How to make labels that respond to customer expectations

Your product, no matter what it is, will almost certainly never be the only one of its kind on the planet. Competition is the name of the game, and the consumer increasingly bombarded with marketing will be coming to your line of items with ideas about whatever it is you’re selling. If this happens to be something edible, then your food labels ought to be ready to counter the worries a customer might already have learned from previous trips to the supermarket.

This holds true for foods that create the illusion of being healthier or more “natural” than they actually are, and such ambiguity will most likely give your potential buyers cause to wonder. A piece from NOLA.com and the Times-Picayune finds dietician Molly Kimball taking a closer look at everyday, widely available foods that seem innocuous, but pack the calories, carbs and sugars that consumers might be trying to avoid.

She notes that some brands of granola can contain “more [calories] than a McDonald’s hamburger,” and warns against the rose-colored glasses consumers can wear when shopping for things like yogurts, smoothies and pretzels.

So the question becomes how do you make labels that are not perceived as disingenuous? The answer might depend on how much product space you have to work with, but avoiding broad claims and placing nutrition information or relevant warnings in an easy-to-read section of packaging can help the customer make a better decision and keep the risk of complaints on the low side. Make use of a color label printer to reach those goals.