Cookbooks Could Help Raise Private Label Profiles

Retailers across nearly all channels of distribution are working to expand their private label product assortments to meet continued growing demand from shoppers who are looking for lower-priced alternatives to national brands.

And several retailers at the start of 2023 discussed the need to raise the profile of their respective private label products with consumers and were looking at traditional and non-traditional methods to do so.

One such way to engage shoppers and highlight a given retailer’s store brands is through recipe development. Connie Miller, Standard International Print Group’s chief financial officer who also leads the company’s new business development efforts, feels using print or digital cookbooks could be a good option for retailers and grocers.

Having worked with retailers across multiple channels of distribution including grocery, drug, general merchandise and club, Miller said the cookbooks allow retailers to offer shoppers a solution while simultaneously promoting their selection of store brands.

“We own the content so we can easily adjust the recipes to include ingredients that specifically mention a store’s private label products,” Miller said. “This allows the store to easily promote its own brands.”

Based in Naples, Fla., Standard International Print Group offers books for sale at retailers across a host of topics including classical literature, military history, children’s sticker and activity books, gardening, and pet guides. It has also worked with retailers and local media outlets to create cookbooks and other written material that features their brands.

Miller noted retailers and grocers can offer the cookbooks for sale in-store and online or offer them as a gift as part of customer loyalty programs. 

“We are well versed in setting up in-store displays, be they end cap or clip strip programs,” she said. “And retailers can also market the cookbooks as part of their regularly weekly emails to customers or through special promotions. We are very open to working with retailers to meet their specific needs.”

For example, Miller’s company previously worked with the Houston Chronicle on a cookbook that was branded with the newspaper’s name and could be easily downloaded by readers via a QR code that was promoted by the media outlet.