Asset tags are used to both identify and keep track of personal and business property.  Applying asset tags to your possessions is a simple, yet highly effective means of preserving your valuables.

Asset tags are used on a variety of products and a vast array of situations, including indoor / outdoor, cold / warm temperatures, and much more.  Below is a listing of the top five uses we’ve seen for our asset tags over the past several years…

Theft Prevention
Products and equipment that are clearly marked and identifiable are much less likely to be stolen.

Equipment Tracking
Asset tags are commonly used by businesses to keep track of tools, equipment, and electronics.  Additionally, most banks now require you to show proof of business assets when applying for loans.  Using asset tags, with an accompanying database, provides quick and easy proof of your company’s valuable equipment, computers, or other assets.

Lost / Stolen Item Recovery
Lost or stolen items marked with asset tags can be easily identified and returned to the rightful owner.  (Imagine leaving your cell phone or laptop at the airport.  If it were labeled with an asset tag, airport personnel could easily identify the owner and return it to you.)

Insurance Records
In the unfortunate event of loss or theft of an item – or even worse a fire or natural disaster striking your business – your item’s serial number, description, and other information will be readily available for insurance reimbursement purposes.

Visual Reminders
Asset tags help to remind you of upcoming service contracts, expiring lease / maintenance agreements, and more.

Asset tags can be configured in a multitude of different ways and are commonly manufactured on quality, long-lasting materials like aluminum, stainless steel, metalized polyester, Mylar, and even tamper-resistant stocks.  Asset tags can be formatted with bar codes, numbers, lettering, or even your company logo.

So, what can asset tags do for your business?  Visit our Asset Tags page for even more information and additional examples of asset tag usage!

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Edmonds, WA (PRWEB) October 12, 2009 — MaverickLabel.Com®, a leading custom printed label manufacturer, has received a patent on their technology for consolidating multiple quoting systems into one customer interface. The job quoting technology, with the registered trademark “UberQuoter®”, has the ability to access multiple quoting engines–be they simple tables, complex databases, or real-time algorithms– and retrieve product information in order to deliver an optimized quote for the printing of custom labels.

Ordering product labels can be a complex process with many product variables such as label shape, material, number of colors, laminate type, etc. There are also parameters for how the labels should be received by the customer: the total quantity, the amount per shipment, the timeframe for delivery, etc. Each specification changes how the order could be completed. MaverickLabel.Com’s UberQuoter® technology uses a decision support system to integrate the various specifications provided by the customer and provide a set of quotes that is presented by price or delivery time.

The patent is for a technology that we are only beginning to capitalize on. The UberQuoter has the potential to incorporate more and more technologies on the back end. And, for our customers, it holds immense opportunity to help them through the ordering process, improve their experience, and get the right product to them, at the best price, with optimum turnaround time.

The web experience taps into the idea of having an expert guide [the customer] through the choices to ensure that the finished product is correct

Perhaps a certain kind of material they’ve selected can’t be embossed; if embossing is an important feature to them, then the quoter alerts the customer so they can make a different selection right then.

And it’s never done

We are constantly adding to the website and the decision support system. As our business and technologies expand, so will the UberQuoter®.

From a manufacturing and delivery perspective, MaverickLabel.Com has different presses, manufacturing capabilities, and locations. Different production methods (e.g. digital, flexographic, offset, hot stamp, silkscreen, etc.) dictate which machines and locations could handle the order. The UberQuoter® technology enables MaverickLabel.Com to manage their resources while providing an instant quote to the customer. Plus it allows the company to bring new technologies to the customer quickly, integrating them into the quoting system as they are brought on line.

Rick Kent, president and “Chief Science Officer” of MaverickLabel.Com, comments, “The patent is for a technology that we are only beginning to capitalize on. The UberQuoter has the potential to incorporate more and more technologies on the back end. And, for our customers, it holds immense opportunity to help them through the ordering process, improve their experience, and get the right product to them, at the best price, with optimum turnaround time.”

