Premium Wine Labels vs Traditional Wine Labels: A Comprehensive Comparison

_{Isabella White  | 30/01/2023} 

Consumers can be a demanding bunch! Often, when it comes to drinkables, what's inside the bottle is rated on how it looks outside the bottle. It's true labels play a crucial role in helping consumers make informed choices while adding a touch of sophistication and cultural resonance to the wine-selecting experience – and the greater the label, the better the selling power. In a study conducted by the University of Adelaide, researchers looked at how different label designs affected the participants' willingness to pay for a bottle – from simple labels to others with complex foiling, spot UV, embossing and other finishing techniques. The study found that the more elaborate the label, the participants would happily pay 20% more for the product, perceiving the higher quality label as a sign of a higher quality tipple. Yet to set your wine apart in an overly congested marketplace doesn't have to mean throwing thousands of dollars at expensive materials and finishes to produce a winning wine label. Today, we're putting traditional and premium wine labels head-to-head, assessing the pros and cons of each label type to help you understand your options and create your wine labels wisely!

Understanding Wine Labels

As a winemaker, you know the two critical components required for producing a winning wine: great taste and a great label. Unless you're offering a tasting session before every bottle purchase, your customers have no idea what to expect from your wine without first reading the label. And, before selecting a bottle and reading through the small print, your label has the all-important job of drawing their eyes towards your space on the shelf! Today's labels are as much a branding opportunity as they are a vehicle for critical product information, like the grape variety, origin, production year and alcohol content. They tell a story about the wine, and you, the winemaker - and depending on the type of crowd you're expecting to draw in, from low to high end, you want to give your wine the best chance of ending up in the desired customer's basket. It takes much creative thought to produce a winning wine label - including the colours, typography, and layout. You also need a durable material to ensure it shines on the shelf for longer. All these factors help you present your wine in a way that resonates with your audience. But who are your target customers - fresh drinkers or seasoned connoisseurs? The former warrants a product label with broader appeal, whereas the latter requires something uniquely high-end. How much will each of these label types cost you to produce? Here's where understanding the traditional label versus the premium wine label can help you achieve the right look and feel for your product.

Traditional wine labels

Typically, traditional wine labels are made from paper and coated to make them more durable for a longer shelf life. The choice of paper can vary, ranging from textured or uncoated paper for a rustic feel to high-quality, coated or varnished paper for a more polished appearance. Label printing is usually done using traditional printing methods - offset printing or letterpress - allowing for precise and detailed reproduction of text and imagery. Many traditional labels feature classic design elements to communicate heritage, quality and authenticity - elegant fonts, subdued colours, and images of vineyards, chateaus, or grape clusters. In many cases, traditional labels incorporate symbols, crests, or illustrations that convey the winery's history, emphasising a connection to the land and a commitment to time-honoured winemaking practices.

Premium wine labels

Premium product labels offer something very different from the traditional. These wine labels often feature high-quality materials and sophisticated design elements to convey a sense of luxury, appealing to the higher end of the market. Typically, premium wines use high-grade or speciality paper to achieve a luxurious feel. These papers may be textured, have a high GSM or include unique finishes to enhance the label's tactile and visual appeal. Specialist techniques to help achieve a high-quality look and feel include:

• Foiling: Popular with premium wine labels, metallic foils in gold or silver can help create a reflective and luxurious appearance.
• Embossing/debossing: Embossing raises areas of a label to achieve a textured effect while debossing depresses portions to add subtlety and depth.
• Speciality inks: Metallic or iridescent inks provide shimmering effects to enhance visual appeal.
• Die-cutting: Cut-out designs or custom shapes result in a unique and visually striking presentation, helping a label to stand out.
• High-end finishes: Matt or gloss coating, spot UV or soft-touch finishes help a bottle look visually appealing while ensuring a luxurious touch when handled.
• Artisanal elements: Hand-applied illustrations, lettering or numbering can contribute to a wine's overall exclusivity.

