Product-labeling strategies seek sales through consistent brand ID

The package is the message.

From marketing firms to printing and design professionals, manufacturers across the Ozarks have a variety of options available when the time comes to create a new look.

But local experts agree: The package or label adorning a product represents the face of the broader brand to the customer. And that face talks as much as it wants to be seen.

Locally, Springfield-based Mother’s Brewing Co. unveiled in late April new labels for its year-round beers – Towhead, Lil’ Helper and Three Blind Mice. The work began nine months ago, when Mother’s Brewing officials selected Queen City-based Revel Advertising to help the growing craft brewer increase in-store sales outside of the Springfield market.

Typically, a company has one of three goals in mind when redesigning a label, said Josh Elsenraat, sales director for Nixa-based labeling firm Ample Industries Inc.: reinvigorating sluggish sales, solidifying several products under an umbrella brand or expanding the customer base with a more professional look as a business grows from local to regional or national in scope.

“The point of sale was a big point of focus for us as far as how the six-packs looked on shelves from Wal-Mart to Brown Derby, as well as how the product could stand out from an ever-growing amount of competition in the craft brewing arena,” said Chris Jarratt, partner and creative director for Revel Advertising.

Shopper impulse
Mother’s Brewing is far from the only company investing in packaging.

According to Cleveland, Ohio-based market researcher The Freedonia Group, the U.S. label industry was valued at $16.3 billion in 2015, and it’s expected to rise 3.8 percent annually, landing at $19.7 billion in 2019. Nearly half of the demand comes from primary packaging, with gains in the market expected by the use of higher value labels, such as heat-shrink and in-mold products.

Paul Black, owner of Labelteq Unlimited Inc., said new labels can solve multiple problems – but it starts with shopper impulse.

“You’ve got to get it off the shelf and in the hands of the customer,” Black said.

He said once a consumer has become interested enough to take it off the shelf, they are much more likely to buy it. But it also has to meet the expectations of the brand company.

Labelteq offers custom label design and printing for companies including Tyler Ridge Vineyard Winery and Vertical Visions Inc. in Springfield. Black recently designed a three-color label on a glossy face-stock paper for Vertical Vision’s protein supplement, Muscle Cell Accelerator, which included a 500-piece print run. The company has 10-color capability, but Black said the customer wanted to spend less and get the most bang for the buck, so Labelteq worked to achieve a holographic effect.

All heart
For Mother’s Brewing to achieve the overarching goal of increasing store sales, a key objective was to make it clear to consumers the year-round beers were undoubtedly Mother’s products.

The new six-packs are designed to make the heart-tattoo logo more prominent and carry a consistent look, Jarratt said.

“There was no good reason to touch that logo at all,” he said, though a change of the Mother’s heart was briefly considered.

Jarratt said the early packaging for the year-round beers was not very consistent, with vastly different designs for each variety.

“That’s a little easier to get away with if you’re ultra-local like they initially were. But once you get outside of the market, that’s a little harder,” he said.

Another design goal was to make the brand less goofy and more clever. Revel brought in Springfield artist Kendra Miller to illustrate within a grid pattern for the labels.

The grid concept has a comic strip feel with illustrative detail and featured colors.

“They wanted people to take them a little more seriously as far as how they crafted beer, so that led to some of the content developed for the label,” he said, pointing to listed food pairings and glasses to use.

Problem solving
Ron Marshall, president of Red Crow Marketing Inc., said making products quickly identifiable is important because consumers often operate like members of a jury. They have to accept a brand’s story before they can choose to buy it.

“When you develop a brand, you want instant recognition that tells people what you are about,” he said.

When Marshall created a label for a Russian moonshine product called samogon, he used beige and rust colors to incorporate a downhome feel.

“I’ve told clients that if you are going to create a logo or an image, it first has to be unique enough that it doesn’t blend. Secondly, it has to be relevant to the audience you’re trying to reach,” he said.

Marshall said communicating new messages through packaging is smart because it can create new attention, but consistency is key – especially for established or popular products. For instance, when Coca-Cola launched its New Coke in the 1980s, it gained a lot of attention but at the expense of the brand equity it had built for decades. When the jury wasn’t happy, the soda-makers reintroduced their original formula.

With Mother’s Brewing growing into Kansas City and other markets in recent years, Elsenraat said it makes sense for the company to get serious about unifying its core products.

“Everybody wants to buy local, and that’s true, as long as they’re local,” he said. “I’m inclined to think Mother’s wants to grow beyond Kansas City and St. Louis and into the East and West coasts.”