Are you gearing up for your beverage company launch?

Joining the ranks of the beverage industry is a smart move. This industry is projected to grow at least 4 percent every year and produces nearly 1 trillion liters of beverages annually.

But there’s a lot that goes into staying competitive in this stable market. At the top of the list is marketing.

Namely, you’ve got to have a solid label to market your beverage.

It can be hard coming up with a label that’s clever, eye-catching, and easy to implement.

In this post, we’ll discuss how you can design the label of your dreams in no time!

1. Know Your Product First

Before you can go about designing a label for your beverage, make sure you know your product well.

The best-designed beverage labels are designed for your specific product and container.

You definitely want to have a beverage, to begin with, but it’s also important to identify an appropriate container.

Take a minute to think about the beverages you’ve noticed in the grocery store. What made their labels distinct? What did you like about the containers?

Keep in mind the color of your beverage, for one thing. If you’re producing a deep red wine, for example, you may want to show off this color with transparent glass.

Or perhaps you’re brewing kombucha. Your brews may be all different colors, requiring a particular container.

Think about who will be drinking your beverages–this is your market!–and how they want to experience your beverages.

Labels can also influence your market in subtle ways. Think about the vibe you want your label to give off. Classy? Retro? Hip? Simple?

All of these ideas can help you brainstorm how you want your product to stand out to customers in the store itself.

2. Research Competitors’ Labels

You’ll want to get a good sense of the lay of the land before you launch your beverage company label.

Identify who your competitors are from the get-go. These should be pretty easy to identify if you’re aiming to make it big in the beverage industry.

Make sure you are familiar with local competitors, too, like New Age Beverages. Stop by breweries, bottling factories, and local grocery stores so that you know what’s out there.

Buy a few of these products if you can and spend some time studying your competitors’ labels.

What do you like about them? What could you do better? Are these labels appealing to many trends?

The key to this step is to identify how you can be equally competitive with your label and still go above and beyond.

3. Create an Intelligent Design

At the end of the day, the best design for your beverage company label is going to be intelligent and distinctive.

After all, a beverage label says a lot about the product, your company, and your market. It’s important to keep all of these factors in mind as you’re designing your label.

No matter what design you aim for, make sure that it is simple and streamlined. Also ensure that you have at least one image, graphic, or logo to make your beverage appear distinct on the shelf.

The most powerful labels are minimalist, and they make their point very clear with concise images and text.

It can be helpful to start with some of your own basic sketches of your design. Then you can move up to digitizing your design on user-friendly programs like Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop.

Also decide how your design will fit onto your bottle label. This is where it is essential to have the actual beverage container with you as you are designing.

Keep in mind that a label isn’t just about the front of the bottle. It may go all the way around the bottle, and incorporate ingredient and bottling information.

Make sure that you account for all of this when creating your design.

4. Get Feedback

It can be intimidating launching your own beverage company, especially when you are the designer of the labels themselves.

As you go about launching your designs, it’s essential to gather feedback along the way. Ask friends, family members, and coworkers what they think of your new beverage label.

But you can also reach out to customers for their opinions. Deliver quick e-surveys to your existing clients and ask them what they think about your latest labels.

If you want, you can build this into your current marketing scheme. Offer special discounts to participating clients who review your current label.

You can even design a few labels and have clients vote on their favorite one.

Your customers will appreciate your efforts to engage with them and to value their opinion. You might just be surprised at how many more start purchasing your product.

5. Hire a Professional

All in all, if you are simply unsure about your design, or don’t know where to begin, you can always hire a professional.

There are thousands of highly talented graphic designers out there hungry for freelance work of any kind. Put up an ad for a local designer and ask for a few trial designs.

You may even be able to acquire professional design work through more established design companies and firms.

Search Yelp or WhitePages when researching these companies to narrow down results.

You could also head on over to sites like Etsy, which seek to bring together independent artists from around the globe.

Designing Your Beverage Company Label

Your beverage label is like a business card you distribute to consumers every time they purchase a beverage.

It’s important to design a label that is powerful, clever, and competitive.

Make sure you know your product and your competition before you go about designing a label. Choose a design that can effectively showcase your product and its container.

Feel free to hire a professional if you feel more comfortable doing so, and don’t be shy about asking for feedback from your customers.

At PSDLearning.com, we’ve got all of the tools and tips you need to take graphic design into your own hands. Check out our graphic design collection today!