Lightning Labels Blog

Signs Are Just Really Big Labels

I have been following the Signs Never Sleeps blog from J.D. Iles, the owner of the Lincoln Sign Company for many years. Originally he just shared information and pictures of the signs that they worked on in his own shop, but now he features signs from sign companies all over the country.

What I like most about his blog is that he features photos with every blog post. It struck me when I first came across his blog that signs are just really big product labels where the product is the company name. But like labels signs have to convey a message and attract attention in a visually appealing way. Sometimes you can get good ideas from places that you wouldn't expect.

A Unique Holiday Gift Idea

There are now less than 30 shopping days left until Christmas - but for those seeking corporate gifts there is even less time. Here is a simple idea for you that will be really appreciated by your customers or employees. I am talking about custom labeled wine as a Holiday gift. Lightning Labels has partnered with local Colorado winery, Bookcliff Vineyards, to bring you this special program.

To find out details about the program you can call Bookcliff Vineyards at 303-499-7301 or you can read their blog post about it. Above is an example of a wine label we have printed the last couple of years for the Flagstaff Star. Our in-house designer can help you create your very own design, so your gift can be truly unique. There is still time to order your custom labeled wine this Holiday Season, so why not do something different for your clients or employees this year.

Beautiful Bath & Body Labels

Marlese Sears started her bath and body products business, Bobe, just a year ago. She came to us recently when she decided to redo her line of products so that they looked more professional. I think you will agree that she achieved her goal - she has a line of products now that could compete on the retail shelf with anyone. You would never guess she is a one person operation in Saskatoon, Canada.

Every product at Bobe is made by hand - that in itself is not unusual. What is different is that each product is made to order, there is no inventory sitting on the shelves. Marlese wants her products to be fresh so she doesn't actually make the product until after she receives an order. She makes the product, bottles it, applies the label and ships the product all within 24 hours of receiving an order. Now that is a lean manufacturing operation.

Her revamped product line has just been launched this week - you can check it out by visiting her website here.
   

Labels and Stickers with Special Shapes

We know not everyone wants a standard rectangle, oval or circle label, sometimes you are looking for an unusual shape. Here at Lightning Labels we have dozens of dies for unusually shaped labels, and today we made our library of special shapes available for everyone.

We have several dies for lip balm labels, starburst labels, triangle labels, front and back wine label combinations and dozens of other shapes and sizes. Feel free to browse through our library and see all the shapes we offer. If you are looking for a unique label try one of these special shapes and your label will really stand out from the crowd.

Removable or Permanent Adhesive?

Over the July 4th holiday my wife bought an expensive cast iron saucepan, something she had wanted for some time. She was all excited to use it and she planned a meal with it that night. There were two labels on the saucepan - one with a logo on the side of the pan and another with a barcode on the bottom. So she needed to remove them before she could start using her new purchase.

It ended up being a 20 minute operation to remove the labels and she was cursing the product that she was previously so excited about. Both of these labels had a strong permanent adhesive, but because it was a saucepan they had to be removed before she could use the product. This company should definitely have used a removable adhesive for these labels - knowing that their customers would have to remove them before use.

Most product labels are required to adhere to their product for the entire lifecycle of the product. For these labels a permanent adhesive would most likely be best. However, for any product where the label is only needed until purchase, a label with removable adhesive should be considered.

I think the problem here is that when many people think of removable adhesive they think of post-it notes, or labels that are very easily removed. The removable adhesive we use here at Lightning Labels is nothing like a post-it note - it is actually a fairly strong adhesive that can only be removed with a little force. But when that force is applied it removes quite easily. This is the kind of adhesive that should have been used on the saucepan labels.

So when you are thinking about labels for your products, consider whether a permanent adhesive is required. You don't want to annoy your customers because they have to spend time removing a label.

Printing Very Long Labels

The maximum size label that we have been able to produce here at Lightning Labels is 11" x 17". However, this week we had a request for a 22" long label. After a bit of research we realized that if we split the label art in two then we can quite easily create a label that is 22" long. I took a look at the final result and you had to look very closely to see the break in the artwork.

Allow to me explain a little about how this all works. The HP-Indigo digital label presses print in a series of frames that are approximately 17" long. The label material is run through the press and one frame is laid down at a time. The printing press is quite precise, so it knows exactly where the last frame ended when it goes to print the next frame. So with a 22" long label we print half of the label at the bottom of frame one and then the second half at the top of frame two and bingo - it looks like one long label.

