Consumer Input Drives Kroger’s Private-Label Brands

At one time, private-label products might have seemed like substandard items whose main appeal was to customers who put cost above quality. But now, store brands are investing in market research and challenging their nationally advertised competitors. A typical tub of Kroger Deluxe peach ice cream has been taste-tested by 100 people before it could share freezer space with those high-end containers of Breyers.

Kroger, the largest grocery store chain after Wal-Mart, has one of the deepest private-label manufacturing networks in the US, and enjoys a greater percentage of sales from private-label products than its value-priced competitor. Wal-Mart has been making a private-label push, and the focus, naturally, is on lower prices: its main house brand is called Great Value and its packaging is as no-frills as possible.Continue reading...