By

Jon M. Stout

May 7, 2006

Everyone likes a well organized party that celebrates a special occasion. The list of occasions is long and includes birthdays, anniversaries, religious milestones, holidays and other occasions that mark milestones in the human experience.

A gathering of friends, relatives, neighbors and associates promotes special cohesion reminding everyone of the need for unity and communication among social groups. In addition a well organized party can be an enjoyable, memorable experience.

The Role of Party Favors

Party favors serve as reminders of the event and, in their role as gifts for participants, create a pleasurable memory of the party. Often party favors are combined in a gift basket that is distributed at the end of party and retained by the guest. Frequently these favors are used to remind party participants about the party and the good times associated with it.

Since most parties and events have a theme associated with them, party favors can promote the theme in a very positive way with graphics and messages that highlight the event.

Private Label Drinking Water as an Ideal Party Favor

Private label drinking water is ideal for party favors for a number of reasons.

For example, if the quality of the water is high and free of contaminants, it is a healthy alternative to soft drinks and items like candy and fast food that are harmful to both adults and children alike. High quality drinking water serves to both hydrate and complement good health.

In addition, private label drinking water conveys a message about the event and, if used as a party favor, serves to remind the participants of the those elements of the party that were most memorable.

Private label drinking water also represents the theme of the event, stimulates conversation and is easily adaptable to other later events with a shared theme.

Private label drinking water is an ideal and powerful way to promote a message. Essentially private labeling allows one to design and develop a label with a custom message and attach that label to a bottle of healthy drinking water. A result of this process is the creation and promotion of a theme with a clear message. Because of the durable nature of the bottled water product, consumable advertising is created that leaves a lasting message in the mind of the party participant.

Some additional benefits of private labeled water include:

• A high-quality, custom message is created

• Messages can be modified to reflect the essence of the party theme.

• Individual users often carry the water with them and the party theme is further promoted.

• Pure water is popular and universally accepted as contributing to good health. The message of the private label effectively reaches more party participants.

• Effective cost is low and response to the theme message is immediate.

• Consumable advertising creates a lasting message and impression.

What to Look for in a Private Label Water Supplier

There are a number of private label water suppliers but they vary widely in the quality of their product offerings. There are three areas to investigate when choosing a supplier:

• Quality of Water

Party participants require proper hydration with water of the highest quality. Often, parties include children and teenagers who can greatly benefit from proper hydration with pure water.

High quality water in terms of health and taste is also critical for the acceptance of the product as a party favor. If the water is low quality or tastes bad then the theme associated with the party favor will be compromised. The best quality water on the market today is purified using a distillation/ filtration/ oxygenation process that removes all impurities, including all bacteria, and creates a light, refreshing taste.

• Quality of Label Design and Production

The label is the message part of the party favor and poor-quality labels send a poor-quality message. Production of a poor-quality message is a waste of money and adversely affects the part favor theme.

It is very important to know that the vast majority (almost all) of the private label opportunities in this country come from water resellers (not bottlers) with desktop-model “thermal" (or “thermal wax") printing devices with a quality level that cannot compare well to even consumer-grade inkjet printing devices widely available for less than $200 at your local electronics store. These label printers are very cheap in both quality and cost, typically ranging from $10-20k depending on configuration, and are widely used throughout the private label water industry because of their low cost.

In sharp contrast, a quality label, i.e., one that looks like a top-shelf brand that you might find in your local gourmet grocery store, needs to be produced with professional-quality equipment using professional-grade printing equipment. There are three types of printing equipment that can produce a high-quality label.

1. Rotary offset lithography;

2. Flexography; and

3. High-quality digital presses.

For most smaller runs (under about 10,000 units), digital equipment offered by Heidelberg or HP is the most cost effective solution, but instead of $10-20k, the minimum equipment costs for these professional solutions range from $750k to $1.25M per station.

These facts are very important to understand when choosing a private label bottler — because those who sell low-quality labels would have you believe that nothing better is available because of the short runs required by private label customers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In order to succeed, your label must be professionally designed and produced with high-quality materials using a printing process that renders a high-quality result. Waterproof lamination is also required for long lasting labels. This is easily achieved for an affordable unit cost using the right equipment for the job.

• Quality of Customer Service

The design and production of private labeled drinking water is complex and requires intense interaction between the customer and supplier. Communication and a culture of customer service excellence is a prerequisite to the creation of an effective party favor message. Without a significant commitment to customer service on the part of the supplier, the party favor will fail.

Choose a quality supplier to help develop your party favor and to produce a memorable party.