Lightning Labels Blog

Five Label Industry Predictions for the New Decade

Over the last couple of weeks, as we end one decade and begin another, I have spent some time thinking about where the label industry is headed. So here are my top five label industry predictions for the coming decade.

1. Digital printing becomes the dominant technology

This is really not a difficult prediction. We started the last decade with digital technology in its infancy in the label industry with just a few installations around the world and top speeds of 24 ft/min. Today there are more than a thousand digital label presses installed worldwide and speed has gone to 100 ft/min. HP-Indigo had become one of the top three label press manufacturers at the end of the decade, something that would have been unheard of 10 years ago. In 10 years time I expect HP-Indigo to be the leading press manufacturer in the label industry and the number two and three positions will also belong to digital manufacturers, probably Xeikon and an inkjet press manufacturer. Flexo label printing will still be alive, but it will be a niche in the label industry suitable only for the very long runs.

2. Video product labels become a reality

Last year I wrote about Entertainment Weekly and the video screen that was embedded in their magazine. This was a window into technology that will become widespread in the coming decade. I expect that a high end cosmetics or pharmaceutical company will take the plunge some time later this decade and you will see a running video on their product label. The technology is already available to do this, we just have to wait until the pricing becomes more reasonable.

3. Labels will become more personal

Personalized product labels have been around now for many years. There is an entire category on this blog dedicated to product personalization. Even so, personalization hasn't hit the mainstream yet. This will change in the coming decade. The youth of today are used to personalization and they will become the driving force in this movement as they become the consumers of tomorrow. Now, I don't expect we will go to the grocery store and see product labels with our name on them any time soon. Instead, what will happen is that most products will come with a personalization option. You could buy the generic labeled product in the store or you could order online and create your own personalized label. As digital printing becomes faster and more widespread the cost to offer this option will continue to fall.

4. UPC barcodes will be phased out

By the end of the decade the good old UPC barcodes that we have come to know on every retail product will be phased out. Many people have predicted that RFID will replace the barcode, but it hasn't happened yet and I don't see it happening in this coming decade. Instead, I expect we will move from the one dimensional UPC barcode to a two dimensional barcode such as a QR code. Scanning software could be easily upgraded to read this type of barcode and these codes have the additional benefit of being a marketing tool. Soon all phones will come standard with the software necessary to scan these QR codes, it is already a downloadable application for smartphones now. Initially these QR codes will be printed side by side with regular UPC codes until scanners and their software are upgraded later this decade.

5. Recycling will become a huge issue

It is interesting to me that recycling has not become a huge issue yet in the label industry, particularly in this country. As an industry we produce a lot of waste with spent liner and matrix currently all going to the landfill. Small steps are being made to address this huge problem and by the end of the decade I expect there will be a national recycling program due in large part to the efforts of Calvin Frost, the leading label industry environmentalist. Label buyers and consumers will demand we become more environmentally friendly as an industry, it is starting to happen in Europe already.

Google Sends Out 100,000 QR Code Stickers

Earlier this month over 100,000 businesses around the country received a QR code sticker from Google that looks like the one here. These stickers were sent to the most popular businesses in Google's Local Business Center database. The idea is for companies to stick this postcard sized sticker in their front window.

I have written about QR codes before here and here. For a quick recap, QR codes are two dimensional barcodes that use the cameras in smartphones to direct people to web sites. You can see the QR code in the bottom right corner of Google's sticker. QR codes are very popular in Japan, and no doubt after this move by Google they will become more popular in this country.

Why would Google spend all this money sending these stickers out for free? Of course, they want more traffic to their web site. When you scan the QR code in these stickers, it takes you to the local listing for the business on Google with reviews, photos, and perhaps coupons.

It will be interesting to see how much this really spurs adoption of QR codes here. I can see a day in the not too distant future where most businesses have one of these stickers in their front window.

Now, you don't have to wait for Google to send you one, you can create your own QR code sticker that directs people to your web site right now. You can create a graphic file of your QR code by using a QR code generator site such as Delivr or Kaywa. Then you can print it yourself or, of course, Lightning Labels will be happy to print these stickers for you.

Resources

Google Favorite Places coming to window near you - cnet news

Google Favorite Places - Google

Scannable Retail Stickers to Extend Google's Local Presence - Clickz

Personalize Your National Geographic Magazine Cover

National Geographic magazine is renowned for showcasing some of best photography on the planet. Regular readers will know the "Your Shot" section where people send in their own digital photos and the editors choose some of the best photos to be published each issue.

