Craft Beer Industry and Labelling – How Beer Bottle Labels Make all the Difference

The Craft Beer Industry is Thriving

With the explosion of the Craft Beer industry over the past few years, the taste of the beer isn’t the only aspect of it garnering attention. The beer bottle labels play almost as big a part in the popularity of the drink as the flavour itself, with a study by Anglia Ruskin University’s pubLAB research centre (I have to get a job there!!) finding that the label design was more important than shelf space when it came to first time buyers of a new craft beer, and the continued appeal of the beer.

The Rise of Craft Beer

Coming up in a time of economic uncertainty and following a recession, microbreweries are a product of necessity, as entrepreneurs who have had to adapt and evolve to the changing world of employment make work for themselves. Although the large breweries have dominated the market for over 70 years, microbreweries are seeing an increase in start-up, production, audience, and turn over – and all in a time of lowering beer consumption.

Although consumers are  turning to independent craft beers in preference to the tried and tested giants of the beer world, there is still healthy competition between the different microbreweries. Since they’re all producing different tasting beers, there is room for multiple beers to thrive successfully in the market. However, it’s interesting to note, consumers will, more often than not, stick with the first beverage they’ve tried, without venturing out to buy different brands.

With this in mind, the importance of the label starts to become more critical.

The Importance of Beer Bottle Labels

Luckily for us, the huge growth in the craft beer sector has seen a similar growth for beer bottle labels – and with the label design such an integral part to the adoption of a new beer by first time customers, getting the right design on the  label can be the deciding factor in acquiring new, long term, customers.

So what makes a label stand out from the rest? The bold designs you find on the newly established craft beers flying off supermarket shelves find inspiration in places as diverse as Soviet art to US 1980’s counter-culture iconography. These designs play a huge part in drawing in a new customer; studies have shown that the design of the can or bottle is more important than shelf space when it comes to the deciding purchase factor. So how can you go about getting the perfect label for your beer?

Suitable Labels

At Expert Labels, you have the choice of lots of different label materials and colours, with waterproof labels, crystal clear, matte clear, gold, silver, blue foil and glossy white just some of the options. You’ll also find some unique shapes, with over 6,000 cutter choices.

If it’s barcodes you need for your beer bottle labels, we can help you register and design your barcodes.  If you need to over print barcodes on your labels, see how we do it here or contact us to find out more.   Also, if you’d like to do in house case and keg labelling, we have thermal label printers.  There’s a guide to the top printers for less than £300 here.

If you have any questions about our products, services, or getting a quote, get in touch with our friendly team today.