Private label products, also known as store brands, have never enjoyed so much popularity. Years ago, generic products were seen as inferior and dull, but today, economic conditions and a distinct improvement in product quality have given private labels a new desirability.

In the U.S., store brands are thriving. A recent study of 500 U.S. consumers conducted by the management consulting company Accenture shows that 64 percent of shoppers' grocery carts were at least half full of store brands — and 39 percent said they've bought more store brands in recent years.

That trend is not limited to the United States. A new report from IBISWorld, Australia's largest provider of industry-based research, notes that private labels will account for over 30 percent of supermarket sales in Australia by 2017-18.Continue reading...

Just as Britons start greeting visitors descending on London for the Summer Olympics, news this week will either have them leaping off the couch to get moving — as Olympic sponsors such as McDonald's have been urging folks to do — or slump back in despair and reaching for another handful of crisps.

Apparently the 60 million good citizens of the UK are the, well, fattest in Western Europe, and when London was awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics back in 2005, officials pledged to use the Games as incentive for 2 million Britons to increase their physical activity by the opening ceremonies.

“When the torch is lit July 27," writes the Associated Press, the U.K. "government will not only have failed, it will have backed away from its pledge entirely. Last year, the U.K. quietly dropped its aim to get 1 million more Britons into sports; the pledge to get another 1 million people more active through things like biking or walking to work has also been scrapped.”Continue reading...

Unmetric, a social marketing benchmarking company, lets brand marketers compare their social media efforts against their competitors. Many of them in the quick-serve restaurant space will be consuming the firm's just released Fast Food Report, detailing social media efforts of the top 16 U.S. fast food chains from January through April 2012.

Beyond "how many followers?" or "how many friends?" Unmetric analyzes which campaigns are working, with whom, and how effectively. The proprietary Unmetric Score, “is a scientific blend of 24 qualitative and quantitative social media metrics, weighted and balanced to produce a single benchmarkable number.”

McDonald’s takes the trophy for the most astute fast food chain in social media, followed closely by Taco Bell, but for growth and conversation in 2012, it’s the McDonald’s vs. Burger King rivalry that stands out.Continue reading...

Breaking: consumers are not the most reliable source of what grabs their attention and influences their shopping choices. So marketers are using sophisticated eye-tracking technology to measure shopper response to different products and design.

That's why P&G, Kimberly-Clark, Johnson & Johnson and Unilever are just a few of the CPG giants using three-dimensional computer simulations of both designs and store layouts with the eye-tracking technology to deduce how to improve sales.

“Eye-tracking gives you the only valid way of measuring shelf visibility, because it’s fully a behavioral measure," Scott Young, president of Perception Research Services, told Packaging World. "If you ask consumers attitudinally what they saw on shelf, you’re not going to get accurate information, because recall is biased by brand familiarity. If a shopper sees a soda shelf, she will ‘remember’ seeing Coke and Pepsi, even if they weren’t actually on the shelf.”Continue reading...

Subway still has the most restaurants of any U.S. fast-food chain. And probably even more important, it still has the most buzz.

At least according to the mid-year review of U.S. Buzz rankings by YouGov BrandIndex. Subway once more stands atop the rankings for all brands, followed by Cheerios, Amazon, History Channel, Ford, Discovery Channel, Lowe's, Olive Garden, YouTube and Google.

Subway "has consistently been teh top Buzz generating brand in BrandIndex over the last three years," YouGov's analysis of its results says. "Equally impressive to the No. 1 position is the brand's unique ability to keep marketing and advertising 'fresh' as scores continued to improve in 2012 while most other brands in the top 10 have trended lower through the first six months of the year."

Among other things, YouGov cited Subway's "ever-popular" $5 foot-long promotion, its "celebrity roster" of brand ambassadors — which lately have included NBA star Blake Griffin and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps — and new breakfast offerings.Continue reading...

China is the second largest economy in the world, and every significant brand's future is impacted by its growth (or collapse!); but who's got the time?! A weekly potpourri of ten reads that will make you look like a keen China observer during any conversation about China.

As China's trade growth slows (see WSJ.com video report above), read on for Bain's mainland shopper intel, a "wine city" for China's nouveau wine connoisseurs and more: Continue reading...

What started as a recession-beating tactic seems to have become ingrained in shoppers in the United States. They just can't get enough of store brands, aka generics or private label products.

A new study of 500 U.S. consumers conducted by the management consulting company Accenture shows that 64 percent of shoppers' grocery carts were at least half full of store brand products — and 39 percent said they've bought more store brands in recent years. This is in line with an April 2012 study conducted by Perception Research Services indicating that 38 percent of U.S. shoppers have bought more private label products than they did in 2010, with 86 percent of shoppers saying they purchase at least some store brands on a regular basis.

The rise of store brands has been a phenomenon typically associated with recessionary times, but in recent years, consumers have favored store brands for reasons other than price alone. Two-thirds of shoppers do indeed say they buy store brands because they are cheaper; according to the Accenture study, however, 50 percent of consumers surveyed buy store brand products because they perceive the quality to be just as good as the brand-name equivalent, and 42 percent say they buy private label products because they trust a particular store's brand.

Start throwing around terms like "quality" and "trust" and marketers of brand-name products become very nervous.Continue reading...

"Sharpness is a state of mind," said Chow Yun-Fat (Master Li Mubai) in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. But sharpness might also might be a perfectly fitted Hugo Boss suit, like the one Chow is now sporting as the first ever Asian face of the brand.

Chinese consumers may still be trying to "find" Leonardo DiCaprio and his Oppo handset, but more and more, brands looking to reach the Chinese consumer — especially luxury ones — are opting for local celebrity.Continue reading...