by admin | Jul 20, 2015 | Company News, Technical
These Coke bottle labels show an example of one of the most innovative marketing campaigns in years. Coke – clearly one of the most mature, established brands in the world – saw a huge sales increase when they introduced personalized labels. The Share a Coke campaign has been very successful by any measure. It is nearly impossible to get a sales increase like they did with such a mature product.
More importantly, they didn’t change the actual product in the bottle or lower the price – they just changed the packaging and created a huge buzz about it.
This was a big win for Coke, but also for HP Indigo – the press manufacturer that supplied the technology to make this campaign happen. The story has been written up in dozens of places as an example of the power of variable content marketing. Variable content – meaning variable text, bar codes, and even photos – provide options that were never possible with conventional printing. Forget about the better print quality, or the lower cost, this is something that is physically impossible with a conventional printing press that uses plates.
Now that we have our HP Indigo digital printing press, we can offer options like this too. Creativity is the key – what could you do to personalize your product? How could you build buzz and excitement around your brand? What would it take for your loyal fans to be competing to collect a full set of all your different labels? Answer these questions and we can help you execute your plan. The technology is here – right now. All we need is creative marketing people to make it happen.
Want a huge lift in sales with new labels? Please call us today. We can help.
by admin | Jul 8, 2015 | Business Tips, Company News
New Rose City Label Website Coming Soon
A BEAUTIFUL Rose City Label web redesign is coming soon – You will LOVE it! More natural layout, better navigation, and more of a visual focus on the amazing products we help to promote. Our work really is VISUAL – what we produce needs to pop off the shelf, and the new images in this site will show that much more clearly.
The important take away for you – the small business owner, label buyer, or budding entrepreneur that is reading this – are the lessons I learned along the way. After many years of using the same web ‘guru’ – who I loved working with and is still a good friend – I decided to make a change. My previous service provider was excellent, and very technically savvy, but he is not a CREATIVE TYPE! I am also not a creative type, so we got along great. When I decided I could only go so far working with someone who thought “just” like me, so I made a Leadership Decision and I COMMITTED to fill a gap.
I could only go so far working with someone who thought “just” like me, so I made a Leadership Decision and I COMMITTED to fill a gap.
Engaging the Creative Website and Internet Marketing Services of the talented Scott Sakamoto of Ronin Studios has been a great experience, but not always easy. Here is what I learned:
- You can benefit greatly from surrounding yourself with people that are NOT like you (that THINK DIFFERENTLY). I have benefited greatly by having a different perspective. I am not a designer, I did not go to art school and I don’t see things in that way. Square peg in a round hole. BUT, I get great value by having input from someone with a different perspective.
- I am not good at letting go. As a small business owner, I am usually where the buck stops. Right or wrong, I have to make a decision. With the partnership with Scott Sakamoto and Ronin Studios, I had to defer some of that control. I agreed to it as a condition of working with Scott and the Update of the Rose City Label Website – he has the experience to know that only one Leader can be in charge of a project like this; that part was easy to understand from Scott’s experience (Ronin Studios Blog “What We Believe“) and portfolio reflects the type of work I can expect to receive.
- Rewarded: It was worth it. After some hand wringing and hurt feelings, I am thrilled with the end result – and I think you will be too. Keep the big picture and the end goal in mind when you enter a project like this, and make sure you have clear communication with a top quality partner, and I think you will love the results.
Stay tuned for the final product – and maybe a few more stories about the journey – but hopefully these lessons are helpful. Great growth experience for me. It has made me a better leader, and our company is better served by partnering with someone to fill in the gaps. You can’t do it all, so surround yourself with “Rock Stars”.
by admin | Jun 24, 2015 | Company News, Customers/Examples
One of the best things about our job is being able to work with innovative companies that create new products each week. New flavors, new styles, and entirely new product categories. It keeps our job fun and exciting – never a dull moment. Seeing these products come to life and then buying them on the store shelf allows us to see the full product life cycle – and allows us to see our customer succeed!
If you want a partner to walk you through the path of growth and prosperity, we are here to help. We have been there before and we can show you how to make it happen with your product.
Call us today!
by admin | Jun 22, 2015 | Business Tips, Company News
Finally some data to help support why we are doing so well! Besides the amazing employees, great vendors and of course the customers we live for every day, there is another ingredient that is allowing us to set records at Rose City Label – FAMILY.
This article from Business Insider – click here to read the full article – lists 6 Reasons why Family Business tends to outperform other business structures. We certainly benefit from at least a few of these:
1. Higher Profitability – according to the data, on average, the Family controlled companies have higher profit margins than their non-family counterparts. Maybe because of the wisdom passed through the family, or maybe for other reasons. We really like this one.
2. Risk Taking in Well Known Areas – with a long family history – maybe many generations – the family members leading the business know what they are talking about. Many were actually raised in the business and they have a deep understanding of the proper place to invest and take risk.
3. Smart Capital Allocation – because by definition, the family business has the ultimate long term approach. People aren’t looking at next year or next quarter, they may be looking at their kid’s kids running the business in the future. For these reasons, they invest wisely and for the long term. Every dollar invested has to pass the test of generations before and after the current family leadership. The bar is high so the decisions are better.
We are proud to be a family business. We were recognized by the Austin Family Business program in 2013 and we are entered in the competition again this year.
If you want to work with a local family business for your labels, please call us today. We look forward to helping you.
*Image is credited to Business Insider – featured in the article linked above.
by admin | Jun 17, 2015 | Company News
We have spent lots of time, energy, and money to upgrade our shop the past 2 years. New equipment, software, and organization have all been instrumental to our success. We continue to print more labels, with better quality, and faster than ever before. The equipment matters a great deal, but the people are the secret sauce.
We are very proud of the long term, capable, well trained staff we have assembled. At the end of the day, they are the difference. The machines don’t run themselves, and as much as we would like to think otherwise, there is still lots of art in the science of printing. A committed person with an eye for quality is what sets us apart, and allows us to grow into the future.
When you place a label order, you don’t put your faith in a machine – you put your faith in our people. For that, we are always grateful and will try even harder to meet and exceed all your expectations. Thanks for the business you send our way, and for the future business that you will refer to us.
** Thanks to the talented and creative Scott Sakamoto from Ronin Studios for the photo in this post.
by admin | Jun 4, 2015 | Company News, Environmental Green
Once our Rose City Label team gets inspired, it is hard to hold us back! In a previous post I showed some home furniture built from recycled pallets – now another RCL family is taking it to the next level. This beautiful fenced garden will keep the vegetables and flowers protected from dogs this summer. It is also very attractive!
Since we get our raw material in on pallets – and ship much of our finished product via UPS or courier – we end up with many extra pallets each week.
These pallets are sometimes collected and recycled by a local service, but when we are busy, they can’t always keep up, so we are finding new ways to use these excess pallets.
We hope this inspires all of you to reduce, reuse and recycle in your own companies – and, if you need pallets for your own backyard project, please call us today. We are happy to donate them to help with your project.
Need great labels – from an eco-friendly company?
Please call us today – we can help.