The UberQuoter® technology integrates the decision support system into the label order specification page on the website. From a website usability and customer-satisfaction perspective, the technology helps the customer as they input their information; much like an expert at a label shop would help the customer with their order. “The web experience taps into the idea of having an expert guide [the customer] through the choices to ensure that the finished product is correct,” explains Kent. “Perhaps a certain kind of material they’ve selected can’t be embossed; if embossing is an important feature to them, then the quoter alerts the customer so they can make a different selection right then.”

When the company began in 1994 there were no formal quoting systems online. Instead proprietary techniques were used to provide pricing to their customers. Eventually the team built an algorithm-based quoting system targeted at just one of their printing technologies. As the company added more capabilities and manufacturing systems, each required a separate quoting engine, which led to customer confusion on which quoter to use. At that point MaverickLabel.Com decided they needed to develop a streamlined system that helps their customers through the quoting process. From this, the UberQuoter technology was born.

“And it’s never done,” says Kent. “We are constantly adding to the website and the decision support system. As our business and technologies expand, so will the UberQuoter®.”

About MaverickLabel.Com

MaverickLabel.Com offers hundreds of custom and stock label products, in a secure, online environment. In addition, the company has one of the most comprehensive ordering systems available, including online proofing and online design tools for most items. Visit http://www.mavericklabel.com/ for more information

Contact

Mark Trumper, CEO
MaverickLabel.Com
800.537.8816
http://www.mavericklabel.com/

# # #

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“We’re planting a tree for every customer placing an order with us,” said Mark Trumper, MaverickLabel.Com® CEO.  “We are constantly striving to find ways to reduce our ecological impact and this program helps us accomplish this goal while actively giving back to the environment,” he went on to say.

In this new initiative, MaverickLabel.Com® will plant a tree in honor of every label customer placing an order through the company’s website. The initial donation will ensure the planting of thousands of new trees through the end of 2009.

“We understand the impact the printing industry has on the environment and we’re doing our part to replace resources used by the industry as a whole.  We’re proud of our ongoing green initiatives, with the use of eco-friendly and biodegradable label stocks and inks, and are even prouder still of this new tree planting initiative” Mr. Trumper added.  “We make every effort to be environmental stewards in all aspects of our business and are delighted to sponsor this tree donation program.”

Mr. Trumper also noted that… “This program fits hand-in-hand with Maverick’s company-wide philosophy of being environmentally conscious and our internal efforts on office recycling and development of a paperless work environment.”

Trees for the Future has helped communities around the globe plant trees since 1989.  With more than 65 million trees planted in thousands of areas throughout Central America, Africa, and Asia, the Trees for the Future organization provides technical knowledge on agroforestry and sustainable development, along with planting materials, so that communities can return dwindling lands and diminished farms back to productive, sustainable conditions.

MaverickLabel.Com® offers hundreds of label products, in a secure online environment. In addition, the company has one of the most comprehensive ordering systems available, including online proofing and design online for most items.

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To participate, all you have to do is join the Flickr group and submit a photo. If you’re not a member of Flickr, you can join here

After 500 members have joined the group, one group member will win $100, and here’s the kicker–the winner will be decided by you all via popular vote!  First, the top 15 photos will be selected by the Flickr group administrators. Then you will have an opportunity to vote on the best wine label photo.  After the voting period ends, the person with the most votes will win the $100, and the person with the second highest total of votes will receive a special honorable mention award.  Payment will be made via Paypal.

So, get crackin’.  Start adding your photos to the official Maverick Label Flickr group today.  Click here to go to the group.

Please note that in order to win, you must join the Flickr group.

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Kids collected cheap stickers of all kinds – scratch and sniff, puffy stickers, metallic stickers, stickers with celebrity faces, cartoon icons, you name it.  They put them in sticker books, and they would show them to their friends.  They traded stickers, gave them as gifts, and proudly displayed them in their books and on many surfaces in their rooms.

What was the big deal?

Click the Image to Visit the ZUMIEZ Facebook Group / Fan Page

When Stan Avery used a $100 investment to build a machine to make self-adhesive labels, did he know that he was paving the way to a pop-culture phenomenon?  Maybe he thought that the brightly colored My Little Pony labels and the baseball-card-sized Star Wars stickers were an aberration to the business.  Mostly likely, though, he saw them as good business.

