Tuesday, September 19, 2017

How to Elevate Your Brand with a Well-Designed Hang Tag

hangtag

Providing information about a product and the brand that made it, hang tags are an everyday part of shopping. Consumers don’t think too much about what the tag means or how it affects them.

But as brand owners, we know just how much influence a hang tag has. And in truth, the colors, designs and information on a tag provide subtle, yet powerful clues that influence brand relationships, product perceptions and purchasing decisions.

Here’s how to create a powerful and eye-catching hang tag design that drives brand awareness and revenue.

The Role of Hang Tags

Hang tags are an opportunity to reach your target customer, so design them with your buyer persona in mind. Themes, design choices and color palettes should all be centered around your customers’ needs and desires. Hang tags also reflect your brand identity and reinforce your company values.

As shown in a design roundup by graphic artist Yesta Desamba, hang tags can display the same design elements as those found on the inner garment tag, button and outer garment tag. The Rare Collection is an example of a brand that achieves this goal, modifying its colors and sizes for each tag while adhering to the same logo design.

Having a creative hang tag can help you stand out from the competition. Kelly Morr at 99designs writes that packaging design serves the purpose of standing out on the shelf. For apparel brands, whose products are often hanging or folded rather than packaged, hang tags serve as one of the focal points for brand differentiation. This is another reason why it’s so important to display your logo on your hang tag.

And it’s okay to opt for a large logo on your hang tag. You want people to see and remember your brand right away, and a big, bold logo can help accomplish this.

Product Information

Regardless of design and style, a hang tag should always include details about your product. If it’s a piece of clothing, incorporating the item’s size and materials are a good place to start.

Lumi, a packaging design company for online brands, explains how these seemingly ordinary bits of information can be displayed creatively. Tobacco Road Purveyors, for instance, has a space for sizes small-2XL on its label. Once the tag is attached to a garment, the size is circled in a pen by hand. This handcrafted touch makes the tag a bit more personal.

clothes rack

Technology and Hang Tags

A recent trend in apparel tag design is incorporating digital environments into physical tags. According to Apparel Magazine brands may opt to incorporate shopping experiences into their hang tag design by adding a scannable code or picture. These images, when scanned by a smartphone, take a consumer to a branded web page or shopping site that encourages brand interaction. In addition to helping a brand stand out from competitors, this method also helps create a strong brand experience that customers remember.

Hang Tag Design Inspiration

When choosing imagery and design elements for your hang tag, it’s important to opt for something that reinforces your brand.

Graphic designer Cole Baldwin showcases a beer label design that takes traditional hang tag functionality to the next level. This hang tag features multiple pages, which go into detail about the beer’s history and how it was made. The brand’s colors and fonts reflect the bold and experimental nature of the homemade craft beer brand. The tag also displays fun, on-brand taglines, contact information and social media tags.

This approach would work especially well for a local or small-scale brand that has a strong story to share with customers. The design shows that your hang tag doesn’t have to be limited to a single tag. In fact, many brands are experimenting with layered pieces of paper and plastic to create more interactive tags. Graphic designer Callie Teetaert created apparel tags for We Happy Few, who sold locally made clothing. She layered multiple pieces of textured paper, evoking a rustic theme and playing up the brand’s commitment to handcrafted merchandise.

Another way to incorporate different materials into your hang tag is to consider recycled items and unwanted fabrics. Menswear boutique shop McKilroy covers its tags with cheesecloth and textured paper. The cheesecloth covers the logo, adding another layer of texture. It also makes use of a material that isn’t used all that often today — a nod to the hands-on production methods of days gone past.

design inspiration

Hang Tag Style

Brands can also experiment with the size and shape of their hang tags. Neat Designs shows hang tags that are circular, oval-shaped and varying sizes of rectangles. If your brand is more traditional, it makes sense to stick with a classic tag shape that your audience will find familiar. If you’re a more experimental brand and you’re trying to target young people or those who are more creative, there’s more room to play with tag size and shape.

Attaching your tag is another important consideration. What materials will you use? How will the tag connect to the garment? Catalpha explains that hang tags can be attached with anything from swift tack and zip ties to different types of string.

Beyond the Tag

The main purpose of a hang tag is to display information about a company and its product. However, that doesn’t mean the tag can’t serve a greater purpose.

Creative agency HOOK designed a tag for Grady Mac, a denim brand. This design is letterpressed and uses traditional script for a classic vibe that evokes feelings of heritage and history. The tag is versatile, serving as an envelope holding four informational cards about the brand and the product.

Another way to repurpose a hang tag is to make it double as a business card. One side can serve as a regular hang tag, with information about the product and its uses. The other side can include business card and contact information. This creates a more interesting experience when someone’s reading the tag, plus it saves money and paper on printing.

Images by: BRRT, Daiangan, itsbytespixels

The post How to Elevate Your Brand with a Well-Designed Hang Tag appeared first on CBF Labels Inc.

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