Andrew Quinn

By / Richard Kohn

Reading marketing communications from any sizeable retailer you’d be excused for thinking that ‘Choice Quality and Value for Money’ is the standard retailers’ mantra: from Jeronimo Martins and Lidl to Tesco and Carrefour consumers receive the message that this is the mission of their favorite retailer.

Obviously, the private label offering sits within that positioning … normally as the paramount example (tiered of course through good, better, best and niche) of their choice, quality and value for money assortment.

Yet, the go to market concept, positioning and strategy of each of these retailers is widely different, as is the range and assortment available in their stores. So what’s going on here? An average Tesco store supports 30,000+ skus, the average Biedronka only 5,000. So in one case we assume it’s consumer choice and in the other choices made on your behalf by the retailer. In one case the range of different quality offerings is clear, in the other we assume that the retailer has specified a quality product.

Once upon a time, Choice, Quality and Value for Money were differentiators for retailers. This was an insight driven phrase with significant resonance with consumers. Over time however, the insights behind this promise have become less relevant and now, Choice, Quality and Value for Money are standard entry requirements for any retailer. This happens in many product categories – think for instance about the time when Soft strong and long meant something in toilet paper: now it’s simply expected by the consumer as a cost of entry to the category.

Why is all of this so important in private labels? Because private label and retail brands have the potential, when positioned correctly, to achieve the same level of consumer loyalty as well promoted, national brands. As we move out of the period of economic uncertainty and restraint, private label offerings have to be more than me too products to retain sales once consumer confidence picks up. They have to offer more than choice, quality and value for money.

Consumers expect to see and experience strong product positioning in everything that they buy today. It’s a key decision made during product development and one of the most challenging operational decisions commissioning buyers should consider pre-launch. For private label manufacturers it will be increasingly important to come to your retailers with a good, compelling story why the consumer should buy your version of the product. If not, who cares if it offers Choice, Quality and Value for Money.

Richard is an expert in global marketing and an acknowledged strategic brand leader. He currently heads the private label division at one of the largest retail pharmacy groups in Europe. He’s held senior management positions in A brand CPG companies and led international marketing and strategy teams across CPG, consumer durable and business services companies. He’s also the European client partner for a leading brand excellence training institute which delivers brand and communications courses to Fortune 500 companies. Richard is dedicated to bringing the discipline and science of brand marketing and marketing communications to private labels, empowering them to cultivate critically essential marketing management competencies to lead them to build leadership brands.

richardkohn@gmail.com

By / Perry Seelert

As consumers, we are exposed to as many as 20,000 different messages a day, and actually see about 250 of them, so how do we make sense of this marketing assault to the senses? If you are a marketer of a brand, or particularly a retailer brand, how do you truly get your message heard amidst this clutter? The old way of thinking from an own brand point of view would be to rely purely on your value message. The thought was, if placed correctly and adjacently at the shelf, you didn’t need to do much else. Just let the price comparison do the heavy lifting, and that is persuasion alone, right? Wrong. To succeed in the new world of retailer branding, you need to think and behave like a brand, and here are four keys to address the Density Dilemma

Be Distinct >>

The more distinct and crystallized you are in your brand positioning, the better you will be, but this is a tough thing for many retailers or brands to rationalize. After all, wouldn’t it be best if everyone loved me and shouldn’t I cast the widest net? I have found that many retailers define their points of difference by claiming “most convenient”, “best service”, “greatest value”, “freshest perimeter”, or “widest selection”. When you claim all of these attributes cumulatively, it becomes too many to be credible, and the result is a vanilla, bland positioning. Seek out the most impactful point of difference and really own it. Brands like Toyota (reliability), Target (fashion-forward) and Disney (imagination) all have oneword equities, and the question is, do you?

Ensure Consistency >>

In defining who you are and the points of difference that make you special, you then have to express it through language, and do it consistently. When we work with retailer or CPG brands, we describe five different dimensions that we call the language of the brand. Each brand should have a visual, verbal, structural (if your brand is packaged), environmental (how and where it lives) and personal (your customer service) language. Most importantly the five dimensions need to be consistent in their overall tone of voice. Apple is a great example of a brand that is synergistic in its equity expression, which could be defined by words like “simplicity, modernity and intuitiveness”. At every visual, verbal, structural, environmental and personal turn, the language of the brand is consistent.

