Color-Codes | Packaging KnowHow

Color-Coding is one of the key applications for a color label printer.

Color-Coded Food Labels

And recently, I read a saw a video from ColorDyne, a competitor as we don’t resell their printers, on one of their customers, Soli, color coding their food products. See it here:

In the video, Brown Dudley, owner of Soli, says he needed to color-code his labels for several reasons. First, Brown says the color-coded labels keep it simple for his customers. Soli codes their labels based on protein; seafood is blue, vegetarian/vegan is green. Plus, Soli printed in large text the total calories, to make it easy for their customers to select the correct dish for them. Color coded labels are a tool for customers to decide, on their own, which dish is best for them.

Second, on-demand, color-coded labels are flexible. Prior to on-demand color, Soli purchased preprinted labels which are totally inflexible. Soli needs to make changes on the fly; including developing new dishes. With preprinted labels, Soli was constantly stuck with label stock, creating waste and obsolete inventory.

Third, on-demand, color-coded labels are affordable. In the video, Brown says his preprinted labels were costing as much as $0.90 each in the small quantities need for each SKU. Now Soli is paying only $0.19 each per printed label.

Foodie Fit Label

In November 2018, we published a post on our customer, Foodie Fit, who is using the exact same application. Read it here:

In the post, Andrew Kowal said, “As we rotate our menu every other week, it’s impossible to use preprinted labels. Large minimum order quantities and obsolete labels make purchasing preprinted labels not feasible for us”.

What is interesting to me is Soli seems to be paying significantly more per label than our customer, Foodie Fit. In the post, the estimated ink cost was only $0.013. And Foodie Fit’s latest actual cost for either their 16.75” or 19” long labels from us is a small percentage of total mentioned by Brown in the video. It seems we are saving Foodie Fit money compared to Soli. (FYI: I don’t know if Brown was including labor and overhead costs to determine label costs).

Brite Labs Label

Beside applications for food, we have written about many other color-coding applications. One market where color seems important is cannabis. In these posts, Brite-Labs uses color for strain identification, as did Georgetown Cannabis some time ago. We have several cannabis companies using print on-demand color labels for strain identification.

Brooklyn Rebar Tags

A completely different color-coded application is building products; with Brooklyn Rebar. “We use both solid colors and different color hash marks for each of the locations on a project. For most projects, the solid colors are sufficient. When we need more locations, we use different color hash marks. We find the color coding helps our customers and us internally to reduce errors and increase our productivity”, said the Project Manager.
Read more here:

QuickScrews Labels

And another building products post on color-coding is our customer, Quickscrews. In the post, Mark Buechler said, “And the colors and icons make it easy for our wholesalers and customer to select the correct fastener.”

Tyson Tools Labels

Closely related to building products are tools. Here is a post from a million years ago on color-coding tool labels.

Pleasant Mattress Tags

Color-coding can benefit Manufacturers as well; especially on the shop floor. Learn how Pleasant Mattress uses color codes in manufacturing and in their shipping. In the post, Russell Raymond said, “the color codes prevent potential errors. If a shipping error is made, the incorrect color sticks out. The color-coding labels in our operation saves us time and potential costs.”

And one of the first posts I ever was a part in creating involved logistics; again from a million years ago. Read how Tubelightuses color for staging and shipping. In the post, Scott Moray said, “Because we can identify shipment materials for any particular day, we require less time to load and unload, allowing our internal personnel and drivers to be more productive.”

CES Event Tags

A market where color-coding and variable images are important is trade

show event badges. In this post, our customer CompuSystems, adds pictures and attendee type color-code to badges during the largest tradeshow in the world.

The video by ColorDyne is a good reminder of the benefits or color-coding labels; but many different industries, not just food, can benefit from this application of on-demand labels. Contact us on how color-coding would benefit your operations and sales.

Guy Mikel
855-962-7670
info@colorlabelsolutions.com