Private Label Gets Premium

Once the bottom of the barrel when it came to consumer goods, private label brands have more recently focused on developing innovative, premium products that not only rival consumer brands but sometimes surpass them. This has been particularly true in the absorbent products category where major retailers like Walmart and Target have partnered or formed exclusivity agreements with independent brands. In many cases, the diapers offered by these independent brands have been made by the same companies providing store brands for retailers.

“The new private label is mostly about the trend towards offering more private label products in the premium price tier. Historically, private labels were a way retailers would offer comparable alternatives at a lower price to whatever was the leading name brand product in the middle-tier or economy-tier,” says industry consultant Colin Hanna, of Price Hanna Consultants. “That strategy hasn’t gone away so much as it simply no longer describes the full picture of how retailers use their private label brands and products to attract customers to stores (and websites) today.&rd