Top Design Contest--Labels & Tags
Platinum Award: Labels & Tags.
A Remedy for Wine Labeling Headaches.
It may be true that wine is fine, and that liquor is quicker, however, at the James Arthur Estate Vineyards, nobody was getting anywhere fast.
The problem at the nascent Nebraska winery was trying to find a more cost-effective, less inventory-intensive way to label its 22 different wines, while at the same time promoting brand recognition, the Nebraska region and the ambiance of the estate where the winery is located.
Despite the high potential for difficulty, Rita Willmott, president of ProForma Marketing Resources in Omaha, Neb., said the biggest concern wasn't combining all those disparate elements—she knew that was in the bag. Her biggest problem was how to design a label on par with her client's bigger, more nationally-recognized competitors using a relatively smaller budget.
"I said to [the customer], 'If you buy a million labels I can get you pricing like that as well,' " recalled Willmott, explaining her predicament. "Instead, I suggested one uniform label that looked good on all the bottles—the winery loved it."
Of course it did. Instead of bottling 22 different types of wine in six different colored bottles with four different label stocks, they were now using just one label and one type of stock.
Dozens of label-related difficulties were eliminated. In one fell swoop of imagination, all of her client's requests were resolved—storage, inventory and brand identity.
Ironically, Willmott's decision to use just one label was simply a means to an end—she was trying to avoid needless color changes and the inevitable rounds of PMS color matching.
Regardless, she was able to satisfy all of her client's goals. Yet, to hear Willmott tell it, it's more personal than that.
"What gets people in is when you get people out to the vineyard to taste the wine," explained Willmott. "We wanted [the label] to have a good, warm, friendly look to it, yet lend credibility and professionalism as well—and that's what we did."
• Manufacturer: Impressive Labels, Safford, Ariz.
• Press: Shiki.
• Paper: Fasson (Estate Stock).