Security Hologram Stickers

The flood of counterfeit goods into the United States from the Far East, and especially China and India, has reached all time highs and is creating significant economic damage at home.  This incredibly damaging, criminal activity is spurring the development of IP protective measures, such as security holograms.

No-one wins when counterfeit products reach the market – the consumer buys goods which are not what they thought they were, while there may be serious consumer safety issues involved. Meanwhile, the manufacturer reaps the adverse reward of negative press and consumer comments because the counterfeit clings like a parasite to their brand image and reputation.  The retail distributor finds they have goods they cannot sell and quite possibly, legal consequences of holding counterfeit products they ought not to have in the first instance.

The issue is how to protect your own brand and intellectual property in a cost effective manner, and at the same time, ensure security measures are in place which will deter counterfeiters from using your product as the basis for a counterfeit operation.  The analogy of a homeowner ensuring all the doors and windows are locked, whilst fitting a highly visible alarm system to deter opportunistic thieves, is very appropriate in this context.

By applying a low-cost security device, design detail or production element to your product, you are making it harder for counterfeiters to profitably reproduce your goods.  Security holograms provide an excellent method for separating your product from the competition, and counterfeiters will be assessing a range of products to see which is simpler, cheaper and most profitable for them to replicate.  Making it more difficult to create a good imitation of your product by the counterfeiters, reduces the risk your product will be targeted by to begin with.

Security holograms can be produced as 2D or 3D images, the design of which is extremely difficult and costly for a counterfeiter to copy.  You can use the hologram on the packaging (where it can act as a tamper evident safety feature) or place them on the actual product themselves.  The presence of a security hologram acts in exactly the same was as a homeowner’s alarm system – it warns potential thieves to steer clear and try their hand at another product which is easier (and cheaper) to counterfeit.

The reasons why security stickers with holograms are highly effective in acting as a deterrent to counterfeiting, are because they are cost effective, deliver multiple security functions and can be easily customized and applied to your products or to protect other intellectual property you own.

Security holograms provide a highly visible guarantee that the goods are genuine and are not seeking to hoodwink customers with fake branding; in this regard, holograms are powerful components of your brand identity if you include them.  Further security functions they perform include providing evidence the goods have not been tampered with and where they are used in conjunction with the brand image itself, they serve to protect the intellectual property which a brand represents.  The hologram itself can be subjected to fast and effective optical validation, which provides an additional layer of protection for your goods and reputation as well as being an additional mechanism to convey data such as stock and handling information.

Security holograms cannot be copied using photocopiers or computer scanners, which is a favorite technique utilized by counterfeiters.  It is also apparent when a hologram is real or not, given the ability to present a moving image to the viewer – the only way a counterfeiter can get around this security barrier is to source counterfeit holograms.  This is prohibitively expensive to do, or the alternative, to leave the hologram off their counterfeit products, quickly serves to mark them out as not genuine.

As counterfeit products rise and the ability of the fraudsters to deceive the consumer increases, it is vital for companies to protect their brand and reputation.  Security holograms are cheap to produce, and very simple to apply and manage through the distribution chain.  The simple presence of a security hologram is enough to deter many counterfeiters from even attempting to replicate your product, which makes it easier to target those counterfeiters who are attacking your intellectual property rights and reputation.

Labels and stickers have never been cheaper or easier to source and no matter what you need, you should be able to find a print and design partner who can deliver what you need, at the price you demand and without sacrificing quality.  You are only restricted by your own imagination though many printers will offer a very wide range of designs and templates for you to use if you want something quickly – still, there is always scope for your own personal touch given the technology available today.

Many online websites are offering cheap printed labels and other services but you should establish who you are dealing with before you place the order and part with your hard earned cash. You are strongly advised to deal with a US based supplier who will also be directly responsible for producing your order; many online web suppliers are actually sub-contracting the print work overseas, particularly to the Far East, where print work is conducted on old presses (usually sold off as obsolete from the US and elsewhere back in the 1970’s and 1980’s) – the quality is poor, the environmental impact is extremely high and you have very little control over the print process with extended turnaround times and almost no recourse if something goes wrong.

