Andrew Quinn

By / Christopher A. Durham: President & Chief Strategist, My Private Brand

Much has been said over the last few years about the evolution of retailer owned brands from generic to private label to brand. However, the reality of that evolution is much exaggerated. The vast majority of retailers in the world are still trapped somewhere on the continuum between generic and private label. They are followers who fluctuate between mimicking national brands and other retailers.

The evidence is all around us – walk the aisles of any grocer in the United Kingdom, France or the United States, take a look at their private brand portfolio and look for strategic differentiation. Look for design differentiation. Look for product differentiation. You will quickly discover that despite the beautiful modern package design, there is a strategic uniformity and dull sameness that has invaded the retailers and ultimately destroyed differentiation.

By / Richard Kohn

Private Label products are always priced lower than branded equivalents – right? Often yes, but is that always the best policy? Should we not aspire to elevate the positioning of our private brands to make them more attractive?

Thankfully, private brand positioning has moved on from whitelabel, lowest price point pricing but the image still lingers in the mind of consumers that private brands are of lower quality than branded alternatives. This is partly driven by the pricing policy of category managers within retail who have a tendency to view private brand as the automatic choice for lowest price point products in their category. It’s partly driven by retailers (supported by manufacturers) believing that consumers are always looking for low priced products to fill their baskets.

By / Koen de Jong, Managing Director at International Private Label Consult (IPLC )

This May, I was a guest speaker at a symposium in the United Kingdom on invitation of The Institute of European and Comparative Law of the University of Oxford. Topic of this year’s event was: Trends in Retail Competition: Private labels, brands and competition policy.

The night prior to the event I stayed at a bed & breakfast in a little village near Oxford. As the lady of the house served scrambled eggs for breakfast she asked ‘would you be so kind to let us know how our eggs taste?’ As she noticed my surprise she explained: ‘we are comparing the quality of eggs of a few farmers in the vicinity to decide where to get the chickens for our newly built henhouse’.

By / Perry Seelert

What ’s Inside Drives What You See Outside

We live in a results-oriented world, and this is good as long as people understand that your outward performance is led by inner strengths. When the own brand industry refers to “best-in-class”, this is usually a discussion that focuses on the metrics and what we see in-store: who has the highest share, who has the most items, who demonstrates the greatest innovation?