Industry Talk

Regular Industry Development Updates, Opinions and Talking Points relating to Manufacturing, the Supply Chain and Logistics.

How Do Product and Shipping Labels Affect Brand Visibility?

Retail sales models change constantly, with customers’ preferences and access to online shopping methods empowering companies that sell directly to shoppers. Keeping up with these trends means more than just selling goods through a website. Companies have to routinely reassess their operations to make sure they’re not missing out on opportunities to improve their competitiveness.

One evolving concept worth watching is branding. When brick-and-mortar stores were the default ways to discover new products, the labels on individual items were businesses’ most effective showcases for logos and other brand-related imagery. Now, with consumers often ordering goods directly from manufacturers and retailers online, shipping labels and external packaging has become a key location for messaging.

Shipping Labels: Miniature Billboards
Plain cardboard boxes aren’t useful for branding. Adding a dash of branding in the form of a shipping label changes that fact. Future Market Insights’ recent overview of the shipping label market noted that companies are especially interested in using tough and weather-resistant labels to make sure their customized brand imagery is visible and attractive when packages arrive at their destinations. Seeing the same branded packages over time can reinforce a company’s identity and help encourage loyalty.

The imagery needed to create compelling shipping labels likely already exists: Companies’ individual product labels bear branded designs. Adapting those logos, fonts and more for the limited space available on boxes and other mailers allows businesses to coordinate their visual appeal across channels.

The Psychology of Loyalty
According to Labels & Labeling, recent Avery UK research on customer psychology revealed the most potent and useful elements of label design. People are interested in colorful imagery and bigger labels, and when these kinds of traits catch their eyes, consumers may stop and make a purchase. When it comes to shipping labels, similar design principles apply with slightly different objectives. Rather than making people stop and look, brands are trying to make their items memorable to inspire loyalty and repeat purchases.

The researchers indicated when it comes to shipping labels, two may be better than one. Companies can go beyond basic address labels and add extra branded stickers to e-commerce packages. People receiving boxes adorned with multiple stickers tended to display positive emotions, presenting a good impression of the company that may guide decision-making when it’s time to make another order.

In a market increasingly split between traditional shopping and e-commerce, creating a compelling look and expressing it across in-store and at-home purchases may prove essential from a branding perspective. There’s never been a better time to upgrade labeling capabilities.