The moral of this story is to buy American!

Many people never even consider how a label can help them in the first instance so here is a brief list of typical label orders which can be fulfilled by a competent print and design partner – remember it will serve you well if you can keep work with the same supplier because it will reduce lead times, decrease design team input and as a supplier gets to know you better, they will be able to help you that much better too.

Here’s the list:

• Barcode labels
• Anniversary labels and seals
• Shipping labels
• Cheap or Value Labels
• Control Panel Graphic Overlays
• Custom integrated Shipping Labels
• Bespoke or Custom Labels
• Custom Wine Labels
• Parking Permits and Stickers
• Custom Short Run Labels
• Embossed Labels
• Four Color Process or CMYK Labels
• Hang Tags
• Medical and Veterinarian Office Labels
• Oil Change Stickers
• Personalized ID Tags
• Short Run Custom Labels
• Waterproof Labels
• Window Decals

In addition there is a growing interest in the personal use of labels and stickers.  It is quite common for orders to be placed for personalized stickers for kids; anniversary and birthday occasions; Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4^th July and New Years celebratory tags and sometimes any old occasion just for the fun of it such as a personalized beer label when you are having a family get-together.  Wine buffs have been getting in on the cheap label act by personalizing their wine for serving at table or weddings and such – it is a lot cheaper and is easier than you may think!

As we said at the very beginning, you are only restricted by your imagination in terms of what you have on the labels and stickers you want and what you are going to use them for – and it is definitely not going to break the bank either.

Buying labels and stickers has never been easier with the advent of the internet and now there are more reasons than ever to click the mouse and place an order – it is really so simple and so very, very cheap!

Sourcing your stickers and labels online is convenient because you can do this whenever you want to – you don’t need to set time aside in a busy, hectic work schedule to get what can be a mundane chore done – order in the middle of the night, first thing in the morning or anytime you want to – the choice is all yours.  When it comes to convenience, nothing beats the internet for putting you in control.

The price is another major reason for sourcing labels online – a good printer will use the internet to reduce their own production costs and in turn will pass on the enormous savings created to you, the customer, in the form of big discounts.  It is not unusual for discounts of 50% or more to be found using online based print and design partners when compared to traditional shop-based suppliers.

A note of caution here – price is important but so is quality, delivery and customer service.  You have to be careful because many online suppliers are actually simply acting as a middleman and outsourcing the orders they receive to third party printers so they can take a cut – this does not pass on the full discounts available in the pricing and you lose control of the quality aspect of the order.  Turnaround times are also longer in these instances and if there is a mistake in the order you are unlikely to have effective or practical recourse.

Online ordering is very simple and provides an enormous amount of flexibility as well as reducing the lead time involved in putting the design and artwork together.  Artwork can now be simply emailed to the printer (though you should check with each supplier for any particular requirements they have for file formats and sizes) and the resulting proof can be rapidly turned around and emailed straight back to you.  You should note that the colors that are produced by proofs may not be truly replicated by your computer monitor but this is usually very marginal and does not impact on the process or finished products.

In addition to the ordering and proofing process, you should be able to gain access to past orders you have made with the print supplier using the online portal – this will allow you to use previous files, designs and proofs from past projects which will result in faster turnaround times and the potential for reduced costs to you.  You may also need to have labels and bumper stickers delivered to multiple delivery addresses and in varying quantities and frequency for repeat orders – a good quality online portal will provide this functionality with simple one- or two-clicks of your mouse.  Once you have finalized your design and agreed the proofs and the order has been placed and is on the way to being fulfilled you will want to track the order through production and delivery and again, nothing beats an online system for enabling you to do this.

Lasers are needed to take the images used in constructing he hologram – in fact two laser beams are used in conjunction with a photographic plate – these combined images are then viewable as a hologram using normal light.  One laser beam hits the object from the side while the other hits the object from the front – the photographic plate collects both reflected images so the image collected is actually a dual-image on one photographic plate – this creates the holographic effect.

