6 Common Product Labeling Mistakes to Avoid for Businesses

Product labeling is the icing on the cake when it comes to merchandising. Once you’ve gone through the trouble of making sure your product is top-notch, you’ll need to prepare for the labeling process.

A professional-looking product label says you’re a credible brand eager to meet your customer’s needs. To avoid a potential labeling disaster, here are 6 common product labeling mistakes to avoid.

1.Trendy Naming

Your product recipe is proprietary. But you have to provide a list of ingredients if you want to build credibility for your brand.

Make sure you list ingredients by their common name and not cutesy or overly scientific titles. You want customers to be able to compare apples to apples when deciding whether to buy your items.

Names that are trendy sound cool when you’re designing your label but confuses consumers when they read your ingredient list while shopping.

2.Nutrition Fact Errors

It’s tough for even the best brands to recover from nutrition fact scandals. Be very, very honest about the ingredients and the overall nutritional value of your product.

If you’re not sure, hire an expert to help you create accurate measurements for the ingredients and their relationship to the recommended daily values for Americans. Independent companies do occasionally research products on their own especially if you find a certain level of success.

Make sure you can back up any claims you make on your nutrition label.

3.Illegible Labels

A well-designed label is essential. If customers can’t read the name of the product or distinguish your graphics from text, the branding gets lost in the sauce.

Check out this site for label options that make your company look professional. You don’t want designs that don’t follow the format for a full bleed or that cut off lettering because it’s not created in professional design software.

4. Bad Font Choice

Choose a font that makes sense for the color and size of your label. Fonts that are too small or thin against a dark background make it difficult for the FDA to review.

Bold sans serif fonts are the easiest to read. You’ll need a header style font for titles and to break up sections on your label.

5.Legal Compliance Issues

Review your product label to make sure it includes the basic legal information for the product category you’re working in. For example, you’ll need a statement of identity, country of origin, and place of business for most labels.

On food and drugs, you’ll need an ingredients statement and warning on allergens. Double-check that you’ve included all the pertinent information for your product before sending the label out to print.

It’s not just the information that is required by law that matters. Your consumers also want all the information they can get about the product they are taking in. Check out this infographic on label transparency to see what your consumers are looking for.

Infographic provided by Antares Health Products, a vitamin E TPGS manufacturer

6.Spelling Errors

This is a basic labeling error that most people assume is done throughout the design process. But graphic designers don’t make the best copy editors.

Proofread all the text on your label before it goes to print.

Avoiding Product Labeling Mistakes

Product labeling mistakes don’t happen because business owners don’t care about branding. They often happen when you’re rushing to meet deadlines.

But you’ll end up spending more by skimming over important details than you would by simply delaying the printing process. Take your time to get professional labels that make your brand stand out.

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