Summum Bonum of Private Brand Success
The highest good of private brand success boils down to these two pieces of advice: Think and Act.
This will be my last Expert Advice Column for a while . . . I’ll explain later.
It’s difficult to sum up in the proverbial “ten words or less” the advice given over the last eight years of contributing to Private Label Magazine’s Expert Advice Column. Perhaps summing up is not the approach though, because of the ever-changing environment and consumer. It is probably more helpful if I review what I feel are the truly key keys, the summum bonum, of Private Brand success.
There are two . . . and they transcend both the changing environment and the changing consumer. They are basic and they are time-pervasive.
Think Like A Brand
First is to Think Like a Brand. Private Brands are brands. They are not “non-brands.” They are not “generic” products. They are not “weak substitutes.” Not anymore. They are unique to each retailer. They are, or at least should be, one of the five primary tools in a retailer’s marketing arsenal. They are key to building value with the consumer. (In case you’re wondering, the other four are the business model, store environment, personnel and location.) As a family—taken together across all retailers and all categories—they are bigger than any other brand in existence.
To maximize their value to a retailer Private Brands deserve to be thought about, strategized for and have activities planned around. Private Brands deserve a personality and a reason for being. Private Brands deserve the pride and support of everyone on the retailer’s payroll. Private Brands must be consistent with all other marketing and communication efforts. Notice that I did not say to think about your Private Brand like a national brand: many national brands don’t follow this advice and when they don’t, they lose, too.
Act Like a Brand
Second is to Act Like a Brand. Thought, strategic planning and tactical discussions are of absolutely no value unless they are acted upon. Something like “faith without works is dead.” Many retailers say they develop plans for their Private Brands, even advertise and promote them—but unless those actions actively mirror the potential, the Private Brand is just another product taking up space on the shelf, trying to convince the customers to buy it because it looks like a national brand, but is cheap. Without action, Private Brands can actually become a tool in the other brand’s arsenal.
The type of actions I’ve espoused include attention to: product name, label design, product placement, pricing (not too cheap), promotion (including shielding), advertising, public relations, staff training, Wall Street communication, signage, displays, new product development/improvement, specific share and sales expectations (i.e. budgets).
Everything else I can think of . . . every article I’ve written . . . every class I’ve taught . . . every seminar I’ve ever participated in boils down to these two pieces of advice: THINK —> ACT.
Time Out
Now, why this is my last Expert Advice column for a while. My wife and I love to serve and have accepted a request to volunteer to work full time in our Church’s Educational System in the LDS Baltic Mission headquartered in Riga, Latvia for 18 months beginning in April. We’ll likely be working in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We had visited the area about ten years ago for just a couple of days and found the people and the area delightful, commenting that we would love to return and spend some more time there . . . request granted.
We don’t speak Latvian or Russian—but we’ll learn enough to get around. We don’t have ancestry in the Baltic countries—but we’ll develop new roots. We don’t know exactly what we’ll be doing yet—but we’ll find out. We do look forward to this exciting new opportunity to learn, to help and to experience. And we look forward to writing again soon.
*Steve Rubow has over 40 years experience in retailing and private branding and was president and CEO of Topco Associates for eight of those years. Prior to his current mission, he was associated with Leo J. Shapiro Associates of Chicago, and was on the faculty at the University of Chicago.