If this seems complicated, it’s because it is – and this is why hologram stickers are such an excellent security device – they are so very difficult to reproduce by counterfeiters.  If you wish to instill confidence in your customers that the products you are supplying to market are in fact made by you and covered by your warranties and guarantees, then a hologram sticker with your logo and brand stamped on them are an excellent way to do this.

So secure are hologram stickers that they are incorporated into credit and debit cards as well as formal identification cards used by companies and government agencies.  While hologram stickers are more expensive to produce and source than ordinary labels and stickers, the costs is still not prohibitive because modern print technology is capable of rendering the pieces at a very cost-effective price.  You can order hologram stickers in relatively small print runs but you will benefit from much greater cost efficiencies if you order larger print runs for the stickers.

Other hologram sticker applications include:

• Quality control marks on items which contain intellectual or performance property such as software, film and audio;
• Asset tracking labels to demonstrate ownership and equipment information (especially when combined with barcode tags);
• Tamper proof evidence by preventing sensitive items such as medication or baby foods from being opened or if they are opened, the end-user will have visual evidence of tampering;
• Vehicle registration and parking rights;
• Concert and event ticket anti-counterfeiting measures;
• Confidential document protection;
• Clothing hang tags;
• Original equipment manufacturer marks (OEM) for use in a wide range of applications including car and aircraft parts as well as widely used in software packaging; and
• Lottery ticket scratch cards.

Hologram labels lend themselves to a wide range of creative uses so it is simple to incorporate your brand name and logo or other customized design into the finished product.  Using hologram labels in connection with your branding lends a degree of unique differentiation to help your company products be more readily identifiable in the minds of the buying public and to get the most out of hologram labels you should consult with a print and design partner who is experienced in designing and producing them.

A hologram is created by capturing the light reflected from an object and reconstructing it so the subject appears to move relative to the position of the viewer of the hologram.  This is what makes a hologram appear 3-dimensional but in fact it is not, it is a 2-dimensional representation just as an ordinary photograph.

In 1947, Hungarian physicist, Gabor Denes (known as Dennis Gabor in English) was playing in his lab with the results of pioneering technological advances dealing with the development of the electron microscope.  Dennis Gabor was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery but he had to wait until 1971 to receive the recognition he deserved.

The discovery was made in England at the commercial lab of British Thomas-Houston who filed a patent back in 1947, however the holographic light/optical technique did not attain any commercial significance until the development of the laser in 1960.  With the invention of the laser, 3-dimensional objects were then able to be made and the technique was first discovered in 1962 by two sets of teams – one in Soviet Russia led by Yuri Denisyuk and in the US, led by Juris Upatnieks.

The initial holograms required illumination using the polarized light provided by a laser which severely restricted the use of the hologram.  With the development of “Rainbow Transmission” holograms, ordinary white-light sources could be used to create the 3-dimensional replication and this opened the door to using holograms in everyday life.  The holograms you see on credit cards and as security tags on product packaging are of this type.  The rainbow transmission technique uses a surface print on a plastic film which is then backed by an aluminum mirror-coating to provide the backlight source of illumination – this is what creates the 3-dimensional image appear.

A refinement of the rainbow transmission hologram is the “reflection” or “Denisyuk” hologram.  Here a multi-color image is reproduced and a white-light source from the same side of the viewer is only needed – this removes the need for the backlight coating which increases the cost of producing the hologram.

While static 3-dimensional images can be reproduced on a 2-dimensional medium, the science fiction concept of a 3-dimensional image being projected into a space is not yet with us.  The ability to replicate a 3-dimensional image into a space holds a lot of attraction for television and film but while plenty of effort has been going into creating a 3-dimensional viewing experience, the reality is that this holographic development is still science fiction and not science fact.  The 2008 holographic projection of CNN reporter Jessica Yellin during the Presidential elections last year may have given the impression of a hologram projection into space but in fact there was a merging of a video feed from the reporter which was then combined with the video feed created in the studio.  In other words, it was a cheat, but still gave a good indication of the possibility of 3-d holographic movies and television may be able to bring to the movie theater or your living room within the next few years.

