The 5 Benefits of Using Variable Printing for Labels

You may not be able to shake hands with all your customers to give them a personalized product experience. But with variable printing technology, your product label can stand in for you.

Variable printing allows you to customize – and personalize – images, graphics, and text within an order of same-size labels. When Planters brand peanuts celebrated its 100^th birthday in 2016, the company printed three million one-of-a-kind Mr. Peanut labels. The digital printers used six base design files, and two seed files each, ensuring that no two Mr. Peanut jars were identical.

Though the massive marketing campaign may seem out of reach to smaller businesses, you don’t need to be an industry giant to get the benefits of variable label printing. Whether printing five thousand labels or five million, all you need is a digital printing company willing to pair your ideas with their technology.

1. Save Money and Time with Digital Files

Variable data printing uses a digital file for the design and a spreadsheet for the data information. The press is simply programmed to create a range of labels in the same run without stopping the presses. No changing out plates to create variations on the same label.

Since the per label cost of any order drops with higher quantities, you can keep costs down by grouping same-size labels in a single run.

That means you can produce variable labels faster and more cost effectively. For example, with variable printing, you can order 8,000 labels for four different SKUs and avoid paying for the setup cost of four orders at 2,000 labels each.

2. Expand and Personalize Your Label Art

Back in 2013, Coca-Cola’s personalized brand campaign printed “nearly 800 million personalized bottle labels for the campaign, using more than 10,000 names, in more than 10 languages and five alphabets.”

How did they do it?

With the same variable printing process available to you. Variable printing allows you to fine-tune your message for a portion of your audience. If you sell your product across the country, locally-inspired text or artwork can use the influence of regional pride. If your product’s theme connects with music, emotion or seasons, you can use variable printing to highlight any number of variations—famous quotes, vintage designs, unique color patterns, or cultural phrases and slogans.

3. Use Single Design Layout for Multiple SKUs

But variable printing isn’t always about diversifying your label’s artistic image. Cosmetic brands are a prime example. Beauty products generally need to fit a lot of information into a small space—product name, intended usage, net quantity, ingredients and warnings, not to mention color variations.

As a result, these companies can employ multiple SKUs that each require a different label. Instead of redesigning each file for each SKU, you can use one design version and one variable data spreadsheet to print labels for different colors and SKUs.

4. Track Your Products with Serialized Labels

You may need a system that accounts for all your packages, shipments, and products. Serialized labels are the solution.

Serialized barcodes and consecutive number labels include information you can track. As a result, this makes it easier to verify warranty claims and find missing items. Through variable printing, you can systematically add barcodes, QR codes, UDIs, catalog numbers, and lot numbers without having to create individual designs for each product.

5. Promotional and Scratch Off Labels

Sometimes having a good time is the way to engage your audience and stand out. You can use a variable data spreadsheet to create specialty short-term promotions. Print winning access codes, discount codes, or personalized text on your promotional game piece, direct mail promotion or scratch-off label.

Find a Printer with Variable Printing Technology

Variable printing isn’t just for mega companies, but you’ll need to work with a label printing company that has the digital printing expertise for the job. At Labels & Specialty Products, we can help you use variable printing to make attention-getting labels for your products and ensure the integrity of your inventory with printed tracking data.