WANTED: HIGH-IMPACT, SOPHISTICATED, MULTILINGUAL LABEL

To say the label market has changed significantly over the last few years may well be an understatement. Global growth, legal and regulatory developments, counterfeit deterrence and brand protection impose new challenges and requirements on the label industry. Technology has not been standing still, but is there a technology capable of meeting most, if not all, of the requirements?

Maximize shelf appeal
In a brand-saturated world where thousands of products are competing for customers’ attention and buying decisions are made quickly, based often on emotional
rather than rational responses, standing out from the crowd is crucial. As the saying goes ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’. Test marketing of packaging and labels has gained importance as packaging, and labeling for that matter, have become powerful tools to differentiate products. Marketeers and designers let their imagination run wild. Labels are no longer just labels; they are attention-seeking works of art.

Print more, faster and cheaper
Industry globalization, rapidly increasing product variety, drastically shortening product life cycles and just-in-time production are the challenges label printers, even more than other printers, face today. In addition, profit margins are shrinking. Today’s tagline has become ‘fast and flexible… at low or no cost’. Label printers need to find a way to increase their added value and to drive down expenses. Print on demand would allow just-in-time production of multi-version product labels while reducing inventory and waste, and therefore costs, which is undoubtedly the answer the sector is looking for.

Protect brand integrity
Industry globalization has not only led to an increase in the import and export of branded products. The problems of counterfeiting and piracy continue to increase at the same pace. Not only high-value added products such as designer goods and medicines are being targeted, but even more mundane ones. This is why there is a definite trend towards more sophisticated, clever labeling to include overt and covert product tracing and brand protection features such as RFID and barcodes or sequential numbering, the use of visible and invisible security inks, as well as other variable data features to discourage forgery and make replication harder.

Follow the rules
Authorities worldwide are placing increasing emphasis on consumer health and safety. Products are being distributed on a global scale, but legal and regulatory
requirements differing from one country to another, products labels differ, not only in language, but also in content. Labels designed for products to be exported to
multi-lingual countries will have to contain all text in all official languages. This requirement poses specific challenges to the design of labels and the volume of text
that needs to be legible, which leads to the need to be able to print in different fonts, font sizes and, if necessary, on labels of flexible size or shape.