No Gratuitous Density >>

It is key to not try to claim too much in your brand’s positioning, but it is also important not to say too much, especially things that are obvious and extraneous. This just compounds the Density Dilemma for consumers. Wegman’s brands their spring water under their “Food You Feel Good About” banner, and I have always thought this is painfully obvious. Flags, bursts, symbols and call-outs are often more distracting than clarifying. Orville Redenbacher popcorn makes a big point of calling out Gluten-Free, but popcorn by definition is gluten-free, so they are playing to the lowest common denominator in consumer knowledge.

Gut-Check Your Voice >>

As a retailer or retailer brand, the clarity of your voice and the language by which you express it is increasingly important, especially in a world that is not 100% driven by NBE thinking anymore. Gut-check your voice internally and also seek out partners that can guide this marketing exercise within your company.

The language of retailer brands is where we all can improve in the future. Don’t crowd your brand’s voice by claiming too much, and avoid the Density Dilemma at all costs.

Perry Seelert is retail branding and marketing expert, with a passion for challenging conventional strategy and truths. He is the Strategic Partner and Co-founder of Emerge, a strategic marketing consultancy dedicated to helping Retailers, Manufacturers and Services grow exponentially and differentiate with purpose. Please contact Perry at perry@emergefromthepack.com.

By / David Lopes, President & General Manager, International Private Brand Develo pment, Daymon Worldwide

The beginning of the year is always a time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. When considering retail and the future of brands, what we know and experience today will not be the same tomorrow. The future of retail and brands will be rooted in trust. We live in a world in which institutions collapse and disappoint us, and thus the companies and brands with true staying power are the ones that are able to win the trust and hearts of their customers. This relationship is built not only by creating value and providing safety, happiness and enjoyment to consumers, but increasingly companies and brands are being judged on fair pricing, ethics and overall transparency. These are the matters that will become more critical in the coming years.

This holds true for private brands, as all regions of the world will continue to witness the development of own brands by retailers. This is a fascinating subject, however it has nothing to do with the traditional battle between manufacturer and retailer brands. Private brands will no longer be synonymous with low price and, likewise, industry brands will not have a monopoly on quality and innovation. The future of private brands has much more to do with the capacity to innovate, to offer a quality service linked to the product and sale, and to do all this in a continuous and sustainable way. The world that is emerging is a collaborative world; a world in which ideas and the capacity to implement them will define the leaders, more so than controlling the means of production.

However, producers too are in need of deep reflection. When, for example, we think of China, we think of the world’s factory, given its cheap labor. But we neglect to think that they are one of the most creative and flexible people in the world and that in the next 30 years they will, through internal economic growth, “lift” 300 million consumers into the middle class, equivalent to the population of the USA. It is a middle class which craves food security, and millions of producers with growing awareness that they will have to adopt rigorous brand management principles if they want to not only survive, but succeed, both domestically and internationally.

Another profound revolution shaping our interaction with brands is the way we relate to and influence others. Information is being made available to us without intermediaries. We are all writers and editors, spectators and protagonists. Throughout the world there is growing concern on the part of producers and retailers to incorporate this new behavior into their strategies. The challenge that lies ahead deals with owning the responsibility and the consequences of linking brands and companies to the consumer; knowing that he has a voice and an opinion and that he can use it in a more powerful way than ever before to either recommend or criticize.

So, what else does the future of retail hold? I see a scenario of continued consolidation by retailers, mainly in markets where the concentration is still not very high, and I see another phenomenon which is for me by far the most interesting and which is related to the attempt to discover new concepts, new formats, new channels. Half the world is trying to reinvent the traditional hypermarket. The other half of the world is testing online concepts and transforming supermarkets into a hybrid between a restaurant, a market or a café…I am sure that in the next five years we will see the appearance of new retailers and brands which will be successful but which we have not heard of yet.