When You Will Happily Pay More

How To Know If You Are Measuring The Right Criteria for Your Bids

The first step to buying labels is to research. Before you sign a contract or employ a company to produce your product labels, you submit your RFPs (requests for proposals). As they start to come back to you, what’s the first thing you look for? Price? If so, you might be doing your company a disservice.

One personal care company learned this lesson by strictly comparing RFPs from various label manufacturers. The lower priced options seemed enticing at first until they realized the quality of the label would decrease dramatically. Although they were saving money on the front end, the artwork, performance, and production of the label could cost them money in the long run.

The company opted to pay 24% more for their product labels. Here’s why you would too.   

It Started With the Container

One of the essential elements in pricing your labels is the type of container it will be applied to.  Glass, coated papers, and different types of plastic containers dictate the materials needed.  Often the size of the container determines the best material to use.

You’ll also want to consider where the container will be stored, sold, and used. For example, if your product is primarily an outdoor product, you need a higher quality label to withstand the varying temperatures and weather conditions.

What Prompted the Personal Care Company to Pay More

The personal care company needed new labels for their shampoo bottles. They started the shopping process by requesting proposals from two label suppliers.

When asking for the proposals, the company defined the artwork and the type of container. It was obvious that the label needed to perform well in high moisture environments and warm temperatures. When the quotes came back, the company was surprised to see the varying prices.

The vendor with the highest estimate was given the opportunity to review their offer. Once they determined the pricing was correct according to the specifications, this printer requested samples from the end user’s prior test run.  They wanted to know with certainty that all things were quoted equally and according to the end users application requirements.

When the sample came back, it revealed a lot.

It was immediately clear the print quality of the lower priced sample was inferior.  Still, that was not enough to explain and justify the big difference in cost.  

The higher price label printer applied their sample and the competitors sample to an empty container. Then, they ran it through a dishwasher.  This mimicked the environment where the shampoo bottle product would sit in a shower for an extended period of time. It exposed the label to steam and moisture to see how it performed. .  While wet, the container would be likely be handled too. This was not tested but was taken into consideration during the trial.

After a regular cycle in the dishwasher, the results came back.  Although the materials were the same on both labels, the ink used on the sample was inferior and therefore, the art on the label disappeared during that test. 

Large Price Differences Often Signal Quality Differences

You cannot afford to sacrifice your product label quality.  Price cannot be the only driver in your consideration.  In this case, the competitor’s suggested material was environmentally unsuitable and could have been quite costly to the personal care company.  Your label has important use directions and potentially critical regulatory and warning statements.  They quickly understood that they avoided a costly failure.

And that’s not all.  Your label must look better than good – it must look GREAT!  

The first sale of your product will be the hardest and costliest. You cannot afford to lose repeat sales because your product gave the impression that it was cheap and inferior. Poor label performances can irritate your customers and diminish your brand’s quality. Can you afford for that to happen?

There are many reasons for small differences in price.  Spend a little time, ask questions, make your vendors prove the value in their offer to you and you’ll soon discover why you too will happily pay more to protect the integrity of your brand.

Question:  Have you ever had a similar experience? Let us know in the comments below.

Pricing labels is tricky. It’s difficult to see the differences in the quality of materials used.

If you’re looking for new labels, we invite you to a free consultation where we’ll explain the differences in materials, ink, and other factors. Reach out to learn more about the quality of labels printed at The Label Link and get a free sample for your next project.

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