Ten years ago, “transparency” may have seemed like a buzzword that was only significant to natural product brands and their own niche market. Today, it’s a concern for all types of consumers of all types of products, from the local farm down the street to massive data collectors like Google and Apple. Whatever your business is, if you haven’t been thinking about and implementing more transparent practices, you’re likely being overlooked by a large portion of potential buyers. According to a report from
Label Insight on the ROI of Transparency, an incredible 94% of consumers are likely to be loyal to a brand they feel is transparent, and 73% said they’d be “willing to be pay more for a product that offers complete transparency in all attributes.”
While those numbers make the importance of transparency obvious, the best way to go about being transparent may not be as apparent. Even once you’ve decided it’s time to be transparent, whether about your ingredients, sourcing, internal practices, or anything else, you may struggle to communicate those values to potential buyers. In today’s digital world, the value of using social media, a blog, and your website to share authentic information about your brand can not be overstated; however, while those platforms are integral to communicating with consumers who are already engaged with you in some way, they don’t lend themselves to converting potential buyers in the store who have never heard of your brand.
Luckily, your label and packaging are still front-line marketing tools that offer an instantaneous way to share transparently with consumers. Here are three compelling ways you can use your product label to enhance your communication around transparency initiatives.
While your label design may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re considering methods of communicating about your business practices and identity, don’t underestimate its power! Humans are visually driven in much that we do, and product choices are no exception. We are also social creatures, and we’ve learned to associated certain colors and design elements with particular brand attributes. While trends in design change over time and every brand is unique especially in their transparency initiatives, make sure your label communicates the values you want it to. Neutral color palettes and minimalistic design may reflect your choices of naturally sourced ingredients or eco-friendly business practices. That doesn’t mean you can’t use bold elements on your label if those align with your brand and goals; as long as you are making conscious choices about what your color and design choices convey, your label can help you convert consumers. In fact, bold elements may be entirely appropriate if you want to incorporate our next recommendation, informative graphics.
JBN uses metallic highlights and green typography on a clean white background to instantly demonstrate the type of product their Earth Superior Veggie Protein is.
Informative graphics are one of our favorite methods of communication, and when it comes to using your label to communicate transparency, they can’t be beat. They are simple and highly effective. When buyers are making a split-second decision about a product purchase, they are not likely to take the time to read an ingredient list or a paragraph about your origin story. However, with a few easy-to-digest graphics that instantly demonstrate product features, you can communicate much information that can sway a buyer. There are many graphics that brands use regularly and are universally recognized, like the green and white “Certified Organic” or blue “Non-GMO Project Verified,” but your choices with informative graphics are truly limitless. Many of our partner brands use them with great creativity to share product and facility information that otherwise may take too much time to impart to a consumer.
Our partner Collagen for Her uses informative graphics to communicate tons of product information quickly and effectively.
Imagine your thoughtful design choices and use of infographics engage a buyer enough so they pick up your product off the shelf. How about adding an extra layer of communication that is interactive to solidify that purchase? Using interactive elements on your label to convince that consumer to engage further with your brand is a powerful way to communicate about your transparency and build a meaningful relationship with that person.
QR codes are a great way to accomplish this connection, and there are extensive ways to use them to your advantage. They can link to social media or your website where you can communicate in a more extensive way about transparency strategies. Or, even better, how about linking a QR code to a virtual tour of your facility or taking a customer on a journey through your supply chain?
We also offer extended content labels that offer a creative low-tech way to interactively engage with consumers. While many OTC pharmaceutical and industrial companies use extended content labels to list ingredient lists and product warnings, how about giving your customers the thrill that comes with physically peeling open a label and finding helpful or creative messaging inside? Any way you go with interactive label elements, you’re sure to establish bonds with your customers that can’t be undervalued.
Once you’ve established strategies to be transparent, it is essential that you communicate those efforts to customers. Having consistent messaging is integral, so don’t forget that your label is part of your marketing strategy! The experts at Dion Label Printing can guarantee you a label of superior quality, so whatever choices your make to be transparent, we can help you realize your goals.
Request a Quote today to get started communicating more effectively about your transparency initiatives with consumers!
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