The neck hanger on Reggae Jam wine is printed on an HP Indigo digital press.
Image is No. 1 in importance in our business," says Tommy Johnston, sales and marketing director for Easley Winery of Indianapolis, IN, USA. "You first have to get the prospective customer to go to the shelf and pick up the bottle. If it passes muster by catching their eye, then price and the actual type of wine become important. Once they buy it and try it, they'll come back for more. We use a catchy necker on the bottle, which lets them find our particular wine quickly among dozens or more of other bottles. It just jumps out at them from the shelf."
Easley Winery is relatively young by winery standards but only because they're in Indiana, a state where holdover Prohibition laws made it illegal to make wine in the state until a group of would-be winery owners banded together and got the law amended in 1974. The Easleys have a vineyard on 14 acres in Southern Indiana and they buy from five other vineyards in Indiana and a few more in nearby Michigan.
Johnston is ecstatic over what he calls the necker, a digitally printed hang-tag that fits over the neck of the bottle and made by Century Label of Bowling Green, OH, USA. They used the necker for a co-op promotion on their highly popular Reggae Red, a sweet wine that won a gold medal at the Taster's Guild 2009 International Wine Competition. "We were recommending one part Coconut Jack's Coconut Rum with three parts of our Reggae Red as a great casual drink," Johnston said, "and the necker really contributed to successful sales."
Being a local winery, Easley has had some success with restaurants that want to go local, but conversely, being local sometimes makes it more difficult to get in on the menu in some establishments. Through promotions and persistence as well as the neckers, Easley now has its wines in a good many grocery and retail chains in a five-state area including Giant Eagle, Kroger, Biggs, Marsh, Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, and CVS.
"We're already looking down the road to the next generation of neckers for the fall," Johnston said, "so we're ordering bamboo racks to tie in our Reggae Red with Coconut Jack's as an adjunct to the popular Corona beer line."
Johnston says that he'd recommend Century Label to anyone, "and I really appreciate what they've done for us. They are close enough for us to visit and exchange ideas, and their professionalism shines through. They provide us not only with reasonable quotes, but they also can turn out labels that are cost effective even in smaller quantities."
Robert Petrie, VP of wholesale marketing at Century, says, "Sales of the digitally printed neckers or hang tags are taking off, and are a great complement to our digitally printed wine bottle sleeves. Our digital printing capabilities enable us to do test marketing and trial runs very efficiently and effectively. We pride ourselves on prompt order fulfillment with fast turnaround times, incredible accuracy, and above all, customer satisfaction."
Century Label currently has significant sales in distribution markets throughout the United States, including label printers. "Our Wholesale Division has experienced tremendous growth in recent years," Petrie says. "This growth can be directly attributed to the personal, knowledgeable, experienced sales team we have, working with distributors to make sure their needs are met. We also have such a diverse body of equipment and printing techniques that we are able to offer nearly anything a distributor envisions in the label field from digital printing and hot stamping to digital die cutting and eco-friendly materials. It is our combination of industry experience, printing technology, and a committed team that understands our clients' concerns, that has made the Wholesale Division a success.”
Article by Larry Arway originally published in the October 7, 2009 Issue of Label & Narrow Web.
