Report: Food product labels growing more important to consumers

Emphasizing the right elements of a food label can help your brand respond to customer needs and get products noticed on the shelves. For optimal customer response, businesses can pay attention to the aspects of a product that their desired base looks at the most and the successful packaging trends that have helped a product stand out in the past.

The shape of a food package and the elements it emphasizes help define it at a glance. In a piece for Branding Magazine, Elizabeth Smithson brings up examples like Heinz and Pringles as brands that are associated strongly with specific designs.

The Hartman Group recently released an infographic to accompany a new Health & Wellness report for 2015 outlining consumer food label preferences. Based on responses from more than 1,560 adults between the ages of 18 and 79, the report found that the amount of consumers that look at product labels for health and wellness information is on the rise. Specifically, the number increased by 4 percentage points between 2013 and May of 2015, when the survey was fielded.

This infographic also shows some of the most popular things that customers look for when reading a food label. Of these criteria, the most significant concerned items that are “good for my heart,” which accounted for 75 percent of the responses. However, the two elements that saw the biggest growth between 2010 and 2015 were “ingredients I recognize” and the “shortest lists of ingredients.”

“Consumers are paying closer attention to food and beverage labels, scrutinizing what’s on the label more today than ever before,” the caption for the graphic states.

One option for food companies that know their product labels are going to be scrutinized is to use a Primera LX900 Color Label Printer. This printer helps users combine complexity with ease of production for a custom look.