What Size Water Bottle Label Should I Buy?

We sell a lot of water bottle labels at Bottle Your Brand. We discovered sometimes it’s more economical and faster for our customers to buy water bottle labels instead of cases of water. When customers buy our labels for their events, they put them on bottled water brands they buy locally. Probably the number one question we get asked here at Bottle Your Brand is, “What size water bottle label should I buy?” If only we could gaze into a crystal ball to answer that question. To be absolutely sure, you have to buy a bottle of water in your area, pull the label off and measure it, then choose our label size that’s the closest match. We sell water bottle labels in two sizes: 8 inches x 2.125 inches and 8.25 inches x 1.75 inches.

Here Are the Facts:

• There is no “typical ” or “normal” water bottle. There are standard fluid ounces sold in bottles, for example 16.9 oz., 12 oz., 8 oz., but the bottles they come in can be very different.
• A brand sold in one state, may not be available in the same bottle as that very same brand in another state.
• A 500 ML bottle purchased in Houston, is not necessarily the same as a 500 ML bottle purchased in New York.
• There are a lot of brands unique to certain geographic areas. Stores in our city don’t sell Ozarka, Poland Springs or Deer Park. We can buy Arrowhead, Refreshe and Crystal Geyser however.
• The area on the bottle where you place the label, or the label panel, is different on every bottle. It may be flat or ribbed, wide or narrow.

Reasons Why Bottles Are Different

Why would a a 16.9 ounce bottle sold in Atlanta, come in a different bottle shape than a 16.9 ounce bottle sold here in Seattle, even when the brand name is the same? There are a couple of reasons. One reason is co-branding. Co-branding is a partnership. Sometimes companies form an alliance to work together to produce a product. This enables a company to hold down prices. It’s an efficient way to produce a product as heavy as bottled water. Shipping water from one side of the country to the other can be expensive.

The other reason bottles are shaped differently is because of the blow mold used to manufacture them. The blow mold determines the shape of  the bottle. Not all bottled water companies use the same blow mold and some even have custom blow molds made for their brand, ie: Fiji and Evian. You’ll see evidence of this by walking down the bottled water aisle at the supermarket. There are smooth bottles, shaped bottles, ribbed bottles and bottles with raised designs.

Image courtesy of mitaplas.com

Take a look at these bottles we found when we did a search for bottled spring water. These bottles all hold 16.9 fluid ounces (500 ML). Notice their shapes are all different and so are the size and placement of their labels. They were all made with different blow molds, yet they all hold the same amount of water.

The same is true for 12 fluid ounce bottles from major brands.

After reading this post you should have a better understanding why we can’t tell you a brand name when you ask us what label size you should buy. But read on, we have one more thing to help you.

Printable Label Size Guide

To further assist you we have made available a downloadable PDF of all our label sizes. Print the guide and cut out the two water bottle labels. Keep in mind your printer settings should be set on “print to scale” but to be certain, check the guide you printed with a ruler to make sure it printed to size. Take the label cut-outs to the store and wrap them around the bottles you plan to buy.

If you’d like an actual label sample in either size please email us at info@bottleyourbrand.com and ask for samples. We’ll need your name and address. We send out free label samples upon request. Please allow ten days to receive your sample. Happy Labeling!