When you strip away all the glitz and glam of product labeling — Consumer trends! Branding! Embellishments! — you uncover one unifying requirement every brand owner has for their labels:

Identical colors and graphics, label after label and order after order.

And the foundation for achieving that level of consistency is laid long before your labels are ever run on the press. It begins with the upfront work done by pre-press.

In this article, we’ll help brand owners by explaining:

• How the role of pre-press before label printing is similar to that of pre-op before surgery

• What brand owners can do to better facilitate the pre-press workflow

• The many ways experienced pre-press departments add value to their label projects

• The benefits of having pre-press and printing under one roof

Walk down any aisle in any store, and hundreds of labels will stare back, vying for your attention. Across product categories, the competition for consumer attention is stiff.

This competition is even more fierce for luxury products (including high-end wines, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, spirits), where premium label embellishments and decorations are key to justifying higher prices. And while no gold medals are awarded for labels that draw the consumer’s eye, sales are lost by those that don’t.

Decorative label varnishes are a powerful tool for brands looking to create a sophisticated label that stands out on a shelf (or website) lined with other luxury products.

No brand wants their product packaging to blend in on the shelf, allowing their competition to steal the spotlight of consumer attention.

But to stand out, you have to do something unexpected with your packaging. So it stands to reason that many of the brand owners we work with often ask, “What’s new?” at the outset of any product launch or rebrand.

Here, we’ll answer exactly that: What is new in label materials?

And we’ll dig deeper than the classic materials — BOPP, estate paper, foil, semi-gloss — to give you some truly out-of-the-box ideas.

The fast-growing CBD market — projected to reach an astonishing $20 billion in the U.S. by 2024 — poses an exciting growth outlook for business owners.

However, specific and clear universal CBD labeling requirements haven’t caught up to this enormous segment growth.

This lack of clarity does create a challenge for brand owners, as diligence is needed to meet evolving requirements on the state and federal levels (and avoid costly lawsuits or violations). But it also creates an opportunity for brands to establish themselves as a trustworthy, knowledgeable producer in a crowded market.

This article is not meant to be a replacement for a thorough reading and understanding of state regulations and FDA guidelines. Rather, this is a great starting point for brand owners to:

• Familiarize themselves with the general regulations.
• Understand how requirements can differ; a CBD supplement label for a product sold in Indiana will have different requirements than a CBD edible brownie sold in Oregon.
• Access state, federal and industry resources for learning more about requirements.

A clear and compliant CBD label is achievable for your product — let’s start laying your foundation.

Having a great product is important, but it’s only half of the equation. You only have 2-7 seconds to make a first impression, so it’s vitally important that your package is equipped with what it needs to quickly make an impact. 

Whether sold online or in a brick-and-mortar, the right label shares product information, sparks brand recognition, draws in the correct people and stands out from its competitors.  

Digital label printing is a huge opportunity for your brand and, to take it a step further, your entire company. And now is the time to seriously consider how you could leverage it to the fullest extent.

To be clear, we’re not claiming digital is a replacement for flexo. Conventional flexographic label printing is far from obsolete — in many cases, and for many applications, flexo is by far the better choice due to speed and cost considerations.

But there are some very compelling reasons for you to look into digital technology for at least some of your labeling needs, and they all come back to four distinctive features of digital label presses:

1. Virtually no press setup is required, and small run sizes are possible
2. Pre-press tolerances for imagery and text aren’t as demanding
3. Label-by-label variation is possible
4. No plates are needed

The cannabis industry has exploded in recent years and, like any new industry, is experiencing growing pains along the way. The initial excitement of legalization led to a mix of chaos and potential as industry members navigated new legal requirements along with the reality of getting businesses off the ground.

As the dust settles, many of our cannabis clients are enjoying success and asking us, “What can I do next to improve my position in the industry from a labeling perspective?”

While answers vary from client to client, we’ve come up with a few universal trends:

When designing their product packaging, brands need to weigh two competing imperatives:

1. Keep packaging costs down to maximize profit
2. Differentiate their product to increase sales

These goals are inherently at odds and, for lower-margin products, the former nearly always wins out. But for luxury products, great care needs to be put into prioritizing the latter.