Those stickers, so coveted in the 1980’s, had their humble beginnings on a machine made from a washing machine motor, a saber saw, and a bunch of sewing machine parts.  Up until Avery got his idea most labels were not self-adhesive, meaning you had to get them wet to activate the stickiness.

From this simple beginning, novelty stickers evolved into all sorts of shapes, sizes, textures and smells.  That’s right.  Smells.  One manufacturer of scratch and sniff stickers, Mello Smello, produced a wide range of scented labels, as well as foil labels and other popular types of collectible stickers.

As for scratch and sniff stickers, they are still very much sought after by collectors, therefore Mello Smello still makes them. Vintage scratch and sniff stickers from the 80’s are a novelty to a collector, but since the smell can eventually go away, collectors also like new ones.  It does take a lot for the smell to go away.  The technology used to produce scratch and sniff stickers utilizes a process called micro-encapsulation.  The smell is surrounded by tiny, easily breakable capsules that break open when you scratch them.  There are so many micro-capsules in one sticker that the smell lasts a very long time.

There are a few scents of scratch and sniff stickers that are very exclusive.  One with a lemonade pitcher that smells like lemons is extremely hard to find.  Another that smells like roses is also sought after.  One that smells like eucalyptus is so exclusive that it was never sold in stores, only given to Mello Smello’s fan club members.

Other sought-after stickers are Star Wars stickers.  An entire collection of Star Wars stickers and trading cards will fetch more than $2000 on eBay.  Super hero stickers will also still fetch a high price.  With modern pop culture’s obsession with all things 80’s, it would seem that the interest in stickers has risen in the past few years.

These days it’s easy to get your own labels made.  You can market your business, your band, your family reunion, or your new child with a roll of custom labels.  If the “sticker renaissance” continues, some day your custom stickers could be part of someone’s vintage collection.

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So, what is a brand, you might ask?  And, how do you know if you have one?  Well, every company has a brand.  But, truth be told, you don’t always own your own brand.  Your brand is really the perception of your business and is controlled by your customers, products, vendors, customer service agents, and yes – even your company labels.

Your Image Is Your Brand

Scary thought, I know.  But, everything about your company is indeed your “brand.”  Many companies carefully choose their employees, provide customer service training, spend lots of money on their stationery and business cards, and have a large marketing budget.  But, many of these same companies often overlook an item that is seen by customers who order a product, have something delivered, or receive packages from these companies – the label!

That’s where MaverickLabel.Com can help.  We specialize in providing any type of label imaginable.  In business since 1994, MaverickLabel.Com provides a secure online environment for both designing and ordering labels of all types.  We make it easy for you to find the exact label you’re looking for with our Uber Quoter and our customer service team is available to assist you place your label order.

So, next time you’re thinking about your brand identity, consider enhancing your brand’s image with quality, professional labels from MaverickLabel.Com.

Mark Trumper
CEO
MaverickLabel.Com

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After a lengthy research and testing period, we have today officially added a new, Earth friendly label material – NatureFlex™ biodegradable label films – to our extensive label stock selection.

Perfectly suited for products like food and beverage labeling, as well as high-impact nutraceutical and pharmacy product packaging, NatureFlex™ label films are made of regenerated cellulose, which starts as wood pulp.  NatureFlex™ has been proven to fully biodegrade in as little as 16 weeks – making this a truly environmentally conscious label material.

MaverickLabel.Com® proudly offers the NatureFlex™ label film in 1.8 mil White and Clear choices on many of our most popular products, including our process color labels.

To ensure MaverickLabel.Com® customers would be completely satisfied with this new label stock material, we spent countless hours over several months performing both indoor and outdoor quality tests.  And, the results of these tests were fantastic.  Labels printed on NatureFlex™ stock both looked great and had tremendous durability.

We are constantly striving to do our part to be more Earth sensitive and this product is a perfect fit to our existing label stock material choices.

Find more details about NatureFlex™ label stock at our Process Color Labels product page…
http://www.mavericklabel.com/process_color.html

Mark Trumper, CEO
MaverickLabel.Com®
800.537.8816

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Even in these barren economic times, the cost of purchasing a new ink jet printer is amazingly low. Printer manufacturers often sell these printers below cost, which sounds like an awfully bad deal for printer manufacturers. Sounds like, but isn’t. Believe it or not, this type of sales logic dates back over a hundred years to a man named King.

