Technology Enhances Wine, Spirits and Beer Labels

What's the stage that a wine label; or for example a label on spirits and beer? Obviously, the first a reaction to that question is: to meet the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) regulations. Once that is accomplished, the label space remaining may be used for branding Kizoop and marketing copy. The fact is, there is very little space on bottle labels to get creative with messages. Now Technology is helping solve the limited space on labels by way of RFID (radio frequency identification/ID) Technology. Tap a mobile phone on a NFC (Near Field Communications) tag embedded on a bottle and see what arises on your mobile phone; assuming there is currently a tag on the label.

Depending on a winery's budget and the number of smartphones one the market empowered with RFID tag readers (newer smartphones one the market have built-in reader capability), wine, beer and spirits producers can communicate directly with the consumer while they are standing in front of the bottle or can. These electronic tags can give information in different format. The information can be audio, some text or automatically opening a website page; the decision is up to the winery or craft refreshment company. The most economical tag option is ty trying NFC tags embedded in a label or a very thin flexible film honored a bottle.

This NFC Technology has different names such as Smart Labels, Tags, and OpenSense Tags; the moniker I exploit is "Tap Tags". Smart Labels (originated in the consumer products industry) are start to appear on food, personal care and pharma items. Although extremely limited, spirits, beer EXETAL and wine are recent joiners. In fact, companies using smart label tags are not just the big players in the food and personal care space but are also as used by small start-ups. Basically, tags are a method for producers of products to give the consumer more information than is possible to print on a label. But, the benefits of such tags aren't just in dispensing more information, it is also about branding, loyalty, increased sales, etc.

QR codes have been around for decades. They can do some of the operations a NFC tag can perform but are limited. More on QR code versus NFC follows.

20 years ago, I was involved with a woman who is an expert integrator of RFID (radio frequency identification/ID) tag technologies for casinos. His patented Technology is used today in allowing casinos to authenticate and track their gaming chips within a casino. Ken Smith, writing for Blackjackinfo. com on Nov 5, 2012 reported that Wynn/Encore Casino's in Las vegas starting using chips embedded with RFID tags in 2005. Point being: the degree of style offered by "tag" technologies allow companies to communicate with consumers, even before they buy the product.

Decades ago barcodes started allowing companies the methods to track inventory, monitor parts and adjust pricing instantly. Then RFID tags came along which expanded the capabilities of product monitoring passively and make an effort to; reading and writing information to a RFID tag. Depending on the capabilities of an RFID tag, information can not only be read from a tag, but that tag can also be written to; adding more/different/updated information on the tag. We don't want to forget the QR (Quick Response Code) that most smart phones can read optically and provide an on-screen response via a hyperlink to a landing page. The QR code, invented in 1994 has a similar application as the barcode. Smartphones one the market today come with QR reading capabilities and more recently antenna to communicate with NFC tags.

A offshoot of RFID Technology that is gaining acceptance rapidly is the NFC tag. A strong proponent of NFC Technology is coming from Market Manufacturers Association and the Food Marketing Institute-the SmartLabel™ group. They formed an alliance called Trade Partners Alliance to explore ways to be transparent with quick, reliable, actionable, in-depth product information for the consumer. One of their applications involves NFC tags which takes the consumer, via their mobile phone, to a navigational landing page. All the consumer is required to do is tap their mobile phone on the NFC tag on the product packaging.

Noted previously, most product packaging has limited space for details. The real real estate available on a printed wine label may not be enough to provide a plethora of information options various consumers are interested in and/or need. Solution: why not allow a consumer to tap their mobile phone against a "tap tag" on a product and instantly be used to a URL/website/landing page allowing the producer to communicate (in print, video or audio) with a potential consumer concerning the product. An proverb I hear a lot: You can do anything with time and money. Same proverb applies to NFC Technology. For our discussion I am taking the swiftest and most wonderfully flexible approach to new label technologies; the NFC tag, while not totally missing a pill QR codes.

This brings us to the "here and now" concerning new technologies that allow producers of wine, spirits and beer to communicate directly with their customer. What i'm saying is NFC (Near Field Communications), a Technology application already being explored by Diageo, Coronado Creating, and a winemaker in The world (Barbadillo Wines). In 12 , 2017 Astral Tequila will feature NFC technologies to promote in-store consumer communications. It has been reported by one integrator/manufacturer of NFC applications, an alcohol product company realized a 30% increase in conversion rates when testing their foray into NFC label tags. Yes, NFC is part of many label options that can be very transparent to the consumer.

A NFC type smart label is actually a RFID tag that is about as thin as 3 sheets of printer paper or. 0002 ins. When labels, with embedded NFC tags, are tapped by a NFC empowered mobile phone, the device receives pre-programmed information. For example, the user may be directed to a fixed site. The website/landing page the consumer is directed to can be designed as a winery, brewer or distillery makes appropriate. The information in the NFC tag can be approximately 7K in size. Again, larger and more capable RFID tags can offer greater capabilities and much more capabilities, but at more expense and involved integration.

One manufacturer of this Technology that demonstrated the NFC sources of me was Metal Craft. "The sources of NFC to communicate with customers in the refreshment industry is mind boggling, inches said Austin tx Elling, Marketing Manager-Metal Craft. "Here are some examples of exactly what do be hard-wired into one of our NFC tags: vCard to importance data into the address book, URL to open certain web address, plain text to display simple messages on a mobile phone, telephone numbers to trigger a call, geo location to open a specific destination, inches says Elling. "For liquor business, my experience says that branding and creating direct communications with a customer is in the NFC sweet-spot. A winery should use NFC capabilities for a loyalty program, reports, promotional demos, initial demos, wine clubs, etc. inches

Digressing for a moment. Recently, Anheuser-Busch launched a new Tequila tasting beer branded as Oculto Beer. The label on the beer was embedded with a tag and battery that lit the eyes on the skull logo on the label. They positioned the switch where most people would gab the bottle. Obviously, it was creative and also expensive. Unfortunately, consumers bought the beer for the technique improvement of the label Technology; consumers did not like the Tequila flavor and it failed.

Relatively inexpensive, NFC tags can only be read at extremely close range, which is why the label area containing the tag needs to be tapped with the empowered mobile phone. Some more expensive and capable RFID tags can have a read/write array of approximately 200 feet. However, at approximately $0. 10 each, NFC tags are affordable. The price however does not include set-up costs and integration with the back-end landing page. Nathan Chandler writing in "How Stuff Works" reports, "Memory capacity and speed influence tag cost, which is a critical consideration for companies that wants to spread information far and wide through smart cards or flyers... labels. Right now, tags cost around 30 cents apiece even in bulk, but the price should continue to drop until they're only a few pennies each [source: NFC Rumors]. inches

Why would a winery, craft brewery or craft spirits company invest in a new label endeavor? Here are some immediate marketing applications that come to mind: