This is a complex question with conflicting research on all sides. Regardless, one thing is clear – the best label color is the one that reinforces your authentic brand. Your brand voice must be established first before a label color can be selected to bring that voice to the market. Check out this post about Your Authentic Brand and Clare Carver’s rules to build your brand here
Once the brand and the brand voice are solid, you can begin to work on the best label color.
Is it important? Yes!
According to Emerald Insight and others (full study here), people make up their minds about a product or person – including your beer, wine, soap – within 90 seconds. And, importantly for us, 62-90% of that initial reaction is based on color. That’s right – color! Having the best label color is critical.
What does each color say – what makes the best label color?
Begin with the end in mind – what emotion are you trying to evoke? Happy? Angry? Fired up to Party? Each of these desired consumer reactions will require a different best label color. Yes – as always – it depends. If you know your intended reaction, and your brand voice, then finding the best label color is easy.
Specific examples of Best Label Color
Real Simple magazine has a great breakdown of 10 different colors and the reactions they evoke. Read the full article by clicking here. Here are a few examples, but read the full article for more detailed explanations.
Black – the signature color of sophistication. Where do you want your brand positioned in the mind of your target consumer?
Blue – everyone likes blue. It connotes trust and dependability. A blue logo can increase loyalty and feelings of security. Is this the reaction you want? Maybe this is your best label color?
Burgundy – rich and refined. Think of full bodied, bold (expensive) wines. Luxury.
Orange – fair and affordable are typical reactions from this color.
Red – This may be your best label color is you want a hot, excited consumer, but red also means ‘stop’ or caution or danger to many people. Choose carefully.
There are five more great colors, and links to other research, in the full article link above.
Summary and Next Actions
Begin with your well defined brand image and voice. From there, layer on the reaction you want from your target consumer. From there, the best label color decision is much easier and logical. With all this data, you also need to add in a touch of your own flair and gut feeling. These are guidelines that are very helpful, but ultimately your decision is up to you. Make sure you are being consistent with your ultimate business goals – read this post for more information about brand alignment.
Still Stuck? Call us Today
We can help solve the best label color problem. We do it for many customers each year and we are happy to help you, too. With our new HP Indigo Press, printing great labels has never been easier. Cheers!
Our new HP Indigo 6900 is coming next month! This machine is a massive upgrade to our digital department. We will be able to help more people with more high-quality digital labels than ever. This machine provides the most sustainable digital label platform. Here are a few of the highlights.
Read This First – ORDER EARLY!
While we are upgrading the press and getting factory operator training, we will be down for two weeks in December 2018. Please order early if you need labels before the Holidays.
Better Image Quality
Because of the improved laser writing head, the image resolution is better than ever. This means brighter, more vibrant colors, crisp text, and even more precise color matching. State of the Art Label Printing – HP 6900 Press
Double Print Speed
At nearly 100 feet per minute, this press rivals traditional print speed. No setup and virtually no waste mean faster delivery for customers.
More Efficient Press Layout
Besides the faster speed, the press is more efficient. This is a web press with labels delivered in rolls, but the images are transferred to the material in pages (called ‘frames’ in HP lingo). This press has more than double the page size of the previous machine. Maximum label size is now 12″x 38″. More importantly, we can fit more labels of any size into this frame size which means less waste, faster printing, and better results for customers.
Better Color Consistency
Rather than just measuring ink density during the run, this press actually sees color and corrects itself on the fly! With ‘Continuous Color Calibration’ the machine constantly makes micro adjustments during the print run to keep the tightest color in the industry. This also improves run to run color consistency. Repeat orders with exact color matching are easier than ever.
Sustainable Platform
The inks on the press are formed by a mixture of pigment (the consistency of toothpaste) and imaging oil to carry the color. Previously, this imaging oil was flushed from the press and discarded. Now, the press recycles its own oil! Rather than doing an ‘oil change’ periodically, only a small amount of oil is added to the system as needed.
Fluorescent and Metallic Silver Ink
For the first time, true specialty inks are available on a digital press. This adds to our very wide 7C color gamut to add distinctive color to your label.
More Powerful Variable Data
Want a unique number, barcode, or QR code on each label? We can do that faster and more accurately than ever. With a huge computing power upgrade, variable data jobs that previously took hours (and cost more) are now instantaneous.
Supportable for the Future
Built on the latest 2018 technology, this press will be supported for many years. With parts, service, and training readily available, you have a reliable, consistent source for all your labels.
There is a huge new burden on manufacturers that sell products to consumers in California – and it may require a label update:
All manufacturers, producers, packagers, importers, suppliers, and distributors, regardless of whether they are located in California or out of state, must provide a warning if their products cause exposures to any listed chemical to individuals in California.
If you are selling anything with ingredients on the prohibited list, you may need to update the language on your labels. The NFIB has an excellent summary of the newly updated law on their website. According to NFIB,
More specifically, a warning label is required if the chemical included has either a 1 in 100,000 chance of causing cancer over a 70 year period, or unless it may be said that exposure to 1000 times the amount of the chemical within the product has no observable effect on reproductive health
The update effective in August 2018 is actually just a more strict interpretation of the law passed in 1986 – Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act This law requires disclosures if any of 900 listed chemicals are present in your product. Read the full NFIB article by clicking here.
California even has a specific website dedicated to the new law. Check more on that site by clicking www.p65warnings.ca.gov
We are All About Full Disclosure
This law seems onerous, but it is no more so than the mandate 20+ years ago to provide nutrition facts on all food packaging. Now, this consumer information seems standard, but at one time, it was a big change for all food producers. This will be the same. Besides marketing and branding, your labels need to give consumers clear and complete information.