King C. Gillette, whose last name now adorns items in men’s grooming kits around the world, stumbled upon the idea of the disposable razor when he was working as a traveling salesman in the late 1890s. His plan was to craft a razor handle of good quality, and to sell the handle at a small loss. Doing so would encourage users to keep buying replacement blades, which could be sold at a profit, in order to create customers who returned on a regular basis.

This type of sales strategy, sell a loss leader to promote regular, more profitable sales became known as the Razor and Blades business model, and has been employed numerous times since its inception. When Standard Oil wanted to move into China, they gave away 8 million kerosene lamps in order to create a market for the lamps’ oil. Electronics manufacturer Apple has stated that it doesn’t make much money from iPod sales, instead profits are derived from its iTunes Store. And, of course, there are printer companies, whose use of this tactic is notorious.

A brand new ink jet printer can be purchased from most big box stores for less than $50, setting an incredibly low bar for an average quality consumer color printer. However, replacing the cartridges for that printer will cost the consumer almost as much as the printer itself, and sometimes more.

And therein lies the rub. At consumer pricing, the ink for printers can cost up to $8000 per gallon, making it one of the most costly liquids known to man. This price scales down to make printing relatively affordable for small operations like home users and students. However, as business owners can quickly find out, when printing things like cheap color labels and business cards on anywhere near a regular basis, the cost of ink can really add up. This type of profit plan makes a do-it-yourself solution only feasible when printing is done infrequently at best.

The problem with the Razor and the Blades strategy is that scaling does not pass economic benefits to the consumer. During good economic times, the squeeze of the Razor and Blade business plans is tough, but during a recession, it can be brutal. The problem becomes not how to make the most in a loss leader economy, but rather how to escape it.

The obvious solution is to try and capitalize on a wholesale economy, where sellers lower their profit margins in exchange for a guarantee of more sales. With printer ink, there is obviously a great bit of space for the prices to fall. But to make the most of those savings, a printer has to buy in very large quantities, which puts a small business an economic position that is worse than the current one.

The solution is to allow someone else to shoulder the bulk of the wholesale burden by relying on a third party for printing. The thought of making use of an outside printer might seem foreign, but it provides a great deal of advantages. Offloading your printing means that you’re only going to be paying for the ink you use, and thus you’ll be saving some money.

Moving some of your printing to a third party means that you’ll need to consider what you’ll print, as you can’t simply offload everything. Here is where a little knowledge of knowing your printing habits comes in handy. By identifying what you print over and over again on regular basis, things like business cards, labels, and forms, allows you to outsource those printing jobs. True, you’ll still need to do some printing on your own, but with careful planning and working with a the printer, you can hopefully drop the total amount of printing you do on your own to a manageable level and land in a more comfortable section of the Razor and Blade business model.

MaverickLabel.com can help you reduce your label printing costs by printing your shipping labels. Still need inkjet labels?

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The line between online content and the offline world is quickly eroding. For years it has been common place to include a web address on marketing materials, package wrappers, and signage, but these addresses required the viewer to maintain an interest in a company or website from the point of discovery to they reach a computer, or to peck out an address on a cell phone. This gap in access between discovery and information, allows for any number of distractions to swoop in and siphon off a customer who might be fence sitting on a product. A unique combination of several technologies is doing what it can to erase this gap. That practice, already widespread in Japan, is set to make the jump to the United States in the near future.

The concept is called “mobile tagging” and it typically involves a two-dimensional barcode, a camera phone, and a webpage created specifically for mobile phone browsers.

The two-dimensional barcode is not necessarily a new invention, having been created in both the United States and Japan almost simultaneously in the mid-1990s. The result is a barcode that makes use of blots, or boxes, or dots rather than simple vertical lines. These barcodes are able to encode a great deal of data – an upper limit of 4000 or so characters compared to the twenty or so of a traditional barcode. The ability to pack that much data into such a tiny spot has turned the barcode from a simple method of tracking into a means to relay human-meaningful information.