Roll labels can be designed with as much artistic flair as you wish to apply or they can be mundane and packed with the information you wish to convey with a minimum of fuss and effort.  The only major limitation of roll labels is that they are not generally suitable for outdoor use; if you are going to expose roll labels to external conditions they are not going to last very long and they usually degenerate very quickly.  That being said, there are pretty few other limits to be concerned about.

Roll labels are not simply confined to paper rolls and stickers either; you can play around with foil labels using gold and iridescent colors while many of you reading this on a PC will see a Microsoft “Windows” sticker with a holographic image embedded on it – this is a roll label simply applied to the PC unit as it comes off the manufacturing assembly line.

Choosing the color scheme for your labels is simple and straight forward because they lend themselves not only to multiple color schemes (4 or more colors) but also to more sophisticated color schemes such as CMYK or process color as well as foil printing and blank or stock labels.

Deciding what you are going to use the label for, indoor or outdoor use is important because as we have already noted, roll labels are not particularly good for outdoor use though there are some products which are durable – it is essential for your supplier to know whether you are going to be using the labels in outdoor situations where they will be exposed to the elements.

Any label is only as durable as the adhesive which is used to stick it to the object you are working with; some label adhesives are excellent for glass but not very good for use with clothes, so once again you need to think about what the roll label will be affixed to and ensure your label supplier is made aware of it so they can quote you for the right product.

You can source roll labels in virtually any size, large or small, depending on your requirement – bumper sticker size or larger can be produced though generally roll labels or stickers are of much smaller dimensions.  You do not need to be restricted to having them on a roll either – many labels are printed onto sheets for easier storage in the office or can be produced as stand-alone items.  You may also wish to consider perforations around individual labels so they can be easily separated from the rest without having to remove the label itself which will subsequently affect the sticking quality of the adhesive.

by Mark Trumper

You can simply and easily control your parking slots and who uses them by making sure they have an easily displayed and customized parking tag so no mistakes can be made.

Implementing parking control is not difficult though it is certainly not top of anyone’s agenda unless the issue has become blown out of all proportion.  Thankfully, it does not have to be a major chore and here is a simple to follow, seven step process to resolve the problem.

Step One – Choose the Tag Product

You have three main choices available – a custom hang tag (parking hang tags hang off the rearview mirror), a bumper sticker or rearview mirror decal and finally, an inside window sticker.

No matter which you choose, it should be durable and easily identifiable; hanging tags are simple but some users don’t like something dangling from the rearview mirror but they are secure and cannot easily be interfered with.  A rearview mirror decal does the job simply as does an inside mirror sticker.

One tip is to use whichever product you choose in a uniform manner so everyone has the permit displayed in the same location which helps avoids mishaps with the tow company.

Step Two – Choose Your Design

A simple design is best but do not forget to add your company logo!

You are looking for a design which is simple but stands out easily enough from outside or some distance from the vehicle -  you are not looking to add to the aesthetics of the vehicle itself (that is someone else’s property remember), but it needs to be easily identifiable and visible.

Step Three – Ink Color

Choose the ink color and steer clear of multiple colors – a strong color and white are excellent but avoid jazzy, psychedelic combinations – it’s going on someone’s car and a customer or employee in an expensive vehicle may not take kindly to something they consider “trashy” or tacky being stuck on their vehicle.

Step Four – Text Addition

Use a font that is clear and readily readable – Arial or Times Roman for instance – again nothing jazzy or fancy.

What you are looking to add is simple; “Parking Permit” and date of expiry may be all you need but if you wish to control not just the drivers but also the vehicles parking in your space, you can add the license tag number to the permit as well.

It is simple to use a barcode which can be added to the tag and is easily scanned by whoever is responsible for controlling your parking spaces and lot access – a barcode also removes any privacy issues because there is no need for names, expiry dates or any information to be on display and a barcode needs a scanner to read the information.

Summary

It is a simple step to control access to your lot and your commercial property; parking in certain areas is at a premium and needs to be controlled and regulated to ensure the even flow of your business.  Staff need to be able to park easily and get into work without the hassle while how many of your customers are not going to be impressed if they turn up at your premises but have to find parking several blocks away.

