Avoid 'Monkey See, Monkey Do'

Lead with your brand design instead of mindlessly following others.

The world of "monkey see, monkey do" is fine if you are a kid, in a stage of growth where you are learning how to express yourself, and mimicking is the starting point. But in the world of retail branding, imitation will get you nowhere. However, the copycat virus is still out there — smart retailers will do all they can to wipe it out of their store brand programs.

Another way of thinking about the future of private label branding from a design point of view is through an "opposite" lens, meaning the best way to get noticed is to consider the unconventional instead of the obvious. The way to be heard is to rethink everything. Above all, if someone says "bump up the logo," then run for the hills.

Create an unconventional name

Retailers can lead with their branding and design in several ways, beginning with the brand name. The private label world long has suffered from some dull naming conventions that threaten to put you — and your shoppers — to sleep. Private, premium, preferred, selections, select, choice, classics, essential, everyday, gold, finest, value, etc. You have heard them all before, and they are still being used on old and new brands alike.

Words that are "gray" and in unfortunate combinations actually can cause skeptical consumers to think 180 degrees from the literal meaning. "Healthy option," therefore, is viewed as an unhealthy choice, and products labeled as "select" don't feel very special at all. Consumers hate literal naming conventions in which they are told what to think.

Target's up&up brand is one of the best, most intelligent examples of rethinking these classic naming conventions within our industry. The name has a sense of positivity and optimism. It is bright, enthusiastic and, most important, fits the personality of Target: fashionable and trend-forward at its heart.

Keep the 'noise' down

Have you ever been in a meeting, and the person who is trying so hard to be heard and talking the loudest has the opposite effect on you? You end up ignoring his voice, and your brain just shuts the loudmouth out.

The same phenomenon can be found in branding and design. Those brands that visually scream in a world of 40,000 voices — or a 40,000-plus SKU supermarket — often go unnoticed.

But as your equity and logo mark become stronger, you are able to use the mark in a more considered fashion. For example, consider Waitrose in the UK.

The understated Waitrose brand mark gets noticed because it doesn't strain and shout within the brand's visual language.

Question the category's cues

Hundreds of pasta sauce brands can be found in the United States, and more than half of them try to magnify either their true-Italian or faux-Italian heritage. If you are the most recently available brand, then the strategic questions are: "What is my point of view or reason for being?" and "How do I play a unique role in the category"?

Via Roma, in many ways, reinvented the pasta sauce category at The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. (A&P) — and also changed the way A&P consumers think about own brands. The strictest evaluation of the brand's strength through sales and share shows the product to be a huge success for A&P.

The real Via Roma story, however, is one of innovation — breaking out of the category's architectural conventions and expressing "Italianness" in a different way across 150-plus different Italian products. Instead of settling on using the colors of the Italian flag and other commonly used cues some design specialists suggested during preliminary in-house research, A&P achieved authenticity through a photo shoot in a small Tuscan village.

The photographs that appear on the Via Roma products were not traditionally posed, but instead showed natural emotion, expression and joy (traits core to the Italian personality and culture). Every SKU is completely different, so the line's consistency is its inconsistency.

This approach to developing a private brand is new — and one that is credible and resonated with a truly passionate, loyal consumer base. It differs completely from the transactional, item-price, impulse relationship that most private labels have with consumers.

Wholesome Goodness, a better-for-you brand exclusive to Walmart Canada, also breaks all the category's healthy architectural conventions for all the right reasons. It does not follow the sterile, controlled, white-plate language that existed across all healthy/nutritional brand offerings. Instead, it emphasizes a new photographic style that presents the food more desirably.

Brand developers also reconsidered the common color architecture denoting "healthful" — typically green in the United States and blue in Canada. The unique rich-looking color scheme is having an amazing effect in stores. Walmart now has an ownable and unique brand that puts "delicious" first and "nutritious" as the reinforcer, as opposed to nutritious at the complete expense of taste.

Express yourself

It is a pretty simple rule of thumb, but one that rarely plays out in retailer brands: If you want to be noticed above your national brand counterparts, get a true personality. That personality could be humorous, authentic or even sexy, but it should never sink down to being average.

A perfect example of a personality-laden private brand is the Superdrug brand from the UK's Superdrug chain. The chain itself continues to reinvent itself, and one of the key motivators driving this reinvention is to boost the personality and credibility of the store brands. Superdrug is not afraid to express itself through evocative imagery, and the chain is fearless in bringing allure to certain categories that demand it.

Now is the time

The moment to reconsider your brands more strategically than before is now. Retailers that are unafraid to do so will reap the rewards in the years to come.

The store brand game is no longer a "monkey see, monkey do" proposition. It requires real strategy, considered brand design and the right people to get you there.

Perry Seelert is strategic partner of united* dsn, a design consultancy based in New York and San Francisco that creates unique brands and is "redefining the future of the retail experience." Contact him at [email protected] or 917-267-2857.