Part 1: The Loyalty Trade-Off; When National Brand Pressure Tests Your Private Brand Resolve

Let’s say the quiet part out loud. National brands are coming in hot, with deep discounts, big promotions, and an aggressive push to reclaim shelf space and market share. And in more than a few boardrooms, own brands are taking a backseat as retailers chase short-term margin wins.

It’s not that the conversations are wrong. It’s that they’re incomplete.

Yes, national brand trade funding can soften the blow to the P&L. But are we measuring what that trade-off costs us in the long run? I recently spoke with a private brand executive who admitted the pressure is real. And in some cases, the decision not to defend own brand investments is intentional. It’s seen as a “strategic” choice to protect financial optics.

I understand the pressure. But here’s the risk: every time you position your private label as the fallback, “when budgets are tight” or “if the national brand is out of stock”, you train your customers to see it as second best. Over time, that shows up in trial rates, loyalty metrics, and consumer perception.

Private brands win when they stand for something, when they carry a promise, not just a price point.

We’ve made too much progress to revert to the old narrative: cheaper, generic, good enough. The most successful private brands today compete on value and vision. They lead categories, not follow. They innovate. They create emotional connection, especially with younger shoppers who care about transparency, trust, and purpose.

So, here’s the real loyalty trade-off:

• Are we protecting short-term profit at the expense of long-term brand equity?
• Are we making it harder to re-engage customers later because we didn’t defend their trust today?
• And when this national brand surge subsides, as all cycles eventually do, will our own brand programs be strong enough to take back the ground they’ve lost?

The answer depends on what we do right now. Own brands are not just a margin lever. They reflect how seriously we take our customer relationships.

Because if our value proposition is “only when you can’t get anything better,” we shouldn’t be surprised when shoppers believe us.

In Part 2, we’ll look at the other side of the equation-what happens when you want to grow your private brands, but the supply chain can't help you. As own brand volume swells and big retailers demand more from manufacturers, many small and mid-sized own brand programs are getting squeezed out. We’ll explore how to find, support, and scale the next generation of private brand makers, and why doing so is essential to your future growth.