You have mere seconds to capture a consumer’s attention to get them to notice your bottle, pick it up, and ultimately purchase. In a sea of wine options—at retailers and online—how do you make your label stand out?
There are steps every buyer takes in selecting a new wine off the shelf:
- Step 1: Something on the label catches their eye
- Step 2: They walk closer
- Step 3: They pick up the bottle
- Step 4: If the label has texture, they feel it
- Step 5: They turn the bottle around to read the romance copy
When someone goes through all those steps, a majority of the time they put it in their basket.
The process is adapted for online purchase, with obvious differences. They can’t pick up and feel the bottle or label, but they can see it, read it, and then explore the tactile factors after purchase.
The label can have a significant impact on purchases. A consumer has to like your label before they’ll be able to try your delicious wine.
Here are our tips for creating a wine label that stands out.
1. Use Color to Catch Eyes
We’re not saying you have to have a rainbow of colors on your label. On the contrary, dark, seductive designs can capture as much attention as bright, flamboyant looks.
The blend of colors on your label and your bottle have to be as well-thought-out as the blend inside the bottle. Everything works together to create a visual experience that serves as the first attention-grabbing step in the buying journey.
For example, a Big Bold Red requires a big bold label. We worked with Geja to create this eye-popping label with vibrant colors and a red foil overlay.
Forty Winks Winery combined patterns, colors, and a shimmery finish to grab attention from across the room.
In keeping with school spirit, this Notre Dame wine from Trinitas Cellars puts the blue and gold on bold display, with a hot stamped finish and embossing for added texture.
Again, using color doesn’t mean you have to go bright or go home. Dark, unstated colors can have just as big of an impact, when done right.
Wilson Creek put a dark label on a dark bottle for a stunning, stately look. By using mostly shades of gray, the gold stamping and red shield stand out, making a Wilson Creek blend instantly recognizable.
2. Get Tactile so Customers Can “Feel” Your Wine
We all know there are a lot of feelings tied to wine. The feeling when you pop the cork and take that first sip. How do you translate feelings into a label? You use texture and other elements people can literally feel.
With our wide range of finishing capabilities, you can customize the feeling of your label almost as much as you customize your blends. Add embossing, stamping, varnish, or more to get the buyer’s senses involved in the experience.
The Buccaneer pinot noir label uses our soft touch varnish finish and gold hot stamped text to show (and feel) a sophisticated, soft tasting experience.
Trintas wanted customers to be able to feel the experience of drinking this cab. These labels feature a label-wide patterned finish plus gold overlay and embossing that makes the experience truly 3D.
While you can’t quite feel the flap of the butterfly’s wings, you can feel the butterfly design on the label thanks to the golden hot stamp finish.
3. Use Unique Die Cuts
Your labels don’t have to be square—literally or figuratively. Catch eyes and go out-of-the-box with unique label shapes. Choose from standard shapes, or go custom to align with your brand.
The label on this La Petite Tour White Blend looks like a work of art, why not make it feel like one? The custom die cut makes the label look like a piece of 15th century parchment.
Au Bon Climat cut a corner to create this triangle die-cut label that stands out among the rows of square labels on the shelf.
4. Obsessively Align With Your Brand
You’ve heard the importance of branding your winery and your wine. When you build loyal customers, they should be able to immediately pick out your label from a crowd. To make that happen, your label needs to integrate consistent brand elements and use small details to share your brand story.
For example, if part of your brand is being green/eco-friendly, you can use recycled paper to stay on-brand. If your brand is goofy and off-the-wall, you can use colors and textures to show that personality. If you’re more serious, conveying a high-end taste, you can do that with dark colors, gold finishes, and clean fonts.
River Grove’s labels are immediately recognizable, thanks to repeated graphic elements on all its blends.
Muse shows its personality with consistency across blends, with their joker graphic, classic colors, and a one-of-a-kind die cut.
5. Partner With a Wine Label Expert
You’re the wine experts, we’re the label experts. There are endless options for making your wine label stand out. You’ll get the best results if you partner with a designer and a wine label printer that knows the challenges and needs of the industry.
When you work with AWT, you get more than a label printer. You get a partner. We help brainstorm and create labels that help tell your story and catch eyes on the shelves (or the ecommerce screens). We love working with wineries in the early stages of label design to build a work of art worthy of your wine.
Do you want to make your wine label stand out? Talk with one of our wine label experts to brainstorm how to bring your vision to life.