Recently National Geographic created a special collectors edition featuring an entire magazine of photos submitted for the Your Shot section. Best of all they have allowed people to upload their own photo to be on the cover. You will see in the picture above a photo I just uploaded of myself and my partner Steve in front of one of our wonderful HP-Indigo digital label presses. Speaking of HP-Indigo, National Geographic chose to print these covers on an HP-Indigo press, so you know the quality will be exceptional.

While this has nothing directly to do with labels, I like to showcase some examples of personalization using digital printing. Any personalization that is done on a commercial printing press can also be done on a digital label press. The commercial print world has been taking advantage of the full capabilities of digital printing for many years, but image personalization like this is rarely used with labels.

With the holiday season just a few months away, why not allow your customers to upload a photo and include it as a special holiday product label for your product. You can charge a premium for this service and at the same time enhance your brand in the eyes of your customers. You don't need a full blown web site like National Geographic has, you could create a simple customization page on your existing web site quite inexpensively. All the technology is in place to do this, and of course here at Lightning Labels we would be happy to print your personalized labels.

Related Links

The Opportunity of Variable Data Labels

How to Personalize Weddings with Custom Labels : Five Ideas to Get You Started

Custom printed labels are one of the most economical yet professional ways to add a personal touch to a wedding event. If you are currently involved in wedding preparations — for yourself, clients, or loved ones — incorporating custom labels into wedding invitations, favors, and decorations might be the perfect solution you are seeking to tie your event together without blowing your budget. Here are five great ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

   

1. Personalized CD Wedding Favors

Make a wedding favor the guests will enjoy listening to again and again, a CD with the happy couple’s favorite songs. Add custom labels to the CD cover, insert, and CD itself that reflect the wedding theme. Incorporating photos of the couple in the label design ensures the CD will be a keepsake guests will treasure forever.

2. Save the Date Stickers

With today’s hectic lifestyles, it is crucial for engaged couples to send out “save the date” notices as  soon as they set their wedding date. These notices, which are sent well in advance of the actual wedding invitations, are often fun and casual. Impress invited guests — and up the chances of them attending attend your event — by sending them “save the date” stickers they can affix to their calendars.

3. Envelope Wrappers

Instead of having custom envelopes printed for the wedding invitations, save money and add a touch of class by designing your own envelope wrapper labels and having them professionally printed. With variable label printing, you can even have the guests’ mailing addresses printed right on the labels. If you don’t want to start from scratch, the Fussy Designer’s blog has some beautiful damask envelope templates to get you going.

4. Private Label Beverages

Many wine and beer makers are offering private labeling for their customers. If you are a wine or beer maker, this is definitely something you want to offer your customers as it has become quite trendy for today’s brides and grooms to feature personalized labels on bottled beverages served at their weddings. Or if the bride and groom enjoy micro brewing as a hobby, they could delight their guests while infusing their wedding with a very personal touch by serving their homemade ales to their guests in bottles adorned with professionally printed labels. Bottles of wine customized in this way also make ideal thank you gifts for members of the wedding party.

5. Candy and Mint Favors

Give a fresh twist to a traditional wedding event favor, candies and mints, by presenting them to guests in miniature tins decorated with custom stickers.

What if chocolate is more fitting for your event and tins won’t do? Chocolates, or just about any treat,  make a classy favor when presented in little boxes wrapped with custom printed labels.

We here at Lightning Labels would love to help you personalize your special event with custom labels. Have a question about ordering labels? Don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and give us a call at 888-68-LABEL. We’re here to help!

Related Resources

Bridal Shower Favor Ideas from Broadway Wedding

Free Label Design Templates from Tres Chic Event Planning

Soap and Candlemaking Resources from the Lightning Labels Blog

Label Design Tips & Artwork Specifications from Lighting Labels

Use a Personalized Holiday Label for Gifts

Every year Bookcliff Vineyards, a Lightning Labels customer, does a special Holiday wine label (pictured above) to help raise money for a local charity. It is a nice Holiday tradition and we are happy to print these beautiful labels.

The Holiday season is just around the corner and if you want to make an impact with your customers this Holiday season, then I have a suggestion. Why not create a unique personalized gift for your customers with personalized labels. With today's digital label printing technology it is very easy to produce labels such as wine labels with a personal message for each customer. You can partner with a winery like Bookcliff Vineyards and a digital label printer to create a memorable holiday gift.

There are many other holiday gift ideas other than wine. You could do personalized cookie tins, soaps, lotions, hot sauce, coffee bags. Of course, we will happy to do the personalized product labels for any holiday gifts you choose.

