Labeling Innovations from Weber

When I think about February, I always think of chocolate. It's a month full of Valentine's Day sweets! To celebrate we're highlighting our friends at GrownUp KidStuff. They produce delicious gourmet chocolate sauces and use visually-striking labels.

A Gourmet Artisan Brand

GrownUp KidStuff is a family-owned business out of Evanston, IL that specializes in artisan sauces. They make 4 chocolate sauces, a butterscotch and a caramel each packed in 11 ounce jars.

Like many other small businesses, GrownUp KidStuff must compete for shelf space and sales with long-established, national brands.

As a result, the job of standing apart from these mega-brands often relies on attractive labeling.

The label, designed by Don Strandell, underscores the playfulness of the company name while incorporating important product, nutritional and warming information. Unfortunately, they were having some challenges with their labels color consistency when we met them.

The HP Indigo Solution

We invited GrownUp KidStuff co-owners Don Strandell and Connie Wastcoat to our plant for a tour and to discuss their current label challenges.

After a discussion on color consistency and quantity we determined the best solution for their labels is to print them on the HP Indigo WS6000 digital label press.

Brands like GrownUp KidStuff do not have the space to hold an inventory of labels and often make changes to their products based on the demands of their customers. Running these on the digital press keeps their order minimums low and allows for even smaller minimums on one label and higher quantities for their most popular flavors.

Our Graphics team worked with the label designer, Strandell, to select the specific browns they wanted to be a part of every label.  We also made sure the label material could withstand the storage environment.  Chocolate sauce jars are stored on store shelves, refrigerators and heated in a microwave. Not only does our Semigloss material hold up to those changes but with the added laminate any sauce that touches the label will not ruin the design or wipe out important health information.

We understand that the package needs to represent the hard work Strandell and Wastcoat put into their work. A high-quality product shouldn't be packaged with a poor quality label.

Back in 2005, when the Julian Pie Company was experiencing phenomenal growth, the company realized that it needed to add automation to an awkward, labor-intensive operation of labeling and sealing its boxes of freshly-baked fruit pies.

Now, after over eight years on the production line, the company knows it made the right decision when it chose labels and a custom system from Weber Packaging Solutions to solve its dilemma.

Recently, while exhibiting at a trade show in the area, a few members of our Marketing team decided to swing by Julian Pie Company's bakery to see how things are going now that they've automated their labeling process.

One of the hot trends we discovered at the Dairy Deli Bake trade show was many brands are offering multiple flavors for their products. This included:

• Limited Edition Flavors
• Seasonal Flavors
• Experimental Flavors

Let's say you have a business that specializes in jams and sauces. You might want a special holiday jam or to test a new flavor combination for your hot sauce line.

The more flavors you can offer, the bigger your potential customer base. But this can also lead to some packaging challenges.

If you want to use the same label size and label art for every flavor, you can simply have labels preprinted and then later imprint the variable information, such as ingredients or nutrition fact, on-site using a Zebra or Datamax thermal-transfer label printer.

Labels are the perfect medium for informing consumers about the nutrition and ingredients in packaged food but they can also be the best place to share your story and connect with a consumer.

Here are a couple of ways that you can share your story with consumers, from the farmer's market to grocery store shelves:

Reach out with QR Codes

QR codes work well on labels because consumers can connect with your brand at the store or even later after the purchase.

Scanning the code can direct the consumer to your company's website or a social media page where they can continue to connect with your brand by getting more information, coupons, special deals or other content that helps build a relationship.

Share your biography

Include a short story or summary on your prime label about the growers or producers of the food. Including a picture of the farmer or the farm also adds a personalized touch to the product's label.

In the example below, not only does the label include a picture of the farmer, but they also included a biography about their brand. This jar label will definitely sticks out at the farmer's market or the shelves of the grocery store.

Seafood consumers were surprised by the recent report from Oceana about seafood labeling, which uncovered widespread mislabeling of seafood nationwide, including the fact that nearly 40 percent of the fish tested from restaurant menus were mislabeled.

The report highlighted the weaknesses in current seafood labeling regulations and enforcement of rules. Because of this, the U.S. Congress is working on two bills, HR 1012 and S 520.

However, at this time it is unclear this early on if the bills will gain traction.

To learn more about this, I sat down with our Vertical Markets manager, Paul Johnson. Paul has been researching the labeling issues facing the seafood industries and how we can help them.

He explained to me that ultimately the problem comes down to the lack of specificity in documentation during seafood business transactions.

The more information these seafood companies can provide on their packaging or label, the better.

It is important that seafood packaging includes:

• Harvest location, Date and Method (wild or farmed)
• Expiration Date
• Species, including market name and scientific name
• Product count and weight

Seafood companies are working with several companies and organizations to ensure that the information on the package is accurate.

Here are three options seafood companies are using for traceability

By Chuck Pullich
Weber Prime Media Manager