Label Prototypes: 3 Ways to Use Them for Product Improvement

Label prototypes are applied to products before they hit the market. If a label will be part of a product’s presentation on a store shelf or a product page on a website, it should be included in the product’s prototype as a part of the quality control process. This applies to labels that appear on product packaging and/or are placed on the product itself.

Label prototypes are used to ensure labels perform as expected once a product is released. Label performance obviously involves how a label performs physically, but it also pertains to how a label looks, as well as how the label impacts custom perception.

With these things in mind, your organization can use label prototypes in the following ways to explore product improvement using labels.

Imagine you’re a food company releasing a new line of refrigerated pizzas that use adhesive labels to present nutritional information. Naturally, you ordered labels that are designed to retain integrity under the temperature conditions in the grocery store freezer aisle. But do the labels work as well as expected?

The best way to find out is to do a performance test that exposes the label to food aisle freezer conditions. If the label doesn’t perform according to specifications, you’ll find out before it costs you a cent in the form of lost sales.

Product presentation should ideally receive at least two approvals from the marketing team — with at least a week in-between approval sessions — before the product is released for sale. What seemed like great label placement, size, color, etc., one week may not seem so great after a little time passes.

When this happens, it’s often due to things such as needing to get initial presentation approval by a certain date and simultaneously juggling multiple prototype evaluations that involve labels — common parts of everyday business that can skew value judgements about product presentation. If your prototype seems as fetching as it did a week ago, you probably have a good thing going.

Some of the best information you can receive about prototype labels comes from your prospective customers — the people who may buy the product or forego it due partly to how the label appears.

The easiest way to get people to participate is to hold the trial at a safe, central location, and pay people a fixed amount that motivates them travel there and participate (e.g. $50). If you’re marketing to a specific audience, be sure to state the requisite age, gender, nationality, etc., of the participants you desire.

At Flexo-Graphics, we realize label prototypes play an important role in choosing labels that look great on the product, communicate the right information, and help create an impression of quality.

This is why label prototyping is offered to every label customer we serve. For more information about prototype labeling, read this informational label prototypes post, call us today at (262) 790-2740, or send us an email through our contact form. We look forward to serving you!