The past few years have brought troubled times for many shoppers. Many have seen their household budgets cut; some have lost their jobs and their health insurance to boot. In these trying times, more shoppers are opting for private label products over national brands because of the lower cost. And, a glimmer of hope comes when they realize cheaper prices don’t mean a lesser product; in fact, Bob Dunn, brand manager, Nuvite, said private label lines more often than not use better quality ingredients and materials than larger brands.
“Approximately 40 percent of the products on shelves today are from a private label brand, and have outperformed manufacturer brands over the last 10 years,” Dunn said. “For years, people considered the ‘private label’ lines to be inferior to the manufacturers’ brands, but that is not the case anymore.”
The perceived better value of store brands, with lower cost and established quality, offers incentives to shoppers to pick up private label products. “Customers today want products that meet their refined tastes, but come at a lower price than in years past when the economy was doing well,” said Erin Silva, MS, RD, technical marketing manager, Vitamer Labs. “They want to know they’re getting high-quality, safe products formulated to their ‘wants’ that don’t break the bank.”
And, in the case of private label products, many of the consumers’ and retailers’ “wants” are the same. The shopper wants high-quality products and a lower cost, and retailers want their shoppers to spend more money on their products and advertise to their customers on a daily basis. “The bottle will be a constant reminder about your brand every time the consumer opens the pantry,” said Brett Karminski, private label brand manager, Frontier Natural Products Co-op, which offers private label organic spices, seasoning mixes, baking flavors and extracts.
Cheryl Hughes, owner of Whole Wheatery, a natural products store in Lancaster, CA, said creating a private label brand was the best thing she ever did for her business. “What do you want customers to see when they open their cabinets, and what do you want them to share with a friend? Your label! From the beginning, it was a very valuable piece to my success.” Whole Wheatery offers “Anything we can,” in private label, including supplements; packaged foods such as nuts, seeds and grains; and even specialty items like mugs, coasters, ornaments and a variety of seasonal items.
Along with quality and price, shoppers can find great taste with store brand products. In October 2009, Consumer Reports found store and national brands taste about equally as good most of the time. Out of 29 blind taste tests, Consumer Reports said trained tasters found 19 occurrences of the brands being equal in taste; four times, the store brand tasted better and six times, the national brand was better. In a press release about the taste tests, Consumer Reports concluded, “Switching to store brands can be a painless way to cut your grocery bill.” And, in a supermarket survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, 70 percent of respondents said they were highly satisfied with the quality of store brands they’d bought.