The volunteers had no idea what they had gotten themselves into. What started out as a relaxed morning checking volunteers in and out of the U.S. swim trials became a desperate rush to to remove labels from thousands of donated bottles of water. The check-in volunteers had the low person on the totem pole job, they were the only volunteers who never had a chance to go any where near the competition or warm-up pool areas. Their one job was to correctly check off the volunteers and make sure that everyone who worked received the correct number of meal vouchers for the sessions they worked. Pretty simple and pretty boring. Boring until someone on the floor between the two pools realized that the last 100 pallets of donated water had the wrong kind of shrink sleeve packaging. No one thought to check earlier because the early pallets contained unlabeled bottles. At the last minute though someone noticed that this new water had shrink sleeve packaging that could not be on the competition pool deck, the warm-up pool deck, or anywhere else that might be shown world wide to the television viewing audience. So, three-fourths of the volunteer check-in staff received immediate promotions. They were now suddenly allowed to enter the restricted area that was only available to the athletes, coaches, judges and media. Their task–to remove the shrink sleeve packaging before any of the water bottles were distributed to the coolers and buckets throughout the venue. All because of a label!

The American packaging industry creates an estimated $7 billion in yearly revenue. It is a booming industry. Between the years 2009 and 2014, it grew by an estimated 3.8% a year. Employing an estimated 55,965 people in the United States, the industry includes an estimated 11,410 packaging businesses located in America. These companies and warehouses produce everything from food product labels to heat shrink labels, and heat shrink sleeves to pressure sensitive labels. Some of the printing processes include 3D rendering and shrink sleeve sample making which allows instant corrections because making plates is no longer necessary.

Research shows that approximately 84% of Americans remember a company’s name when they receive promotional gifts containing a company’s logo. Is your small of large business taking advantage of the shrink sleeve packaging process and other printing marketing techniques? Image matters and a professionally staffed marketing plan can help you design, or implement an already designed, logo that no one will forget.