Sainsbury’s has ratcheted up its continued assault on brands to new levels with the launch of the biggest own-label campaign it has ever run.

The campaign, called ‘Try the By Sainsbury’s range’ hit stores this week. Supported by large amounts of in-store PoS and the chain’s largest-ever sampling programme, it is aiming to encourage shoppers to buy own-label versions of their favourite brands.

PoS highlights the price of a brand on offer, with the price of its cheaper own-label equivalent next to it. Examples include By Sainsbury’s chocolate brownie ice cream for £2 versus Ben & Jerry’s Blondie Brownie ice cream for £2.50, and By Sainsbury’s four-pack of cream of tomato soup for £1.50 versus a four-pack of Heinz cream of tomato soup for £3.

Sainsbury’s head of own-brand marketing Kirstin Knight said the campaign was running in 600 stores, including c-stores. “The aim of the campaign is to get our customers to try our great products and it focuses on the quality and integrity of our food and packaged goods,” she said.

“The re-launched By Sainsbury’s range now has over 7,000 lines and offers a huge breadth of range and every product is delivered to a high quality at an affordable price. This campaign is about telling our customer all about it and getting them to try the product for themselves.”

Sainsbury’s revealed in its full-year results last week that though growth in own-label was “deflationary to the top line”, own-label was growing at twice the rate of branded goods and accounted for more than 50% of its food sales. It also said 97% of its customers bought By Sainsbury’s products.

Writing about ‘Try the By Sainsbury’s range’ in a newsletter to staff, outgoing CEO Justin King said: “Almost all of our customers buy from our By Sainsbury’s range, particularly from our fresh and produce lines. However, in areas where big brands exist, like tomato sauce or detergents, customers are often in such a habit of buying certain brands that they don’t even notice our own brand or they worry the product might not taste as good or work as well.

“So this campaign is all about building trust across the whole range and showing off the quality of these products at great prices. So next time a customer asks you to direct them to a product, why not show them our own brand as well and tell them how good it is!”

Sainsbury’s has been applying continued pressure on brands through own-label promotions. In March this year it distributed ‘Which will you choose?’ coupons at tills, offering shoppers bonus Nectar points on an own-label line while flagging up the price difference of its branded equivalent.

And in July last year, The Grocer revealed Sainsbury’s had dramatically reduced the number of Diageo promotions in its stores following a “huge rift” between the companies understood to have been sparked by Sainsbury’s decision to promote own-label lines at the expense of brands.

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