The Importance of Label Design: Luang Prabang

What was your inspiration for this label design?

The brief to Square44 from Carlsberg was to develop the brand and packaging design for a completely new brand. The client wanted the new brand to be positioned as a craft beer and the name Luang Prabang was the only mandatory element from the brief.

The objective was to really celebrate the unique heritage of the city of Luang Prabang, a UNESCO world heritage city, but in terms of design we had a totally open brief. It’s always great fun working on new brands whether it’s an alcohol, food or a personal care brand. You have no baggage to consider and you get to explore different styles and look for solutions you think consumers would really love.

At the concept stage we broadly explored a range of different directions, looking at cultural symbols, famous landmarks, doing a thematic series of different aspects of the city before the client settled on the design that was launched.

What was your design creation process for this label?

For Luang Prabang launch Square44 partnered at the concept stages with a very senior creative director based out of Australia who has worked all over the world on some of the biggest alcohol brands. He had great fun working on the early stages of this project and collaborating with our team. Once the client settled on a direction that featured a vintage street-scene of Luang Prabang, we wanted to add authenticity to the label, so the idea was born to transform the brief into an artist edition. We pitched the idea to the client who absolutely loved it so we engaged three local artists from Laos to develop street scenes. In the end Hongsa’s design was liked by the client so we had it scanned at high resolution and then send over to us digitally for slight retouching, color correction and cropping before we created print-ready artwork files.

 

At which point in the design process do you start to think about the printing of the label?

Actually early on in the process, the client reached out as they had issues with their label printer not being able to get labels done on time. The client had targeted a specific launch date to avoid trademark expiry but the project was held back internally until it was given the go-ahead at the last minute, so it was a bit of a race against the clock. Square44 has previously partnered very successfully with the team at MCC so when the client asked us if there were other print houses that would be able to work within very tight deadlines, a quick call to Joerg Thalmann at MCC, who we’ve known for years solved all problems!

 

In the design phase of a label do you consider various inks, materials and printing technologies? How did MCC help here?

At Square44 we notice that clients in some of the emerging markets we focus on tend to take more of a wait-and-see approach when it comes to innovations in packaging design. It’s a hugely missed opportunity in many cases as there are so many novel ways a certain paper substrate, ink, print technology or finish can add that much extra to a label. You really have to be able to look at packaging design beyond just a cost factor on your A&P budget. 

More and more companies start to realize however that a well-executed pack, drives the highest ROI you can get out of any marketing instrument available these days. Your packs are often your only marketing instrument that live at the critical moment of purchase and beyond that of all marketing tools available your packs communicate longest and most frequently with your target audience. A poorly executed pack similarly can really hurt sales or brand performance.

When it comes to innovations in packaging, we can always reach out to the team at MCC to discuss paper types, ink types, novel printing methods or technologies that can help a brand or a pack stand out or get noticed faster, add a hint of premium or a touch of modernity depending on the brief. They are always extremely helpful when we approach them to look for solutions that fit a client’s brief well.

 

What are the trends/innovations in label design? What are brand owners asking for?

 

As a branding and packaging agency, Square44 get briefings coming in each day from over 20 markets from every kind of category. You can see how trends impact brands. 

 

With the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of brands are looking for innovations that drive health and safety, this affects label design as well as product innovation.

We are starting to see brands that take a more green approach – looking for durability, sustainability, recyclability and reducing carbon footprint. When it comes to pricing however of solutions that already exist a lot of companies still take a wait-and-see approach and the urgency when it comes to taking action seems less than what brands talk about publicly.

 

We see a constant push for premiumization especially in the Asia region, where consumers demand higher quality, trust and credibility which a good label and print finish can help emphasize and if the pack is executed poorly can really hurt a brand.

Last thing we see is that category norms are fading, which means category language gets redefined with the coming of age of constantly new generations of consumers. Where craft used to apply to beer, you see craft now affecting many other categories such as coffee, spirits even juices. As a result the typical beer label starts to go out of fashion and a new look, a new style is emerging. Something that affects many categories and bodes exciting times ahead for brands, their visual identity and the packaging they come in.

 

To read more about Luang Prabang, check out the full story on their website: 

http://www.square44.com/news/luang-prabang-artist-edition

What can a good label do for your brand?

 

Get Noticed

• A good label or packaging design helps a brand get seen first of all and getting seen means getting sold. Getting contrast within the environment when and where a brand is sold and attracting the eye is a critical thing for a brand to get right. 

Drive Brand Loyalty

• The purpose of branding is to drive loyalty for your brand, a distinctive label with a unique combination of visual assets or branding elements can be used off-pack to create a visual identity for the brand that travels across channels. Some of the most iconic brands are masters of using assets, think of Heineken with its green color and red star.

Increase Brand Value

• A good label should clearly communicate the superior value your brand has when compared to others. What makes you different, better, unique. Why would a consumer that already is happy with another brand switch to your brand. What are you promising.

Tell your story

• A good label should tell the story of your brand, in the case of Luang Prabang it’s about capturing the feeling you had when you visited or representing the mood and tone of the place to draw you in. In if you’re stuck in lock down somewhere unable to travel, at least drink the beer, so you can feel for a moment you are there.