Personalize Your Can of Pringles

I have written before about personalized consumer products such as Heinz Ketchup, Sharpie and Kleenex. Now, you can personalize your can of Pringles.  I spent five minutes uploading our logo and creating the simple can displayed here.

The designers of this Pringles web site have been quite creative. You can upload photos, choose background colors (including the gradient you see displayed here) and several lines of text. Then they have created this cool 3D display of a Pringles can where you can scroll the can to see an entire 360 degree view. You can then print your design on your local printer and tape it on a Pringles can.

More and more companies are using the internet to allow their customers to create truly personal packaging for their products. Now, obviously you may not have the online marketing budget that Proctor & Gamble has (the makers of Pringles), but that doesn't mean you shouldn't offer personalization options to your customers.

It could be as simple as gathering some names on your web site, putting them in a spreadsheet and printing some personalized labels with your next custom label order. With today's advanced digital label printing technology creating personalized labels is not that difficult or expensive. The new generation of consumers are drawn to personalized products and those companies that offer this as an option will have an advantage with these young consumers.

The Personalized Sharpie

More and more consumer products are coming out with personalized packaging, the latest I just recently stumbled across is the venerable Sharpie marker. The Sharpie people have created a very simple, easy to use web site that strikes the perfect balance between flexibility and simplicity. You can add two lines of text in a choice of 10 different fonts, and you can even add some simple clip art. You have the choice of eight different colors for your Sharpie but your personalization will be printed in black.

There is some fancy animation where you can view your personalized Sharpie but overall this is a pretty simple web site. My guess is that you could create something similar for just a few thousand dollars. And it is a great way to connect with your customers and to leverage your brand.

Any enterprising consumer products company could do the same thing. If your product has a label you could leverage the power of digital label printing and add personalization to your labels. You could do something similar to what Sharpie has done and just gather all the personalization in a spreadsheet that you can them send on to your digital printer.

Personalization is becoming more popular but there are still very few companies offering it as an option for their customers. The technology is all in place to be able to do this easily and inexpensively. Here at Lightning Labels we will be happy to help with anyone considering a personalization project for their product labels.

Personalized Beer Labels

Earlier this week there was a fascinating post about mass personalization over at the Trend Hunter magazine blog. It described 18 different products such as Nike sneakers and ladies handbags that you can personalize, but of most interest to me were the products involving personalized labels. They mentioned Heinz ketchup that I have discussed on this blog before.

What I didn't know about was the Danish brewery, Tuborg, that is offering personalized beer labels through their web site. Unfortunately I can't read Danish so I don't know exactly how it works, but from poking around their site it looks like a pretty simple process.

It is surprising to me that in the ultra-competitive beer market in this country none of the major breweries or micro-breweries have bothered trying to take advantage of this market. There is an opportunity for someone to come in and establish themselves as the "personalized beer" company. All the label printing technology is in place and with today's high quality digital label presses the labels could be photo quality. It will only be a matter of time before some enterprising brewery discovers this "untapped" market.

BusinessWeek Taking Notice of Mass Personalization

I am just back from a couple of weeks vacation in Australia. It was a very relaxing time, and I was able to catch up on a lot reading while I was away. One article that caught my eye was in the SmallBiz magazine from BusinessWeek discussing how many small businesses are using the internet to mass produce custom made products.

I have written before about the personalized packaging offerings from Heinz, Kleenex and Johnnie Walker and how these companies have set up special web sites so they could personalized their products. The BusinessWeek article featured five different companies who are also using the internet to mass produce personalized products. Unfortunately the article is not available online without a paid subscription, so I won't link to it, but I can give you my commentary on the main points of the article here.

All five of the companies featured here had simple web sites that allowed their customers to easily create their own unique and personalized product. These five companies are all small, so they don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a sophisticated web site. But every one of them has said that this personalized offering is now the fastest growing segment of their business.

These five companies, like Heinz, Kleenex and Johnnie Walker, recognize that we are entering into a new era. The new generation of consumers belong to what I call the "Personalization Generation". They have grown up with the internet and the personalization that is available to them online through sites like Myspace and Facebook. They like their products to reflect their own personality and the companies that cater to these consumers by offering personalization with their products will have an advantage in the coming years.

So what to do? If you are already selling your product online, it can be a relatively simple step to offer personalized packaging of some sort. Here at Lightning Labels we can leverage our digital label printing expertise and help you get started with personalized product labels. You can start off by simply collecting names in a spreadsheet and when you are ready you can move forward to implementing personalization on your web site.

Consumer products are going to become more personalized. By starting now you will ensure you have a head start on your competitors.