Types of Labels: Their Components & Uses

Most vendors specialize in either manufacturing cartons, or sticker labels to attach to your products. Which makes it very difficult to coordinate these two most important features of brand identity. Only a handful of companies in India have the capacity to design and print both secure product cartons and different types of labels used on a product.

No matter what product you specialize in, once your goods hit the vast retail market, it is vital to protect your brand against counterfeiting. Over the years, companies have applied various changes to their packaging and labeling to ensure better security for their brand identity. Some of the biggest challenges of this critical brand identification process are -

(a) Balancing brand identity with individuality when altering designs

(b) Ensuring the quality of different types of labels used on a single product

(c) Matching your overall packaging with the external labels

The stickers used for packaging may need to have special qualities like heat resistance, or resistance to very cold temperatures; but they must always be as tamper proof as possible. Some of the more secure kinds like the ones used on electronics cannot be removed without leaving behind a mark that is easy to identify. Consumer goods, usually use less expensive transparent labels, but can be recognized instantly if tampered with after application.

Here are some of the basic kinds of labels used on retail products -

(i) Information Labels: These are the large stickers attached to most consumer goods, especially FMCG products with all the necessary product information. The information printed include lists of ingredients, statutory warnings, instructions to use the products, and a host of other important data. With so much vital information to print, it is necessary to make sure that the printers proof the content well before making these labels. A single mistake regarding the list of ingredients or warnings have caused entire batches of a product to get recalled!

(ii) Hologram and Security Stickers: Among the different types of labels used on a product, hologram and security stickers are the biggest protection for a brand against counterfeiting. These specialized prints are almost impossible to replicate, and it protects the brand's hallmark and identity from dubious goods copying the packaging style of popular brands. Some security labels are directly printed on to the external packaging cartons, while others are hand pasted on the product as the final part of the packaging process.

(iii) Bar Codes and Digital Identification: These days, all legitimate brands make sure that their bar codes and digital identification labels are a final step to protect brand individuality. The major retail stores also use these stickers to make sure that each individual item is tagged and identified amongst hundreds of products. While there are various types of labels used on a single product; bar codes and digital identification stickers are often used by both manufacturers and retailers at different stages.

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