Unfortunately die cutting labels this long is not possible. We can slit along the length of the label, but for the width we can't diecut a label that is longer than 17". So while we are happy to print a long label for you, the labels will have to be hand cut once they are printed.

Holiday Gift Custom Labels

The Lightning Labels blog has been taking some time off. My wife gave birth to our first child, a baby boy we named Jude on Thanksgiving Day, so as you can imagine my attention has been elsewhere. But I am slowly getting back in the swing of things and the blog posts will become more frequent from now on.

In a previous post I introduced you to the custom label program at Johnnie Walker. Today I wanted to introduce you to another web site where you can order personalized labels for retail products. Pernod Ricard is the huge French wine and spirit distributor, and they have a special web site where you can order your own custom labels for their products - perfect for the Holiday Season.

You can select a custom label for a variety of different brands - Wild Turkey bourbon, Chivas Regal scotch whiskey, Jacob's Creek wine to name a few. You can enter your own message, up to 30 characters on two or three lines and for businesses you can even add your own black and white logo. Best of all, just like the Johnnie Walker program the labels are free. The idea is for you to buy their product at the liquor store and then stick your own personalized label over the top of the product label that is already there.

Pernod Ricard has focused more on the corporate market here with their gift label program. With the ability to add your own logo, if you are out of ideas for a corporate gift this Holiday Season this could be worth a try.

'Tis the Season...for Holiday Labels!

The Christmas decorations have been up at our local mall now for what seems like weeks. Even though we are only at the mid point of November, for many companies the Holiday Season is in full swing.

Putting a unique holiday label on your products this time of year is a great way to bring some holiday cheer to your products. The above label is what one of our customers, Blue Flour, has done. We just printed these labels here last month. If you haven't thought about Holiday labels yet, there is still time.

Even if you don't want to put Holiday labels on your products to sell, you can still use the holiday theme to your advantage. Why not send your products as a holiday gift with a special holiday themed label? We could even personalize a message for you with our variable data capabilities.

However you decide to share the Holiday season with your customers, do it with style. If you do nothing or just send a Holiday card, you are missing out on a great marketing opportunity. The reason there are so many holiday decorations and holiday themed products is that holiday promotions really do work.

Having said all that, allow me to be one of the first to wish a (very early) happy Holiday Season.

Another Retail Product With Custom Labels

In a previous post I talked about the new custom label program from Heinz. You can order Heinz ketchup with your own message on it, and they will deliver your custom labeled ketchup to you in 4-6 weeks. I just received my bottle this week, after about a five week wait. Why it takes that long is anyone's guess, but we all know that big bureaucracies tend to move slowly.

Johnnie Walker scotch have a different twist on the same idea. When you register on the Johnnie Walker web site you can order a custom label with your own message (up to 3 lines). But instead of sending you a bottle of their product like Heinz do, Johnnie Walker will send you just the label, so you can apply it to a bottle you have purchased at the liquor store. Best of all, they are giving these labels away free of charge, up to 5 labels per person.

I think this is a smart move. With all the regulatory information regarding sales of hard alcohol, they couldn't really do what Heinz has done. But they are enhancing their brand by allowing people to create their own personalized labels to use as gifts. And we all know the Holiday Season is just around the corner.

Labels vs Stickers - The Great Debate

OK, so maybe it isn't a great debate, but it is an interesting question I think. What is the difference between a label and a sticker?

A look in the Merriam-Webster dictionary gives us some clues. Label has five different meanings here, but the one meaning we are interested in says "a slip (as of paper or cloth) inscribed and affixed to something for identification or description." For sticker the dictionary says "a slip of paper with adhesive back that can be fastened to a surface". So the key difference here is that a label is used for identification or description, and a sticker is far more general.

So the "slip of paper" that is on a product on the supermarket shelf is usually called a label, and the "slip of paper" that your kid sticks on his skateboard is called a sticker. If we think about it when browsing for wine in the liquor store we don't look at the "wine stickers" on the bottles we look at the "wine labels". Even though wine stickers would not actually be incorrect, wine labels is a more accurate description because the purpose is for identification and description.

In reality people use the terms labels and stickers synonymously and that is just fine. Whether you call them custom labels or custom stickers, here at Lightning Labels we will be happy to print them for you.