Labels focus: Bite-size booklets become essential reading

It’s the classic conundrum – lots of information and only a small pack to fit it on. Once ingredients, nutritional information, usage instructions, the manufacturer’s details and other mandatory information has been accounted for – often in several languages – the space needed can far exceed the size of the pack.

One solution is a fold-out or leaflet label. Labels with extra layers are used in food, pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals and toiletries when space is short. But multi-fold labels can offer much more than a place to hide away excess information. From promotions, to improving pharmaceutical compliance, the leaflet label is not to be underestimated.

Unilever uses two-layer peelable labels on its deodorants, to cram information into relatively small spaces. “They are, for us, an essential part of the pack,” says Unilever deodorant category packaging director Paul Howells. “We have a very small pack and lots of information. For Europe, we would cluster information for four or five different countries into one label,” he adds.

Baby-product retailer Mothercare followed a similar philosophy when it used a Fix-a-Form multi-page label from Denny Bros, to include multi-language instructions on its baby toiletries range. Nine different languages were collated on to the 10-page label, which meant Mothercare only needed one stock-keeping unit (SKU) for all its licensees around the world.

Hidden cost savers
Paul Jones, key account manager at self-adhesive label firm Skanem, believes these “hidden cost savers” are a big advantage. “Every market is driven by one thing: reducing complexity,” he says. Set-up costs are an expensive part of the process and increase in price when multiple skus are called for. Therefore, printing fewer types of labels reduces this expense.”

Cosmetics giant L’Oréal was historically hesitant about moving to leaflet labels like the ‘peel-and-read’ range supplied by Skanem. It was only after its acquisition of The Body Shop, another Skanem customer, in 2006 that L’Oréal began to carry out feasibility studies into using the labels on its products.

“When you’re an international company, you have to worry about capacity and contingency issues, because tenders and volumes are much bigger,” says Jones. Moving to fewer skus through the grouping of country-specific information allows suppliers to store greater volumes of stock so they can react quicker to the shorter lead times companies are working to in the current difficult economic climate.

Promotional labels have also received interest as the recession has bitten. “Running an on-pack promotion with a label is a very quick way to run a promo,” says Fix-A-Form International managing director Andrew Denny. “It’s very easy for supermarkets and retailers to handle the product without extra displays and it doesn’t require extra packaging.”

The health and beauty sector was the pioneer of the leaflet label, but according to Denny other markets are catching up. “Now we have beverage companies coming on board for cocktail recipes, and they are used on pharmaceutical packaging because of legislation about what they have to include.”

Getting attached
As well as their capacity for holding extra information, leaflet labels can provide other benefits for pharmaceutical packaging, such as improving patient compliance. In 2005, Denny Bros conducted a survey into the pharmaceutical sector. It found that while 72% of those interviewed placed a blister pack back in the carton after use, only 54% kept the written instructions. This can be especially problematic for over-the-counter remedies, which people regularly share with others. Around a third of those surveyed said they would be encouraged to hold on to the instructions if they were attached to the pack.

But what if the leaflet were attached to the blister pack? CCL Labels has recently received a licence to attach a leaflet on to its doseguard child-resistant blister pack labels. Access to the blisters is denied to children by a peel-off label and push access to the tablets. A leaflet label can then be attached to the pack so brands can ensure consumers do not dispose of the instructions if they throw away the carton.

As well as keeping pharmaceuticals safe from children, CCL is working to make them safe from counterfeiters. Colour-shift inks have been part of CCL’s portfolio for a number of years, but are only now being applied to leaflet labels. The inks appear to change colour when viewed from different angles – an effect that is very difficult for counterfeiters to replicate. The same idea is applied to CCL’s Secureshiftlabels. “This makes it a very different pack, because when you move the label back and forth the ink colour changes,” explains Witnall.

A lot of testing is required when developing new leaflet labels to ensure their durability throughout the supply chain and storage. Denny believes that “the quality of the product is set”, meaning opportunities for the manufacturers come from new markets and applications as opposed to new labels.

Simon Preece, brand consultant at design agency Elmwood, acknowledges the benefits leaflet labels can bring to a pack, especially those restricted by size and regulations, but argues that the whole sector has been stuck in a rut for some time. “Fifteen years ago, leaflet labels were a great new thing, but what’s the compelling reason for using them now?” he asks.

Compelling
Preece argues that these labels are being used in a functional rather than inspirational manner and encourages brands to think of new ways to use them. “It’s just another message,” he says. “If it’s going to be used it’s got to be used in a compelling way.”

In Preece’s opinion, the format should be embraced by emerging or challenger brands that may not have a large marketing spend, but want to target customers directly. “It’s an opportunity to engage in conversations with consumers,” he explains.

As the recession continues, leaflet labels may become more prevalent. They have proved to be a key promotional tool for the FMCG market, while behind the scenes they have enabled shorter lead times to be met as companies de-stock to boost their cashflow. Attaching information directly to the pack, in the form of a leaflet label rather than a standard leaflet, has also proved beneficial for the pharmaceutical industry – improving patient compliance by reducing the risk of vital information being thrown away. Although multi-fold labels have been around for a while, there’s more to the concertinas of paper than first meets the eye.

Case study: A quick fix
Um Bongo, Um Bongo, they drink it in the Congo. As we all know, the python picked the passion fruit, the marmoset the mandarin, but it was Denny Bros that stuck a Fix-a-Form label on the pack to promote a giveaway.

In tough economic times when consumers’ buying power is reduced, brands have to do everything they can to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Adding value through promotions, freebies and helpful information can be an easy and relatively inexpensive way to do this. In the case of Um Bongo, this included collectable stickers for kids.

Denny Bros has experienced an increasing number of requests for its Fix-a-Form business from companies looking to use the leaflet labels for promotions. Scottish whisky brand The Famous Grouse, for example, applied a four-page Fix-a-Form label with drinks recipes on to its 70cl bottles in the UK.

Marmite was another brand that asked for Denny Bros’ help in the promotion of its Mad for Marmart campaign, which encouraged buyers to get into art. A 12-page fold-out label told consumers they could get a free Marmart lunchbox, art mat and stencils if they collected tokens.

Case study: Message on a bottle
In 2006, an Australian marketing student came up with the idea of attaching a magazine to a drinks bottle. Joanna Wojtalik launched Modern Media Concepts, now On Product Publishing (OPP), in Melbourne as a vehicle to license her idea for a magazine on a bottle.

The Labelzine technology allows a removable, full-colour mini-magazine of eight to 32 pages to be applied to packaging. It is currently manufactured under licence in 22 locations globally, including Denny Bros in the UK.

Coca-Cola has already jumped on the technology in Europe. In April 2007, free mini copies of fashion magazine Glam*IT were attached to PET Coca-Cola Light bottles in Belgium. Tetra Pak has also signed a global agreement with OPP to offer the Labelzine to customers after trialling it in Switzerland for marketing.

High print quality, bright colours and the novelty value mean the Labelzine is a good way of catching consumer’s attention as they walk past crowded shelves.

“Labelzine has proven to be effective in this critical moment of point of decision or point of purchase marketing,” says OPP chief executive Alex mckinnon. “It allows the product to engage more thoroughly with the consumer.”

Opp is currently developing high-speed applications. The company is also exploring labelzines for cups and the inclusion of digital and interactive technologies. Watch this space.

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