Grab attention with eye-catching labels
Seven simple ways to get noticed
Our study found there are seven ways a customisable label or sticker can grab attention.
When designing your product or packaging labels you should take these insights into account to help you influence behaviour.
Position
Try and place important information at the centre of your label and place your label in the middle of the product or package.
Be careful though, as this is the area that may be looked at first you shouldn’t overload this it.
It could cause confusion and put the reader off.
Contrast
Choosing colour over black and white wins every time.
Select colours that stand out, not only against your own packaging but against that of your competitors too.
Bold lines, borders and stripes also mean that your label could be viewed 42% more than plain labels nearby.
Surprise
Humans have a natural tendency to notice anything unexpected, novel or bizarre. Dream up the unusual, do something a little different and this will help your label to draw attention.
For example, in our research the envelopes which used an arty label were more likely to be looked at first. In our template designs you will also see the use of a cute hamster on a label for a cheese brand which would also cause surprise.
Visuals
They say a picture paints a thousand words. Did you know that people process icons and images more easily than words?
Research shows that combining the use of colour, a picture, and an icon can help customers home in on your product more readily than a word-heavy label.
Simplicity
Since consumers have limited attention spans, it is important for labels to be as simple as possible in their design.
Our research discovered that when a simple label was used rather than a complex one, people were 5-10% more likely to look at it and spent 9-15% more time looking at it.
Relevance
Customers will immediately pay attention to anything personally relevant to themselves. Personalisation is very effective at making people sit up and pay attention.
Also, labels featuring icons that are relevant to the product a person is looking for will mean they are found quicker.
Primal
The primal area of the brain, also known as the reptilian brain, is responsible for our safety and is instinctive. Did you know that the human brain is hardwired to notice faces and emotion?
Our eye-tracking experiments revealed that people were 14% more likely than average to look at an item featuring an emoji and 18% more likely to look at a label first if it featured a face.