The cell phone isn’t new either. However, the wide scale proliferation of mobile phones was paired by the addition of inexpensive digital cameras and access to the mobile internet. With the aide of relatively simple programs, mobile phones could learn to read matrix barcodes, and if the barcode contained a web address, the mobile phone could access the website right then. The gap between discovery and access was stopped.

The concept itself seems rather simple. However, it’s the applications that hold a great deal of potential. The matrix barcode, when used in mobile tagging, has several advantages over the written web address.

First, and perhaps foremost, the viewer does not know exactly what to expect when they view a matrix barcode without a camera which can read it. Sure, the viewer can garner some basic assumptions from context clues, but where the code points to is actually a mystery. To capitalize on the mystery, it is common for two-dimensional barcodes to be served without context clues on plain white billboards. For a viewer, the need to understand, the need to justify such a massive barcode, is prompt enough actively respond to the tag, pull out a cell phone and snap a photo. At that point, the website is a click away and the viewer has done a great deal of the leg work in become an actual consumer.

Another advantage of using a two-dimensional barcode over a printed web address: long and specific addresses are preferred rather than forbidden. Customers engaging in mobile tagging can be directed to specific landing pages, tailored not only for a mobile device, but also based on geo-location. When a unique two-dimensional barcode is created based on the location in which it will be displayed, or to match the content it is paired with, the end result is targeted information that is greatly more relevant to the viewer. The more relevant the content, the greater the chance of turning a visitor into a customer.

Not all two-dimensional barcodes are simply marketing tools, though. Nor do they have to contain a simple web address. In Japan, matrix barcodes have replaced nutritional labels on food packages – redirecting the viewer to a mobile webpage that contains that information instead. Another common use is location-specific information, which is particularly popular in the tourism industry. A two-dimensional barcode next to a work of art or historic building can direct visitors to information that is far too detailed and lengthy to fit on a sign.

In the end, the variety of uses for two-dimensional barcodes is largely limited only by the imagination of the creator. Much as the internet is freeing ideas and connecting individuals, the question one should be asking about mobile tagging is “How could the internet help my situation if it weren’t bound to a computer?” After all, this isn’t a technology that’s bound solely to Japan. Currently in Apple’s App store, there are no fewer than three mobile tagging programs for the device. Mobile tagging is coming.

Visit MaverickLabel.com for your barcode labels. Or you can read our 2-d barcode label below.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 29, 2008 – Edmonds, Washington – MaverickLabel.Com^®, leading pioneer of label products via the Internet, today announced the launch of a new product line – custom printed wine bottle labels.

“Maverick’s new wine label printing program is truly unique and the most comprehensive system available today,” said Mark Trumper, MaverickLabel.Com^® CEO.  “It is the only program on the Internet where you can get a complete, instant quote for custom printed wine bottle labels.  Our wine label ordering system is designer friendly, fast, and easy to use,” he went on to say.

Custom printed wine labels are available in dozens of standard sizing options, with free downloadable templates.  Alternatively, customers can also order wine labels in any custom size simply by entering their width and height requirements.  Label material choices are extensive and include popular selections such as semi gloss, clear on clear, matte litho, gold and silver foils, and others.  Face and back labels are available on the same order, alternating on the roll.

“We’ve spent considerable time researching and creating this new wine label product offering, and we’re very excited about the final product,” Mr. Trumper added.  “We worked directly with personnel from several vineyards and wine estate houses to ensure we covered the needs of the wine labeling industry and to comply with wine labeling laws and requirements.”

Custom printed wine bottle labels from MaverickLabel.Com^® are available in quantities as low as 250 and include varietal data options for estate / lot numbering.  All wine label orders receive free digital web proofs within 24 hours and hard-copy digital color proofs within two days, via overnight carrier.  A production proof, printed on the actual label stock, is available for a small fee.

Find more details about the full product offering here:

http://www.mavericklabel.com/products/wine-label-quoter.php

MaverickLabel.Com^® offers hundreds of label products, in a secure online environment. In addition, the company has one of the most comprehensive ordering systems available, including online proofing and design online for most items.

# # # #

For more information:

Mark Trumper, CEO

MaverickLabel.Com^®

800.537.8816

marktrumper@mavericklabel.com

http://www.mavericklabel.com/

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