An Option to Pressure Sensitive Labels For Small Craft Beer and Wine Producers

 Packaging of craft beer, wine and spirits have a lot in common, especially when it comes to branding. However, craft beer producers seem to be looking at packaging to reinforce the corporate brand image. It seems that the style of beer drives the consumer more than the label toward experimentation. Over the past 15 years, with the proliferation of craft breweries, this industry has moved to shrink sleeve labeling to maintain a competitive high quality image of their brand and distinguish themselves versus the major beer producers. The shrink sleeve approach allows for some spectacular labels at highly affordable pricing without having to buy inordinately high quantities of bottles and cans relative to their small volumes.

A year ago, I wrote a piece about the TANTE DELE‘s Holunderbeeren-Likör cost of wine packaging as a percent of the total cost (to the consumer) of a bottle of high-end wine. In fairness to the reader I will admit that I got pricing for all the components from various vendors, asking that they give me pricing on some of their more elaborate packaging products-labels, bottles, cork and capsules. To elaborate further, label pricing I received was based upon foil printing, embossing, four color and two piece labels (front and back). Cork costs were established based upon long, top of the line cork grade and printed with the name of the wine. As a percent of the total cost for a 750-ml bottle of high quality wine, the costs to the winery for premium packaging was astounding; assuming all components were top of the line and small quantities.

We cannot get away from the fact that packaging helps sell the product, just look to the perfume industry to realize how profound this fact has become.

Branding and marketing research, juxtaposed against a good marketing plan, will direct the delicate balance between cost/benefits of high-end packaging and sales. If a winery really wants to reduce cost they would probably consider boxed wine, maybe screw caps and nondescript labels with just enough information to meet TTB requirements. But, I submit, wine is an emotional buy that pushes up against the concept of elegance or refinement. We all know the signs of refinement in wine consumption-holding the glass properly, smelling, looking at the wine through a ray of sunlight, etc. Beer does not project that image at this point.

By contrast let's look at craft beer; positioned as a less elegant product, as opposed to wine, and is often consumed in different venues, etc. The packaging for craft beer takes into consideration branding to the craft beer consumer is different than wine consumers. About branding, craft beer labels are more edgy, colorful, and reinforce a corporate and community marketing positioning.