Spotlight on baby care products

These days, its not cheap to raise a baby. Citing data from a 2010 USDA report, an article on Parenting.com says the average middle-income family will spend roughly $12,000 on child-related expenses in the first year of its babys life. And by the time the baby reaches age 2, those yearly expenses go up to $12,500.

Fortunately, moms and dads looking to cut costs while rearing junior can turn to store brand formula, diapers, wipes and more for help. According to DiscountBabyFormula.com, a website run by the Perrigo Nutritionals division of Allegan, Mich.-based Perrigo Co., mothers could save up to $600 per year just by switching to store brand baby formula. And when they switch to own brands in other baby care categories, the savings will continue to rise.

However, stores need to do more than make sure theyre stocking own-brand baby care products; they also need to ensure the products are merchandised in a manner that makes them attractive and easy to find, as well as communicates their value to shoppers.

To learn what retailers are doing well and not so well here, we visited the baby care departments of three urban-format stores in Chicago: a City Target, Walgreen Co.s main flagship store and a Walmart Express, all of which opened between January and July 2012. Our visits took place on a Monday afternoon in early June.

City Target
General observations:Taking up two floors of a historic building downtown, the City Target we visited houses its baby care department in a few aisles on the second floor. Foot traffic was moderate in this section, with a couple of other people walking through while we were browsing. The section was clean, organized and well-stocked.

The store boasts store brand alternatives to most baby care food and non-food staples, including formula, snacks, diapers, wipes, lotion, powder and more. All private label items we saw in the section were under Targets up&up brand.

The upside:

• The store places all up&up items next to their national brand counterparts.
• We found attractive price gaps between many up&up products and their national brand counterparts.
• On the side of an end cap merchandising Pampers Cruisers diapers, the store hung a wing display cross-merchandising painkillers for infants and prenatal vitamins under the up&up brand.

The downside:

• Even though it prices its own-brand baby care products attractively, the store does not place signage or do anything else to communicate the products value.
• Large price tags placed beneath two SKUs of A+D diaper rash creams completely covered up the price tags beneath the products up&up counterparts.

Walgreens
General observations: Also taking up two stories of a building downtown, the Walgreens flagship store we checked out situates its baby care section on the second floor, which houses all of the stores health and beauty care products and service stations, including a nail salon. It was the least busy of the three baby care sections we visited, with most of the stores customers browsing the aisles and prepared foods departments on the first floor.

Walgreens also features the smallest variety of private label items in its baby care section. Private brand products in this section were found under the Well Beginnings and W brands (with the former of the two slowly replacing the latter). We also found some bamboo baby wipes under the eco-minded Ology brand. The section was clean, well-stocked and organized.

The upside:

• The store merchandises store brand baby care products next to their national brand counterparts and offers attractive price gaps between the two.
• Although the store offered several national brand products – including diapers, training pants, bath products and more – in a \"Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off\" deal, it also did the same with most of the products Well Beginnings and W brand counterparts.
• The packaging for the new Well Beginnings brand looks modern and stands out on the shelves.

The downside:

• Although the store was in the process of replacing its W brand products in this section with Well Beginnings items, it did nothing to communicate the change in branding to shoppers.
• The store didnt offer a few store brand SKUs in the same \"Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off\" deal under which their national brand counterparts were being offered.

Walmart Express
General observations: Unlike the other two stores we visited, the Walmart Express has only one floor, and it doesnt have as upscale of a feel. The store houses its baby care section on one side of an aisle in the right-hand portion of the store (looking into the store from the front entrance). Traffic wasnt too busy in the baby care section, with one other person browsing the section most of the time we were in it.

Like the City Target we visited, the store offers private brand alternatives to most baby care food and non-food staples. Store brand products were found under the Equate and Parents Choice brands.

The upside:

• Like the other two stores, the Walmart Express offeres attractive price gaps between branded products and its own-brand counterparts.
• The store places many of its own-brand products next to their national brand counterparts.
• The Walmart Express is the only one of the three stores to offer pacifiers, bottles and plastic eating utensils under its own brands.
• The store placed a sign next to store brand and national brand food and beverage containers that read, \"All empty food and beverage containers intended for children under 3 years of age are BPA-free.\"

The downside:

• The section was somewhat disorganized and dirty, especially in the diapers segment. It also could have been more fully stocked.
• The store doesnt merchandise its store brand bath products in the baby care section next to their national brand counterparts, making it difficult to compare products.

Communicate quality, safety
When it comes to baby care products, parents want to know that theyre purchasing only the best for their little ones.

\"When it comes to babies, people want assurance they have a safe, healthy and quality product to protect their loved ones,\" says Steve Berry, founder and general manager of Greenblendz, Auburn Hills, Mich.

So if a parent tries a quality product under a retailers brand and is satisfied with it, he or she could be more likely to purchase other baby care products under the brand. Therefore, retailers should make sure that packaging of store brand baby products – from baby oil and diapers to formula and food – shares some common characteristics, says David Deising, director of marketing, Rockline Industries, Sheboygan, Wis.

But packaging also should have some unique characteristics – especially if the product inside is unique, Berry says.

\"Definitely dump the stock bottle look and design something that creates a unique feel,\" he explains.

And make sure labeling tells the story of the product inside, Berry adds. Mothers talk with each other about the products they purchase for their little ones, so they naturally want to know the story of how the product theyre using is made and what makes it better than competitors goods.

In terms of merchandising store brand baby care products in stores, retailers could build brand trial and loyalty by cross-promoting complementary products in the baby care section, Deising says. He also suggests creating a \"Baby Care Month\" with associated product promotions and acting as a resource for moms via loyalty card programs.

Desing adds that these merchandising strategies shouldnt be limited to brick-and-mortar stores; retailers should make sure their own-brand baby care products and promotions get plenty of visibility on their websites and via social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.