Easy Redesign
We aren’t a graphic design company, but we can help with basic layout changes. Editing your label to be compliant and still be attractive – we can do that. We are experts at fitting lots of information onto a small label. The cost for this redesign is very affordable in most cases. And, if you need a full rebranding, we can refer you to some excellent design agencies. Adding a separate Prop 65 label to your packaging is another option – we can help with that too.
Other Label Questions? We can help
As always, we are here to help with any and all label questions. We can help with technical, aesthetic and financial questions related to your label project. Please call us today. We would be happy to help.
This article is intended to provide Oregon and Washington businesses with general information and is not intended to serve as legal advice regarding any specific matter; information should not be acted upon without legal advice.
Rose City Label again attended the PIA/SGIA Continuous Improvement conference. This is the very best place to benchmark with other printers that are practicing Lean Manufacturing. Seeing other printers, large and small, share their success and lessons learned is motivational for us. We learned new skills and recommitted to working on the business – we have to constantly drive out waste and provide more value for customers. Every single day.
Continuous Improvement in all areas
The 2018 CI Conference reinforced all the areas of our business that we work on daily. There is no finish line on the road to printing excellence. We have to be vigilant and recognize that there are always better ways to do things. Even after a record year – the best year in 90 years – we still have improvements to make in the office, production, shipping and prepress. There is always more work to do.
Culture and Techniques
One of the excellent presenters compared the lean CULTURE and lean TECHNIQUES to ‘peanut butter and jelly’. The two things are fundamentally different, but they are both required for optimal results. Often, companies (including us) focus on the techniques and tactics in the press room, rather than the people. One big takeaway from this conference was that our job – as a company – is to develop problem solving, innovative, curious people. The people will deliver value for the customer, and the customer will make our business successful financially.
Learning to See
One of the initial things we (and all CI companies) need to do is learn to see opportunities. One of the speakers said, You have to SEE it and then you have to SEIZE it. You can’t seize (fix) it until you first SEE the problem, issue, waste, gap. Learning to SEE is the first step to improvement. In Lean language, there are 8 deadly wastes in every company. We need to see these first. Besides that, the concept of ‘Fix what bugs you’ is a great way to find problems to attack. In every business, there are ways to get better every day.
Make it World Class
Barely adequate workplace is not what we are going for. We want our business, our facility, and our people to be the best they can be. Only then will we add the most value for our customers. Clean, bright, well organized work areas inspire people to do their best and we strive to provide that. “Look good, feel good, play good!” This was the mantra of one of the speakers at the conference.
Pay it Forward
Another common aspect of lean companies is the desire to share what they have learned. Because nobody survives on the lean journey alone, everybody realizes they had help along the way. Because others helped them, most lean companies want to help others. We are no different. Please contact us directly if you are a manufacturer trying to implement lean. We don’t have all the answers, but we are happy to try to help.
Thank You
Many have helped us get to this point, and we know many others will help in the future. Ultimately, we exist to add value for our customers and we thank you very much for trusting us. Your support allows us to learn and grow as we move forward. Please contact us today if we can help your business.
Transferring very high quality premium foil stamping to labes is one of our most important skills. We have the equipment, people, and experience to set your label apart from the competition. For over 25 years, this has been one of our key selling points in the label market. Other label companies even send work to us because of our expertise.
Top Notch Equipment
Two years ago, we invested in a state of the art foil stamping machine. This new machine is outlined in this video from our YouTube Channel – please click here to see it. These key features make this press the best in the industry.
State of the Art servo web transport
Amazing image quality
Large 9″ x 9″ image area
Solid construction for embossing and stamping
Touch screen accuracy and reliability
Most Experienced Operators
Our foil stamp operators have been with the business for years. Most have had other jobs within the company, but they are full trained and experienced in foil stamp operation. Recently we had a factory service technician in for machine repairs and upgrades. He also provided advanced training for us.
Artwork that Works
Premium foil stamping starts with proper artwork. During our recent training session, we trained our graphics team as well as the press operators. We know that the more the design side of the business understands the print production, the better results we will get on our premium foil stamping projects.
Call Us Today
Our premium foil stamping department is booming, but we always have time to add new customers to the Rose City Label family. Call us today for a free, no obligation consultation to see how we can help take your labels to the next level.
The highly efficient HP Indigo WS6600 Digital Label System takes label printing to a whole new level! With minimal waste, exact quantity label production and reduced obsolescence- printing labels digitally is the most environmentally conscious method of creating high quality labels to showcase your brand. How do we do it?
It starts with the plate-less servo driven printing system, which allows us to print the exact amount of labels you need. In order to maintain cost efficiency on a flexo printed label, you may have to produce many more labels than you really need. But sometimes those “extra” labels become obsolete. In those instances, the obsolete labels ultimately end up in landfills. Why not print exactly what you need exactly when you need it?
It only takes a few feet of material to set up the HP Indigo. That is significantly less material than it’s flexographic counterpart. And using less material in set up means less waste in the environment and less cost to you. It’s a Win- Win!
And speaking of lowering costs… Rose City Label now offers even LOWER prices on digitally printed labels! So now is the perfect time to call Rose City Label for your next digitally printed label. You will be glad you did!
Same great service! Same great quality – with more competitive prices! Give us a call today!
Artwork that Works