A parking permit is easily created and forms part of a manageable parking control policy which will ensure the smooth operation of your business without demanding attention out of all proportion to handling this straight forward situation.

Mark Trumper, President of MaverickLabel.com, online source for custom stickers.

Photo credit:cafemama

The best way of supporting the American economy is to buy American!

Now this really makes me mad – I did some research of my own and hit the store looking for general “stuff” – what I was looking for was not so important as trying to find it produced right here in America.

We are an industrious people and sure there was a great big range of stuff that was “Made in the USA” but as a marketing guy, what stood out to me was just how little was made of goods being made right here in this country.

It was fairly rare to see emblazoned across packaging “Made in America” or “Made in the USA” – come on Corporate America what are you thinking – fire your marketing department and wake up!

How much does it actually cost to put “Made in USA” on your packaging?

No more than “Made in Japan” or “Made in China” and they certainly don’t seem to be ashamed of announcing where their cars or plastic gizmos are manufactured – it just seems to me it’s only us that are worried that “Made in USA” might detract from selling goods or is it that homegrown manufacturers just take it for granted?

Perhaps it’s just the time of year and I got out of bed the wrong side this morning but when we have so many families facing hard times, the least we all can do is to buy American and support the jobs, workers and economy right here at home.  Every US manufacturer should be sticking one of these Made in America stickers on every box they ship out of their factory so every American consumer knows they are buying American and supporting American families and jobs right here at home.

Even if you are into sports, band, or any other type of extracurricular activities at school, you will want to be able to identify the items that are yours. Not all activities require you to take your items home with you, so storing them at school can cause some identification problems if you have a particular item you use all the time, and you don’t want someone else using or taking that item away from you.

Identifying your stuff can be a decorative and fun thing to do. Children in elementary school love arts and crafts, so why not turn something so important into something that is fun by showing them how to create and add labels to their stuff. Labels come in various colors, shapes, and styles for everyone’s taste. Checking websites online such as Mavericklabel.com is a great place to start when looking for a large variety of labels to choose from. Here’s a tip: You can use their custom integrated labels for blank labels.

Identification labels can be created out of just about any type of material from paper, metal, foil, wood, and plastic; the choice is purely your own. Some labels can be special ordered with your contact information on them already. Other types of labels can be ordered blank and you fill in the information yourself. The blank labels are the best kind for kids to design themselves. They can add whatever colors they’d like as well as the contact information they would like to include on each label.

If you are a student you may be carry so many things with you everyday from class to class. There is always a possibility that you are going to leave something behind. By having some ID or address labels custom made you can assure that people will know the items are yours. They will know where to contact you and this will ensure a quick return. You can have them plain or have a design on them. You can choose a color you like the best.

If you run an office, you can create labels with the name of your business on them. This will ensure that items stay where they belong. You can also have a barcode placed on your stickers. This will assist in the yearly equipment check, the process will go much quicker and not to mention much smoother. If an item is missing you can easily tell what it is by the missing barcode number.

Even if you are an athlete you can use these labels for your sports bag and equipment. With all the games or tournaments you will be attending, it is a good idea to leave your items marked. Especially since, as you already know, your bags get thrown in the locker room and then are left there during the game. Then you call come back and everything gets thrown out of the way in celebration of your big win. These tags will help determine your team shirt from your team mate’s.

Everyone needs to send out mail at some point, and you are no exception. A great time saver that everyone should enjoy is custom made address labels. You can have just about anything on them with today’s technology. Your favorite cartoon character, the initial of your last name or a nice design: you name it and it is yours. They can be clear, so there appears to be no background or you can have them made in a color of your choice. If you are using address labels for your business you want them to look professional. You can consider placing your company logo on the address label.

Whatever the purpose of the label, you should use them. Your personal items will be marked with your contact information if they are ever misplaced. Your office equipment will remain where it is supposed to, and will be ease to locate if not. Then, lastly, your mailing will take you a fraction of the time it took before with the use of mailing labels.