Private Brands

New Twists on Retail Differentiation Strategies

Food retailers have been adapting their product and service differentiation strategies. In 2019, they pushed the boundaries to enhance strategies in specific areas. Then, in the pandemic period, they have pivoted on some strategies to accommodate ...

Innovation Takes on New Meaning in Private Brands

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, many companies temporarily put at least some private brand product innovation on hold to address the crisis. More recently, we’re starting to see a renewed commitment to innovation. Food retailers saw the pandemic ...

Witnessing the Food Industry

Recently, I was able to share insights gleaned from my experience by speaking at the Retailing Summit hosted by FMI’s newest university member, Texas A&M and the Mays School of Business Center for Retailing Studies. My talk at the virtual event was ...

Are You Ready for Some Food Ball? The Road to Supper Bowl I

Baseball has its World Series, hockey has the Stanley Cup, tennis has its Wimbledon and football has its Super Bowl. Now the food industry has its Supper Bowl! All of these landmark competitions offer teams the chance to prove they are the best of ...

Four Common Misconceptions About Food Prices

A number of misconceptions regarding grocery prices regularly permeate both the news and our water cooler conversations. These are due to a combination of outdated ideas that should have been put to rest long ago and high profile “examples” that are ...

A Tale of Two Years: A Look at The Food Retail Industry in 2019 and Early 2020

The most recent The Food Retailing Industry Speaks report identifies a striking similarity between ”A Tale of Two Cities” and a tale of two years, 2019 and 2020, for the food industry. Both relay the story of how stark change and challenging times ...

A Fly on The Wall: A Look at The Food Industry’s Performance

FMI is about to release our 71st annual The Food Retailing Industry Speaks report, which tracks operations and strategic initiatives of the food retail industry. This year’s Speaks report reviews performance for 2019, but it also incorporates ...

Why Do Shoppers “Shop Around?”

What is it that drives grocery shoppers to “shop around?” For many grocery shoppers it is private or store brands. Private brands, according to Trends, are a key driver of perceptions that the store meets a shopper’s needs. Grocery stores that ...

Pandemic Drives New Imperatives for Private Brands

It’s always nice to be appreciated and appreciation for private brands has only grown during the COVID-19 crisis. They have been able to meet consumer needs when many manufacturer brands were out of stock at ...

As Shoppers Become Brand Agnostic, What Does That Mean for Private Brands?

Today’s shoppers bring a broad and sophisticated range of criteria with them when making their food shopping decisions. While there still remain occasions and situations where brand is the prime driver (I would never consider any ketchup other than ...