’Good, better, best’ systems still rule the roost, but somehow the own-label brand ranges behind them seem to lack any real positioning above and beyond taste differentiation and recipe profiles. It feels like there is no deeper strategy behind these ranges - as a result, you could play ‘spot the difference’ with many of the tiered brand ranges of the big four.
Some of the recent Tesco Finest range launches have surprised with their differentiation at product level, which marks Tesco out as the clear leader. But even here I would question whether the Finest range (as beautiful as it is) has a deeper brand strategy.
“Brand strategy really matters in emerging areas like health”
Having a real brand strategy would make a big difference in helping decide what is included and excluded from the ranges, and would give what is a mature and hugely successful brand a stronger, healthier future.
It’s easy to be sceptical about the value of brand strategy, but when it isn’t right, it really matters - particularly in emerging opportunity areas such as health. For example, Waitrose Love Life is a super concept but simply fails to connect at product level. It is too ethereal and the emotionally uplifting warmth of the brand is not rooted back into the ranges in an engaging way.
There’s no call to action for consumers to change their behaviours and switch to Love Life. Sainsbury’s and M&S are doing better in this area.
Premium health is going to be huge, and it’s somewhere Waitrose could lead. Maybe it’s time to think through what the good, better, best would be in healthy? What about targeting ageing consumers who are looking to eat in a healthy way, and, given the small quantities they consume and changing palates, would be happy to pay a little more for better quality?
In health, it is crucial to establish a clear point of view. Retailers are constantly adding and changing messages and trialling new ways to communicate healthy messages on packs. These approaches just add to the confusion and clutter when consumers already find it hard enough to make healthy choices.
What will happen when NuVal nutritional scoring systems are introduced? Retailers need to get back to basics and start developing strategy around healthy propositions in-store.
Small initiatives that are devoid of strategy will stall sales rather than grow them as different messages will just fight for attention and fail to cut through.
In the last few years, own-label offerings have become vastly more sophisticated. The next step in this evolution is to capitalise on high-quality products and good branding with a sharper sense of mission for own-label ranges so they can offer more compelling consumer value.
Claire Nuttall is founding partner of Thrive
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