in and tie together the graphic triad of “The Cold One,” the Cool2Go icon, and the quarter-sized thermal barrier graphic to grasp the whole story at point-of-purchase. When the realization registers that through some miracle of material science, beer in this can will stay cold longer, it then becomes a “whoa, that's cool” moment and—bingo—into the shopping cart!

A combination shrink label for Betty Crocker’s Decorating Decors line upgrades the brand image and enhances tamper evidence.

The heat-shrink, PVC label, from Seal-It, is used for all five product varieties and printed rotogravure in 6 to 10 colors. The label’s 360-degree image area provides room for graphics with more “pop,” a UPC code, an ingredients listing, and instructions on product use.

The label conforms to the canister shape, covering the top and sealing the cap. The label also incorporates a tamper-evident seal with a horizontal perforation that allows the band to be released from the cap while the label remains on the canister.

Link: Seal-It Inc.

Glossy, full-body PVC shrink labels provide multiple marketing benefits while decorating plastic tubes of Mentholatum Co.’s Natural Ice brand of Original, Cherry, and Sport medicinal lip balms.

First, the labels enhance security. They secure both the cap and the body of the tube, and a horizontal perforation breaks when the cap is removed. Second, the labels eliminate the printing and storage costs associated with stocking silk-screen tubes in assorted designs.

The shrink labels, reverse-printed rotogravure in four or five colors, are from Seal-It.

Link: Seal-It Inc.

A full-body shrink label provides the canvas for White Rock Distilleries to convey the “hot” in its Fire Water cinnamon schnapps. The label, from SleeveCo, also allows the distillery to reduce packaging costs up to 30% while revitalizing the brand’s look.

The seven-color rotogravure label is decorated at its base with flames reaching into the black background. Previously, an external decorator applied a powder coat finish and then painted the clear glass bottle black. Then, paper labels were applied to the front, back, and neck of the bottles.

Link: SleeveCo

McDonald’s has more than doubled its milk sales after switching from a gabletop carton to 8-oz high-density polyethylene bottles. Lisa Frick, McDonald’s Director of U.S. Menu Management, cites two reasons:

First, PVC labels from Seal-It, printed gravure in 10 colors, heighten the visual impact with vivid colors that create entertainment value for kids. Second, the injection-molded polypropylene closure, from Portola Packaging, wins parents’ trust by providing tamper evidence.

The HDPE bottles contain 8 oz of milk and are available at more than 13,500 McDonald’s restaurants in the United States.

Link: Seal-It Inc.

George H. Howell has gone from retail coffee marketing to selecting and roasting unique coffee beans that GHH Select markets under the Terroir coffee brand. Terroir (pronounced terr-war) is a term often used in wines to denote the soil of a particular growing region, each with its own geological and climatic conditions.

Working with the package designer, Howell reflects the origin of his beans—created in very small quantities—through packaging for his brand that’s inspired by designs in the wine aisle. The brand is available in specialty stores, some Whole Foods stores, and from GHH Select’s Web site.

To highlight a bean’s terroir, each front label is the “star” of the package. It includes a photograph representing the farm where that bean grew. Quik Stik/Xygraphics prints the full-color, hand-applied labels.

“Unlike most packaging, our logo is tiny on our package,” says GHH Select General Manager Mark Bishop. “We wanted our labels to resemble those of wine bottles, to tie in with our brand name.”