How Restaurants Can Make Effective Food Labels

A great way for a restaurant to increase its profitability is by bottling up and selling products like craft beers, sauces, jams and wines. While these products tend to be especially popular around the holidays, they can be hot sellers all year long when they are marketed effectively. It’s true enough that a restaurant has a built-in audience for such products, but people are more likely to actually buy them when they are presented in the right way. One thing that dramatically affects the popularity of a restaurant’s food merchandise is labeling. Well-designed food product labels can make or break the success of this type of venture. Information on various aspects of designing effective labels is highlighted below.

Legalities

The first thing a restaurant should do is understand the legalities of labeling its own food products. All food product labels must include certain types of information. Things like the manufacturer’s name and address, the product name, nutritional information, serving sizes and ingredient lists ordered by predominance have to be included. Furthermore, a restaurant should avoid stepping on any toes by not using words like “healthy” or “diet” unless the food meets certain criteria. Disregarding these regulations and laws can put a quick end to a restaurant’s merchandising efforts.

Labels

The easiest way for a restaurant to waste a lot of money is by purchasing the wrong type of label. Before a label can be selected, a restaurant must choose the container on which it will be used. From there, selecting a label with the right size and shape will be much easier. There are pitfalls that need to be avoided. For example, light-colored labels don’t work well on dark containers or in clear containers that hold dark-colored foods or drinks. These points should be kept in mind to avoid costly mistakes.

Presentation

Restaurants often attempt to design their own food product labels, but the results can be pretty mixed. A restaurant that has an employee with a graphic design background can benefit could have an easier time producing a label that represents their business. Otherwise, it’s well worth it to bring in outside help. A poorly designed label will turn off prospective customers, and can cost money. In addition to selecting images and fonts that are clear and easy to read, the restaurant must lay out all of the elements on a label in an eye-catching way. The label should have the right balance of space, text and images, and achieving that balance isn’t easy for someone who has no prior experience.

Explain, Promote and Sell

In addition to being pleasing to the eye, the food product label that a restaurant uses for its foods and drinks should explain what they are, make them appealing to customers and compel people to buy them. Once again, this is a job that’s best reserved for marketing professionals. The label should also take the restaurant’s brand and image into account. If the restaurant uses a specific logo, for example, it should definitely be included on the label.

There’s a lot of money for a restaurant to make through jellies, sauces, craft beers, wines and other products. The best products in the world aren’t going to move off the shelves without top-quality food product labels. Therefore, it’s well worth it for a restaurant to take its time when designing and selecting such labels. The restaurants that achieve the greatest success in this department are the ones that took the time to create effective labels. Restaurant owners should put themselves in customers’ shoes before committing themselves to specific labels. If the label doesn’t make them want to buy the product, it should be crossed off the list.

Bio: Jessica is a specialist in food product labels and printing. When she is not writing for LightningLabels.com, you can find her cooking up a storm in her kitchen.