Making your bottle labels stand out

The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market is a notoriously difficult market to master, as many of you may know or have experience of.

Research suggests that consumers are most likely to switch brands in the FMCG category, meaning it’s even harder to retain loyal customers. With consumers switching brands via an unpredictable thought process, making brand loyalty a thing of the past has inevitably made capturing and engaging your target audience more important than ever.

Labels not only offer information about your product but serve as a valuable marketing tool to sell your products and promote your brand.

Here are Labels Plus’ top tips to make your drinks bottle labels stand out.

1) Attract attention

Packaging and labelling are essential in helping attract attention to your product. Different colours, fonts and images can help draw your customer’s eye to your product.

By distinguishing your product with unique, stand-out drink labels, you can stand out from competitors and reinforce your brand. Only the best packaging stands out on a crowded shelf amongst many other available drinks.

Using distinctive and easily recognisable branding also provides a reference point for satisfied customers to continue to buy your products.

2) USP – Unique Selling Point

Your bottled drinks labels need to highlight how your product is unique. By making your USP instantly visible and easily recognisable to your customers you are offering them a reason to choose you over your competitors.

Examples of USPs for bottled beverages may include:

• Alcohol percentage
• The flavour of the beverage
• Sugar content
• Source (e.g. spring water from x source) 
• Quality of Ingredients 

3) Easy to distinguish

If you have several variations of your beverage, you need to make it easy for customers to recognise your brand, whilst still noticing the product is a different flavour or variation.

This is common in alcohol and soft drinks, where you may have diet or alcohol-free versions of a popular product. Think Coca-Cola, red for “original”, silver for “diet” or black for “zero”. Whilst all three variations feature their classic logo, they are easy to tell apart, allowing consumers to make an informed decision when choosing your product from a crowded shelf.

4) Representing your brand

You have to do all this whilst continuing to represent your brand. When designing and creating a bottled drinks label, you need to ensure it fits your brand values.

Getting all this information onto one bottled drinks label can seem daunting, but if your USP tells customers exactly why they should choose you and you provide consistent branding you’re well on your way to cracking the FMCG market.

Examples of drink labels and brand messaging

When you think “drinks”, there are probably a few companies that spring to mind. The front runners in the drinks industry are so well established, as is their branding, that you can spot it on a shelf from a mile away. 

Coca-Cola – Original Taste

Coca-Cola is a long-established product, bought to the UK market in 1910. Originally, Coca-Cola was only available in glass bottles, which were absent of their now famous red branding. 

The red variation of Coca-Cola, also known as “full fat” Coke, is cleverly named “Original Taste”. This takes the focus away from the fact that this variation is a high-calorie, high-sugar product, and refocuses buyers on its originality.

Along with their advertising strapline “happiness with every sip”, Coca-Cola position themselves as a trusted drinks supplier, engaging with both existing and new customers.

Their plastic and glass bottles feature their infamous red branding and unique, recognisable logo. These plastic drinks labels are waterproof and long lasting, making them the ideal solution for a beverage label.

Jack Daniels

Another recognisable drinks brand in the Alcohol sector is Jack Daniels. Jack Daniels is a Whiskey brand that traditionally used black and white in their labelling with bold “manly” text.

Every variation of their whiskey also includes “Old No.7 Brand” on their label, this is a shoutout to Jack Daniels origins and was said to have been Jack Daniels tax number when he started the brand. It’s become so recognisable as part of the Jack Daniels branding that it has become a staple feature of their labels.

Each bottle also references “Tennesse” – this is where Jack Daniels was founded by Jasper (Jack) Newton Daniel. This is a reference to the Whiskey’s origin, with the Jack Daniels distillery the oldest in America.

Jack Daniels has gone on to adapt their brand colours over the years to reflect their new product offerings, such as their Tennesse Honey and Tennesse Fire whiskey ranges. Whilst these labels were white and red rather than the original black, the iconic Jack Daniels branding made them stand out for long-established fans of the brand.

Jack Daniels branding alongside their simple and effective strapline of “Make It Count”, makes the alcohol manufacturer one of Britain’s largest suppliers.

High-Quality Drinks Labels For Your Brand

At LabelsPlus we have over 20 years of experience supplying high-quality, custom labels to suit your bottled drinks label requirements. Using the latest printing technology and high-quality inks, we create clean and sharp images, with vibrant colours to help get your products noticed.

We’re certain we can find the right solution for your bottled drinks labels.

To find out more about how LabelsPlus can help your business, call us on +44 (0) 1663 736250.