Design Store Brand Success

If there's a silver lining in the economic downturn, it might just be that consumers have tossed aside brand loyalty in search of a better deal. That better deal, if pleasingly packaged, can be found in the form of a store brand. Whether your company is a long-time player in the store brand world or just starting to consider this business prospect, the opportunity is abundant if the store brand is treated with the same dedication as a national brand.

We have seen brand focus as a successful strategy first-hand, as implemented by our friends and former clients at Target. When we started with Target nearly a decade ago, the company embraced its store brands and committed to positioning them just like national brands. Archer Farms, Market Pantry, Up & Up and Simply Balanced are all brands that now could survive and thrive beyond the Target shelves.

Often, manufacturers and retailers feel they don't have the resources to make their branding work. If you've spent any time working with P&G, as some of our team has, you appreciate the statistical and ROI relevance of 'Path-to-Purchase' thinking. Understanding your consumer's experience and mindset through his or her decision-making process is more than an academic exercise. It is an opportunity to learn where your company, with a relatively smaller marketing budget, can best make in-roads with consumers.

Package design is an incredibly powerful, affordable and strategic opportunity to build your brand (as well as sales) at the "moment of truth" — on the store shelf. Loads of research and consumer insight still point to this mystery of decision-making. The power of design to connect with customers truly levels the playing field for all brands.

When working with clients, we offer three guidelines for positioning their store brand as a leader in the retail environment:

1. Connect with your consumers. Develop a meaningful relationship with your target audience to create an emotional connection. Embrace a design that equals or exceeds that of the national brand leaders.
2. Create your own house of brands. Extend your reach by developing multiple brands that meet a spectrum of consumers' needs. Create a unique brand story that differentiates and leverages those assets at every consumer touch point.
3. Innovate with intent. Consumer needs and expectations are in a constant shift. Store brands must deliver unexpected benefits to cut through clutter and lead the category.

In the end, consumers are less interested in where the brands they choose come from and more impressed that you understand them and anticipate their needs, perhaps even better than they do. Price is becoming a dangerous one-trick pony that threatens to keep national brands at a price level they don't like. There is no reason a retailer with even a basic CRM system can't build smart brands and lead their customers where they want them to be.

You have all the tools and capabilities to create brands that work for you and your customers. There is no doubt that a large marketing budget helps build a brand with long-term potential to grow, as well as maintain market share. But at the store shelf, smart design can help make your brand's success less of a leap of faith and more of a smart business decision.

Michael Goldsberry is a managing partner at Minneapolis-based Boom Island, a full-service retail brand agency for Fortune 100 to mid-size companies that specializes in launching new brands, product lines and service offerings. Visit www.boomisland.com for more information.