Labels + Shrink Sleeves: Getting More Out of Less
Custom metallic colors on a shrink sleeve by Ameri-Seal make the VO5 Extreme Style line stand out on shelves.
Labelers take on the challenges of cost, space, and their carbon footprint.
By Amy C. QuickAlthough the spotlight continues to shine on eco-friendly labels, industry insiders confide that the larger ongoing concern is the cost to produce any type of label. As the price of raw materials and operating costs steadily increases, it’s become necessary to consider ways to achieve cost control.
Manufacturers are coming up with innovative ways to create dazzling labels that won’t break their banks—or their clients’. In some cases, this is simply a matter of substituting one material for a cheaper alternative. For brands also facing print-space limitations, the answer lies in extended-text labels, which also save costs.
Space Exploration
If the global marketplace’s demand for multilingual labeling isn’t enough cause for concern, the pending FDA monograph revision on sunscreen labeling should be. The publication of the revision, which is expected sometime in 2009, will strong-arm labelers into cramming a ton of regulatory information onto sunscreen labels. And not just regular sunscreen—Holly C. Young, president and CEO of consulting and label design firm Hirschhorn + Young Graphics (New York City), points out that the monograph will affect “anything with a sunscreen ingredient making a sun-protection claim, including makeup and moisturizers.”
Upcoming FDA monograph revisions for sunscreen labeling are met head-on with Hirschhorn + Young’s award-winning SunFun sunscreen give-away product.
Reducing the type size on a label can only be effective to the point that it’s still readable, so extended-text labels can save the day when legibility is in danger of being compromised. Hirschhorn + Young was awarded the top Marketing/Advertising Innovations award by the Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers and Distributors association in June, for a product featuring an extended-text label. With the goal of demonstrating a solution to FDA’s upcoming monograph requirements, the firm created the SunFun Sunscreen Giveaway Product, which had ample space for text thanks to a multipage label provided by Quality Assured Label (Hopkins, MN).
Eco-Driven Materials
Cost, understandably, is also a major concern among companies wishing to promote environmental sustainability.
A popular choice for shrink sleeves, PLA (polylactic acid, from corn) has been taking heat from critics who claim that the reportedly eco-friendly resin has turned corn production into a costly and food-supply-depleting practice. Plastic Suppliers Inc./EarthFirst Brands (Columbus, OH) offers a PLA film made from Ingeo polymers that are derived from renewable plant sources. Such film has been used in the labeling of Nude Cosmetics and Garnier products.
Compostable and made from carbon-neutral Ingeo polymer, the EarthFirst PLA film is currently produced from corn, but the feedstock pool is large, and can include any sugar-producing plant such as sugar beets, rice, and sugarcane. Bob Latker, Western regional sales manager of EarthFirst Brands, justifies the use of corn to produce the resin for PLA. “Less than half of 1% of all corn production is used to feed the Ingeo PLA resin facility,” he says. “Therefore, it does not contribute to world hunger and has really little to do with the cost of corn.” He also maintains that corn-resin prices remain stable in comparison to those with petrochemicals.
Companies wishing to take other routes to promote environmental sustainability are enjoying a wide range of options these days. FiberStone is a material created by Natural Source Printing that uses no trees, water, or bleach in its production—and only half the energy of traditional virgin fiber. It can be paired with eco-friendly adhesives and recycled with HDPE plastics.
MACtac Printing Products (Stow, OH) offers a washaway adhesive, WA105, which can be removed from glass containers with hot water. It also offers a dissolvable paper that can be removed from plastic containers in the dishwasher before the container itself is (hopefully) tossed into the recycling bin.
Sensitive Design
Beyond the pressing concerns of text space and sustainability lies exciting innovation in label design purely for the sake of catching the customer’s eye—or nose. Scentisphere (Carmel, NY) offers a wide range of scented labels. “There is no better way to promote a product than sampling it,” according to James Berard, the company’s CEO, whose clients are companies that want potential buyers to experience a product’s scent before it’s even off the shelf. “Compared with many other sampling methods, labels are relatively inexpensive,” Berard points out. Scentisphere’s latest offering is the Scent-a-Peel, a resealable, clear film label that can be applied directly over graphics and repeatedly peeled back to expose a scent.
Continental Packaging Solutions (Chicago) believes so strongly in the power of sensory appeal that it has begun working with a technology that will allow a plastic package to exhibit a flavor as well as a scent. Whether such a gimmick will be useful in labeling remains to be seen, but it’s hard to deny the lure of sensory stimulation of any kind.
Ameri-Seal (Chatsworth, CA) has taken notice of the attraction to metallic inks on shrink sleeves and has the ability to create custom metallic colors to suit clients’ needs. This offering appealed to VO5 in its labeling of the VO5 Extreme Style line by Alberto-Culver USA. For its Curl Defining Crème, the company enlisted Ameri-Seal to print a PETG heat-shrinkable shrink sleeve with eight metallic colors, three of which were custom made for the line. Ameri-Seal is now in the process of creating special inks that will exhibit a glittery, mirrored effect.
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