While creating a great product should be the first and foremost priority of any small business, labeling and branding that product can be just as important companies as they need to be able to distinguish themselves from major corporations and other small businesses with less press. This is especially true in the craft brew industry as there are so many microbreweries all over the country, many of whom use custom labels that do not represent the quality of their product.
“As much innovation as brewers show in flavors and technique, until recently craft beer was still largely an industry of home brewers who went pro,” said Greg Heller-Labelle, editor of craft beer label art blog The Pour Curator to MSNBC. “Brewing, especially in production, is a craft of precision, and lots of brewers are very conservative in their approach to everything, which is why we get lots of pictures of mountains, rivers and hops on bottles.”
An example of such a company is the Belgian beer, Westvleteren. Although the beer may have been deemed as the best in the world, its labels could certainly use an upgrading. To begin, the brewery doesn’t even put a label on its bottles in Europe and only puts one on its American battles for tradition, mostly. Although some breweries may find this hurts sales, Westvleteren usually sells out rather quickly due to its exceptional reputation.
While many of these brewers may think that their reputation for quality eliminates the need for custom labels, that isn’t always the case as many of these companies hardly have the budget to ship their products nationally. To make a label that not only pops off the shelf but also truly represents the quality of the product behind it, beer masters may want to invest in a custom label printer that is capable of producing the quality labels needed to make the difference.
Leave a Reply