Columnist

How to Market Your SME Using Labels

Most businesses use some form of printed materials in their marketing mix but for many, these printed marketing materials consist of a few typical items: flyers, leaflets, business cards, and possibly brochures.

Clearly, all of these materials have their place in the marketing mix, but it’s easy to forget some of the other (often less expensive) printed materials that are available. Labels/stickers are one particular marketing material that springs to mind here.

Unfortunately, very few small/medium-sized businesses use labels/stickers in their marketing mix (from my experience, at least) and personally, I think they’re missing a trick.

Labels are cheap to produce (literally pence) and have the power to take your brand to the next level.

In this post, I’m going to go through a few ideas that almost all of you can use to market your business using labels. Let’s go!

First Things First: Subtlety is the Key…

Before I start running through a few ideas for marketing your small/medium-sized business using labels, I want to talk about the golden rule: it’s all about subtlety.

Marketing your business with labels isn’t about trying to get a direct sale there and then (as it might be with a radio/newspaper/TV/in-store ad); it’s predominantly about raising brand awareness, and making sure that your company/brand is at the front of consumers mind right when it needs to be.

It’s also about subtle persuasion; you need to be able to persuade consumers that your product/service is the right one for them. This can be a challenge in retail, where many similar competing products will often surround your product.

So remember, labels aren’t the place for infomercial-style sales messages or a blatant “buy me!” attitude; they’re a place to reinforce your brand, your values, and your USP.

Now we’ve gotten that out of the way…

Here are a Couple of Ideas:

Now we’re on the same page regarding what labels are/aren’t going to do for your business, it’s time to run through a few actionable ideas for actually marketing your business.

Note: While these ideas will generally work for most businesses, you may have to adjust them slightly to make them work in your industry. I’ll do my best to offer ideas as we go run through them.

Let’s get started:

Idea 1: Give Labels Away to Create “Brand Ambassadors“

No matter what your business does, chances are you have a number of clients/customers that love everything about what you do.

Believe it or not, these people may be your biggest asset when it comes to marketing.

Think about it: these people love everything about your business. It doesn’t matter if you’re running a coffee shop, a marketing agency, a printing company, or even a morgue, these people are doing business with you rather than the competition, and there’s a reason for that: they identify with what you do.

Because of this, they’d probably love the opportunity to let the world know just how much they appreciate your company; this is where labels/stickers come in.

By printing a few labels/stickers and giving them to these people free of charge (perhaps along with a purchase, or as a simple “thanks” for being such a loyal customer/client over the years), they’ll essentially become your “brand ambassadors”.

Source: http://eeejay.github.io/presentations/HTML5/firefox_os.html?full#a-phone-for-the-rest-of-the-developers

They’ll happily stick these labels to their laptop(s) (see above), their car, and possibly some other belongings too. They might even give some to their friends.

When your newly created “brand ambassadors” do this, they’re effectively marketing your business for you by showcasing your brand.

If you refer back to the photo above, you’ll notice that aside from the stickers, the laptop also features the simple white Apple logo.

Sure, this isn’t a sticker, but the technique is exactly the same. Apple put their logo on their products (and even made it light up, in the case of their computers) so that when their customers use them, they act as ambassadors for the brand and raise awareness for the company.

Source: http://www.perfectfittech.com/products/iphone-5-5c-5s-privacyshield-premium-glass-privacy-screen-protection

It’s the same with the iPhone; every time someone holds the phone up to their ear to make a call – or takes a photo (see above) – that Apple logo is in full-view, giving an instant brand recommendation to anyone in the immediate vicinity.

You don’t have to be Apple to use this technique, though; you can replicate it with just a few similar stickers/labels featuring your logo, brand mascot, or tagline.

It costs pennies, too.

Idea 2: Use “Aspirational“ Product Photography on Your Product Label(s)

It’s easy to forget that many consumers actually choose products based entirely on what they see in-store, which means that ensuring your product label resonates with them is of upmost importance.

One simple trick for doing this is to use “aspirational” photography on your product label(s).

Essentially, this means showing the consumer imagery of the person they aspire to be, as this will go some way towards persuading them that your product is the one for them.

It’s a trick that is commonly used in the health and beauty industry above all; chances are that you’re familiar with products that look like this:

Source: http://www.mrsbargainhunter.co.uk/shops/mrs-bargains-visit-99p-store

You’ll notice that every single brand of hair dye has roughly the same image: a photo of a woman with impeccable hair (i.e. the type of hair that their target consumer is looking to obtain).

It’s not just female-oriented products that do this either; take a look at this product label for a beard oil:

Source: http://archive.warwicka.co.uk/work/the-dandy-gent-packaging

It’s a little subtler than the hair dye example, but you can see that this product label features a small image of gentleman in a top hat, sporting a moustache and an impeccable sense of style.

Sure, this one isn’t a photo, but the icon/brand mascot represents the type of person that the brands target customer aspires to be: a stylish, well-groomed gentleman with a sense of style, class and sophistication.

It might seem subtle, but this product label really helps the brand to appeal to a specific – yet relatively niche - demographic.

Note: You could use a similar technique for service-based businesses by creating stickers/labels that feature imagery of happy/satisfied clients (i.e. the type of client any client would aspire to be), or even quotes from clients giving positive thoughts about their experience of working with you.

Idea 3: Add a Handwritten Touch to Add a Personal Touch to Your Product(s)

By handwriting certain aspects of your product label, you can give your product(s) a more “personal” touch, while also adding a sense of exclusivity.

Here’s a great example of a wine bottle label that uses this technique (note: you can get similar wine bottle labels at FastLabels.co.uk if you like this technique):

Source: http://beachpackagingdesign.com/boxvox/handwriting-on-the-wine-4-interactive-wine-labels

These labels allow the consumer to personalise their bottle of wine (most likely when giving as a gift) by writing a personal message on the label.

You could use this technique with virtually any product, by writing a personal message to your customer (if appropriate), or even simply signing the date it was gmailmade/produced/designed.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Joshua Tate .