Everybody loves a winner. That includes distributors. If you’re selling labels, it feels great to jump on a winning train. What are the top label markets we see at Wise? Here are 10 markets you should be selling into, along with a quick look at things to know about each. Note that many of these markets have overlap in expertise and customer bases. If you are selling into one, it’s a natural step to sell into the other. Are there any opportunities you are overlooking?
Consumer Labels
The first three label markets fall under the broad category of consumer labels. These are labels applied to products sold into the consumer marketplace.
1. Retail labels and tags
While many products have their merchandising information printed directly on the package, others rely on labels, whether adhered during the manufacturing process or applied on-site at the store.
Distributors can sell into this market with fully printed labels (such as branded hang tags) or blank stock for printing on-site. Every consumer products manufacturer and many retail businesses need one or both of these labels. So who’s the potential customer? Pretty much every business out there.
Part of the value offered by distributors is helping your customers choose right label stock, with the right adhesive, for the intended application. At Wise, we can precut labels to the desired size, and if the labels require a protective top-coating, we can do that, too. Be sure to ask if your customers are having any compatibility issues between their labels and their on-site printing device. You may have the opportunity to sell them a compatible printer so that everything works smoothly.
2. Food and beverage labels
These labels are applied to the fronts and backs of the food and beverage products you see on retail shelves. There is always opportunity in this market because of its very stable nature. No matter the economy, people have to eat and drink.
The food and beverage label market can be divided into two sectors: prime labels (the colorful, customer-facing labels sold into the marketing department); and the back-facing product information (PI) labels showing the ingredients, nutritional information, and other information sold into operational departments.
Because prime labels are essentially commercial printing products, they create the opportunity to upsell customers to a wide range of premium printing services, including four-color process, foil stamping, and embossing. Once you are comfortable selling into this market, you are in a great position to start selling commercial printing, too.
For more on food and beverage labels, see our post “Color, Fancy, and Fun: Food and Beverage Labels.”
3. Marketing and promotional labels
These labels are applied to the exterior of product packaging (including over top of existing labels) as additional incentives to purchase the product. Examples include BOGO labels, discount labels, and peel-off coupon and prize labels. If you are selling food and beverage labels or packaging accounts, consumer labels are a perfect upsell to create additional value for these accounts. If you are not currently selling food and beverage labels or into packaging accounts, consumer labels can be a great door opener to get into accounts you might want to penetrate.
Industry Labels
The next six types of “top labels” can be categorized under the umbrella of industry labels. This broad category ranges from labels applied to everything from lawn mowers to chemical drums. In this category, labels are being applied to a vast diversity of substrates, with a range of textures, and expected to perform for varying lengths of periods of time, often under harsh conditions. It takes some doing to understand the relationship between the label materials, the substrate, and the necessary adhesives/coatings, but once you understand the basic issues, you will find these labels to be highly profitable.
This is where you have a leg up by working with Wise. We have been doing R&D on these applications for decades. You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to ask the right questions. Once you gain traction in one of these markets, such as industrial labels, you can take this expertise into similar markets, such as durable goods, GHS and HazCom labels, and UL labels, which share similar characteristics.
4. Industrial labels
These are high-value labels that offer tremendous opportunity because of their complex nature. Each label must have the right information, printed on the right substrate, using the right adhesive to match the client’s specifications. Labels applied to electronics will have a different set of specs, for example, than those applied to cans of automotive paint and cleaners. Some labels need to be easily removable. Others need to be permanent, no matter how harsh the conditions. Understanding the right combination of label material, substrate, and adhesive/coating can take years of R&D to consistently get it right.
That’s why, once these labels are designed, they tend to be sticky. (After you’ve gotten it right, your client isn’t likely to want to reinvent the wheel with somebody else.) They also tend to be very profitable. These labels are typically ordered on a regular schedule and have very few changes over time. For more, see our post “Where the Profit Is: Industrial & Prime Labels and Tags.”
5. GHS and HazCom Labels
These labels are applied to chemical drums and other containers that require proper labeling for safety. In no other market is it more important to ensure that the content of these labels is accurate and meets regulatory standards. These labels are often applied to the most challenging substrates, ranging from fire extinguishers to chemical drums. Like industrial labels, once this business is secured, it tends to be high-margin, sticky, and profitable. Once you win this business, these orders tend to come in rhythmically with little intervention. For more on GHS and HazCom labels, see our post “Winning Profitable Business by Protecting Clients from OSHA Violations.”
6. Healthcare Labels
Healthcare labels are designed to facilitate communications between a healthcare provider and its patients. Examples include medication, blood bag, and laboratory labels, among others. While many of these labels are printed on-site, the materials used cannot simply be purchased at an office supply store. The adhesive must match the substrate, whether paper, plastic, or glass, be resistant to smudging, and offer resistance to chemicals and solvents to which they could be exposed. Wise offers both the substrates and the compatible printers to print on them.
7. Durable Goods Labels
Unlike markets such as food and beverage, household products, and cosmetics, which are designed to be consumed immediately, durable goods are those such as household furnishings, consumer electronics, and vacuum cleaners that are designed to last over time. Labels on these products provide product information, pricing, and barcodes, and there are a lot of them. As in the other industry label categories, durable goods labels are complex puzzles as labels must adhere to any number of substrates that may be metal, plastic, or glass, under a variety of conditions, for a specified period of time.
8. UL-Certified Labels
In the world of electronics, products must be UL-certified to ensure safety to the end user. They must also be able to withstand moisture, UV, gasoline splash, and corrosive chemicals, and permanently adhere to the product, even under the harshest conditions. Like GHS, HazCom, industrial, and durable goods labels, UL labels require R&D to get the right pairing between the label, adhesive, and substrate. Wise can deliver UL-certified labels pre-printed, blank to be printed on-site, or in a combination of preprinted press graphics and variable information imprinted by thermal transfer.
9. Security Labels
Security labels may look unassuming, but they play a critical role in the safety, security, and profitability of your customers. Among their many roles, they ensure authenticity, provide secure tracking and tracing, deter counterfeiting, and prove that boxes or containers haven’t been opened or compromised. Examples include void labels and self-destructing labels that prove that the product hasn’t been tampered with, as well as holographic or serialized barcodes that prove authenticity. If the products are regulated, security labels protect your client from lawsuits or fines.
If you want to learn more about these labels, you can check out our blog post “Protecting Your Clients’ Profitability with Security Labels.”
10. RFID (radio-frequency identification) labels
These are labels containing tiny built-in transmitters that pair with an RFID reader to allow the product to be identified. Once the label is attached to a product (or pallet), it emits a signal that contains data that can be read from a distance by the RFID reader. RFID labels are frequently used in warehouses to track and manage inventory, but they have a wide range of consumer uses, as well. They can be applied to the window of a car to allow it to go into and out of a parking garage, for example, or to high-end consumer goods to prevent theft and fraud. Labels using RFID tags in the consumer and retail worlds are often called “smart labels.”
How many of these top label applications are you selling to your customers? If you are selling at least one, there is a good chance that the customer also needs one or more of the others. Most customers would rather deal with a single supplier than multiple suppliers, so start asking questions and see how many of these labels you can pull under a single roof.
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