Labels and tags

For being merely pieces of plastic, labels and tags play an important role in the horticulture industry. What started out decades ago as scribbled names on wooden sticks has turned into a sophisticated marketing tool. Labels and tags not only communicate information about plants to consumers, they also add perceived value to what’s in the pot.

The size and shape of it

“The trend over the long term has certainly been to a larger label size,” said Gerry Giorgio, creative director for MasterTag. “The consumer is demanding more information and growers are trying to accommodate them.”

He said innovative growers are attempting to differentiate themselves with shaped labels that, when combined with other merchandising elements, create a display that adds value to the product. The Fresh Flavors merchandising program, for example, boasts a wheelbarrow-shaped tag to complement the program’s logo and reiterates the program’s theme.

Increasing a product’s visibility in a sea of other plants is another reason for larger and differently shaped labels and tags.

“Some tags are being elevated on sticks,” said Brenda Vaughn, assistant marketing manager for the John Henry Co. “This makes it more visible to the consumer, as some plants tend to grow larger and conceal a tag that is just stuck in the soil.”

MasterTag’s patented Hanging Basket Collar keeps labels visible, too. Its three-sided sleeve design slips over a basket’s wires, keeping the label visible on all sides and above the plant canopy.

“This is an example where the label shape is now married to label function,” Giorgio said.

Labeled handles are another form-meets-function combination that helps consumers in two ways by providing information and making shopping easier.

John Henry’s newest product is a handle designed specifically for the female shopper’s hand.

“They are attention grabbing with the shiny ink coating, and also help keep a woman’s hands clean and comfortable,” Vaughn said. In addition, the handle’s locking system has been improved, making it more reliable.

MasterTag’s Handle Talker puts a new spin on the straplike handle by incorporating a traditional, large, square label into the carrying mechanism. It includes all the full-color graphics and information that a traditional label offers, while offering grab-and-go ease.

Horticultural Marketing & Printing has pioneered Pot Wraps, a plastic sleeve that slips up a nursery container before shipment. Jack Davis, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing, said growers can grow in plain pots and add Pot Wraps that brand or provide information about the product. Similarly, Tree Wraps applies this concept to not the pot but to the nursery tree trunk. These 24-inch-high labels, which wrap around the tree and lock into place, are attractive packaging that provides information and helps identify the product.

Good, better, best

Davis says 65-70 percent of all plant purchases are made on impulse, and the move toward larger labels helps to create impulse for the products.

“When customers walk through the front door they know they want a plant but they don’t know which plant,” Davis said. “Your label is the product that attracts attention and draws them to the product.”

Because point-of-sale (POS) signs aren’t necessarily used with all displays, Davis said we’re more reliant on labels because they “become the POS sign, packaging and owner’s manual for the plant.”

Labels and tags also play an important role in a “good, better, best” marketing program. Davis sees this type of marketing more often in Europe and Australia, where plant companies often offer three different brands of a similar bedding plant. One will be a basic variety, while “better” and “best” varieties will offer new colors or superior regional attributes that add value.

A pansy with a 1- by 4-inch stake is the “good” offering, but Davis said “a bigger tag talks more about the plant’s attributes and how to use the pansy, and consumers will perceive higher value in that.”

“From our research we’ve proven there is a substantial number of consumers who want a ‘better’ and ‘best’ product and are willing to pay the price for it if we properly explain it to them,” he said. “At the end of the day the retailer and the grower benefit because the ‘better’ and ‘best’ products are generally sold at higher margins and generate more gross margin dollars.”

Vaughn sees “good, better, best” as more of the whole merchandising package.

“The tagged pot would be the ‘good’ offering. A ‘better’ offering would be a printed pot with a larger tag.” she said. “The ‘best’ would be a ceramic container or basket with a tag that is ready to go.”

Vaughn uses a facial tissue comparison to relate this concept. A box of tissue is “good,” tissues in a fun-shaped, decorative container are “better” and a tissue box held in a ceramic or chrome container is “best.”

“The consumer is paying more for the package than the commodity tissue inside,” she said. “You can make more money and more margin on the container than you can on the plant.”

Store branding

Giorgio finds that store branding has been another big trend in labels and tags. But, he’s noticed the purpose of store branding is different from the “bigger is better” trend.

“The store’s primary purpose is to create an identity,” he said, using the store’s colors and logos. Information is secondary and basic.

“Rather than telling you the story of that product and what it’s going to do for you, (the stores) are more interested in making you aware of where you bought it,” Giorgio said.

Garden retailers for years saw other consumer products hit retail stores with full-blown merchandising programs. Wanting programs along these lines but not offered anything by growers, garden retailers filled the vacuum by creating their own store branding and identity, he said.

“This is part of the industry’s evolution, and it’s now catching up with itself, which is good.”

Tag tech

New technology promises to have a big impact on the future of labels and tags, from the actual materials used in their production to how label and tag information is eventually delivered.

Biodegradability and sustainability are big concerns and requests from growers. Vaughn, Giorgio and Davis all said biodegradable materials are being developed. Vaughn said different materials are being considered but “there is nothing perfect yet,” adding that Ball Horticultural Co., one of John Henry’s customers, is looking at this tag technology.

Davis says Horticultural Marketing & Printing is using new materials or stocks that hold up in cold-weather conditions. A polypropylene material, which has memory and doesn’t break, is being used in pot-lock labels that were previously manufactured from brittle styrene.

“As horticulture products mature, technology can provide different effects commonly seen on other consumer products,” Giorgio said.

Future tags will be made with reflective materials using 3-dimensional technology. Remember those Cracker Jack prizes that showed different scenes as you turned them? New lenticular technology has taken that two-flip image and expanded it to 35 or more different frames moving in a fluid motion.

“You might be able to see a maple tree turn from green to bright orange or a perennial grow and burst into bloom,” Giorgio said. The technology is expensive so it may not find its way to our industry for a while, he said.

Beyond materials, technology is allowing label and tag companies to better service their customers.

“We are really seeing e-commerce taking off,” Vaughn said of online ordering from her company’s Web site (www.jhc.com). “Customers can do all of their adhesives online, upload logos, print tags, order one-off large signs (rather than multiples), choose designs, type in their own text -- you name it.”

Horticultural Marketing & Printing’s online tool, Inphoexchange (www.hortmp.com), gives customers around-the-clock access to their marketing online toolbox.

“It’s an online database where we put all the information we need to produce a tag for a specific customer,” Davis said. The database is accessible to each client for editing, uploading, and enhancing.

“At the same time, we can use that same information in another format for a catalog or a Web site.” The benefit, Davis said, is that it keeps all the specifics for various marketing tools in one place, ensuring all the information is the same across media. It’s also easy for customers to be as hands-on or hands-off as they want to be. More than 200 clients are using Inphoexchange.

Giorgio sees a day when tag and label providers will have to move beyond various pieces of plastic and redefine what it means to deliver label information.

“Label companies will need to define themselves not by the specific products they produce but rather by the service values they provide,” he said. “If you are more broadly defined as providing a valuable piece of communication and information to gardeners, then the form can be anything.”

Picture a consumer scanning a pot at a retail kiosk and a printer delivers information about the plant’s care and use. Unlike providing a Web address on a label, this puts the specifics “right at the point of sale where the consumer wants the information to make a purchase,” Giorgio said.

- Ellen C. Wells

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Ellen C. Wells is a freelance horticultural writer based in Boston, Mass., and can be reached at ellen@flowerink.com. She is also marketing and communications manager for Pen & Petal Inc.