Anyone who has been vaping for a while now has most likely seen their fair share of labels on products that contain e-liquid. As you probably know, labels vary a lot from brand to brand and product type to product type. But, one thing that they all share in common is that they catch our attention, and they supply you with specific information. So, just how important then are the labels of those products? Well, as you’ll see, a lot more thought goes into them than you may think.
Different Types of Vape Product Labels
Now that vaping has gotten more advanced, there are more types of products on the market that contain e-liquids and other consumable ingredients.
·E-Liquid Bottles: Are extremely diverse in terms of labels because of the sheer amount of them that are on the market. Each brand marks its label with its own logo, and uses its own color scheme, font and other design elements.
·Flavor Concentrates: Sold for DIY vaping also have labels on the bottles, and the labels must convey the contents of the bottles.
·Disposable Pod Cartridges: Tend to come in packs that are labeled with the brand name and the contents.
·Disposable E-Cigarettes: Often come in boxes, and those boxes have labels.
What Matters the Most When It Comes to Vape Labels?
In an industry where change is a constant, from new regulations to new marketplaces, there are some key components a company must pay attention to when designing a label for a vape product.
Compliance
Arguably the most important thing is compliance with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other business organizations. The FDA requires that certain things are included on a label, including the presence of nicotine (“WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.”)
This warning must:
·Appear on 30% of the two principal display panels.
·Be printed in at least 12-point font size and must engross the greatest possible proportion of the warning label.
·Be capitalized and punctuated as indicated above.
If an e-liquid company fails to put this information on the label, they can actually get into serious trouble, and even risk having their products pulled from the market. The FDA also prohibits vape companies/manufacturers/distributors from making any kinds of health claims on their labels.
Even with PMTAs, the FDA still has not yet fully regulated the vaping industry, which means that the rules frequently change regarding what must be on a label and what cannot be on a label. This means that vape companies must be very cautious, and regularly check to see if the rules have changed before creating labels for their products.
Visual Appeal
The importance of visual appeal cannot be overstated. Think of what you see when you walk into a vape shop. There are hundreds of e-liquid bottles on shelves in front of you, and each one is trying to grab your attention with colorful and exciting imagery. It’s hard to deny that we make a lot of decisions based on how things look rather than what’s inside of them. After all, we all know the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover”. We tend to do this with e-liquid bottles as well. When seeing an attractive bottle, we’re more likely to want to buy the vape juice even though we don’t know what it tastes like.
Companies go through a lot of effort in order to make their e-juice labels look more appealing than the others. After all, the aesthetics of a brand inform a customer on what the product is like before they get a chance to try it.
Companies will often try to use bright colors in order to draw customers in. Also, companies must make logos that stand out and are easily recognizable.
Another thing that companies must try to do is stand out among the crowd. With so many different vape juice brands in existence today, it’s harder than ever before to grab attention with visual elements. So, companies have a harder time than ever before trying to find a way to be unique and do something different aesthetically.
Information
The last thing that companies must pay attention to when designing labels is providing information to the customers. This is more challenging than it may seem. There is a lot of information that can be provided regarding a product, but a company can only fit so much information on a small label. After all, you want to be informative and thorough, but you don’t want to overwhelm the customer with cluttered text that’s difficult to read.
Each company decides how much information they wish to put on a product label. Some companies will actually put a description of the vape juice flavor below the flavor’s name. Others will allow the customer to use their imagination.
Most companies will, at the very least, provide the nicotine content and VG/PG ratio on a label, because these are two things that customers tend to be very picky about. Essentially, the key is organizing this information in a way that’s easy to read. Companies will use different font sizes and clever placement to convey information without overwhelming the reader.
Plenty Really Does Go into a Label
With the tremendous growth in this industry, specifically in the United States, the FDA is cracking down on the requirements for what must be listed on e-juice labels. Basically, vape product labels must be visually attractive, informative, and compliant with the FDA. Also, they must be meant for anyone over the age of 18 (and in certain states 21 years of age or older). Therefore, a lot of time and thought must go into making them.