Pros and Cons of Traditional Wine Labels

Costs

By far, one of the biggest attractions to traditional labels is cost. These labels often involve simpler designs and standard printing methods, lowering overall production costs. In addition, because the materials and processes used to print traditional labels are more widely available – and therefore, more commonly used – this results in bulk production cost savings. Of course, this reduced cost comes with a downside. Due to their simplicity, standard labels often lack the unique and eye-catching designs achieved through extensive customisation, potentially impacting brand differentiation. Some consumers perceive these labels as the mark of a lower quality wine than more elaborate designs, causing them to look and spend elsewhere.

Aesthetics

One thing you can rely on with a standard label is a classic look. This timeless aesthetic appeals to a broader consumer base who appreciate simplicity and familiarity with their wines. It can also ensure important information such as your wine's name, grape, region and vintage are more easily readable, making the decision-making process more accessible for many consumers. Not so good for the traditional wine label is its lack of visual impact, often looking inferior compared to a premium label which oozes artistic expression and appeal. And in a market with diverse and unique label designs, you need help to stand out and capture consumer attention to avoid losing customer sales.

Production

Simpler designs and standard production methods can lead to faster turnaround times for traditional labels – which is excellent news for manufacturers wanting to reduce their time to market. In addition, they are often easier to print in large quantities using standard printing technologies, increasing your product quantities in less time. What you won't find so much with traditional label production is flexibility. As we've seen already, using straightforward printing techniques means your traditional wine labels have less access to special effects that can enhance the overall visual appeal. Limited customisation options also restrict the ability to adapt labels for specific marketing campaigns or limited-edition releases.

Pros and Cons of Premium Wine Labels

Costs

Once upon a time, premium wine labels would have cost much more than their traditional counterparts – in some cases, they still do. Using some of the techniques outlined above – metallic foiling and high-end finishing, for example – would see manufacturers spending a fortune on label production to achieve something unique, much of it down to the printing processes and anything ‘bespoke' involving lengthy set-up. Now, thanks to technological advances, printing processes can achieve many of these features without the highly detailed set-up and associated costs of yesteryear. Again, using foiling as an example, a wine manufacturer can quickly achieve those same effects through UV printing, resulting in highly sophisticated, unique designs in shorter time frames.

Aesthetics

Premium labels allow for more creative freedom and artistic expression, enabling unique and visually striking designs that stand out on the shelf. These elaborate designs and premium materials can contribute to a perception of luxury, higher quality and exclusivity. However, it's worth remembering that while creativity is an asset, there is a risk of overdesigning, which can dilute the brand message and confuse consumers. Also, aesthetics are highly subjective, and what one perceives as elegance can be entirely unappealing to the next person!

Production

Premium labels offer more customisation options, allowing winemakers to tailor designs to specific target audiences or marketing strategies. By incorporating special effects, such as embossing, foiling, or textured finishes, you can enhance potential customers' overall visual and tactile experience. And, as mentioned already, technological advances in printing have made some of these effects even easier to achieve without costly set-up fees. Of course, some premium techniques will always remain more complex than others - for example, using skilled artisans to hand-craft elements of a label. It depends on what you want to achieve with your label and if this can be done using modern techniques or whether you continue to rely on specialist equipment or people, which will continue to incur longer production times. The other thing to remember is how complex designs and production processes increase the risk of errors, requiring higher quality control demands to avoid potential delays.

Final Words About Wine Labels

The choice between traditional and premium wine labels depends on various factors, including your target market, brand positioning, and budget. Each has advantages and disadvantages; finding the right balance is crucial for a successful wine marketing strategy. Rentons Labels offers winemakers the best of all worlds, with traditional and premium wine labels to suit any brand, any drink and any customer. Best of all, thanks to cutting-edge UV printing technology, even the premium flavour is achievable on a budget. To understand all our wine label printing solutions, talk to our team.

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_{Isabella White  | 30/01/2023 | Label Printing - General Knowledge,Label Design Tips,Packaging Labels,Colours for Labels,General,Blog}