We Remember One of Our Best
With deep sorrow, we note the death of Don Watt last December at age 73.
During his career in retailing, Don served as a “Trailblazer of Store Brand Design,” as we wrote on the occasion of his induction into the Private Label Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2008. Don also served as a frequent contributor to our publication as a private label columnist
Don Watt The National Brand Approach
As Don explained in our PL Hall of Fame interview, he drew upon his experience in design work for national brand manufacturers to develop his store brand design strategy for Loblaws. Says Watt:
“I went to the Loblaw Company in Canada and told them that I believe you can transfer national brand, consumer product logic to the retail brand and turn the retail brand into something more than just a poor person’s alternative to the national brand that they can’t afford to buy.
“We have a chance to make a retailer brand every bit as compelling as the best national brands.
“If a retailer brand is going to be good, it has to have good quality product in the container, a good brand and a good package. But that’s not enough, because national brands spend billions of dollars communicating with customers in their homes. So we have to do two things. We have to do some mass media advertising and we have to use the weekly flyer, — instead of promoting the tactical price item – to talk about changing consumer attitude and thinking the way a television commercial would. We have to apply the TV-way of thinking about the brand into print and let the retailer use his normal media print budget. And if he can afford it, go on television to support new product launches.
“Then, in the store, we have to tell the story of why the retailer brand is better — something the national brands can’t do in-store. Here is where we have to shine. We have to turn the store on and make it communicate our store brand message to our customers
“Now, we have great product, great packaging, and dominant signage in the store that talks about it. When we put a new store brand item on the shelves at Loblaws, the back end of every aisle had a 44-inch by 60-inch poster which talked about the new product and told customers where to look for it in the aisle.
Then we took television into the store and put the president of the company on TV to talk about his new product.
“So, the package and signage system is part of the total communication for the retailer’s brand.”
