Where once they were, more or less, the cheapest of the budget lines with distinctly unappealing packaging, own-brand products have steadily grown in prominence.
Now, many businesses have realized and are leaning into the benefits of running out own-brand versions of not just popular products but also classic ones – sometimes even revitalizing their popularity in doing so.
There’s a lot of value to be drawn from going down the own-brand route, and from controlling costs and production to maximizing branding potential.
An Alternate Path to Getting Own-Brand Benefits
One of the big benefits of own-brand products now that their stigma of being low-quality options has been shrugged off is that they operate as key branding tools.
The business putting them out gets full control over the quality, packaging, and ranges, letting their brand message come through in every aspect. However, there are other ways to reinforce branding without investing in own-brand products.
A path that many brands take is to personalize their offering to show the values of the brand in a way that’s helpful and useful to customers.
This can be as simple as having dedicated top picks of arcade games on a site’s arcade games page. This is what SkyCity does at its online casino. They don’t have own-brand products, but they can tell their players that, in their expert opinion, Mines from Stake and Dice by Coin Machine Gaming are the top arcade games going.
It’s an approach that’s also seen quite often in bookstores. Of course, it’s not very common for bookstores to be owned by authors, let alone to have paid authors working in them. Yet, each store will have at least a few people who are passionate about reading, which the bookstore likely wants to relay as its brand message as well. So, stores like Barnes & Noble will have a bookshelf of staff picks, all of which reinforce the branding.
Developing an Own-Brand Certainly Adds Value
The most obvious place to turn to see own-brand products working well is in supermarkets or grocery stores. In Europe, the practice has become particularly prevalent, even to the point that customers will go to specific supermarkets for their own-brand goods.
Spain’s Mercadona has invested heavily in its products, taken a lot of customer feedback in, and now boasts one of the most appealing own-brand ranges in the country.
Initially, own-branding was about offering a cheaper option to people, but then it continued to grow as it became its own mini battlefield, and brands began to realize the potential.
Offering an own-brand can greatly enhance branding and offer cost-saving options to customers, but the own-brands also give a increased profit margin to supermarkets compared to major brands.
So, they invested. The stripped-back minimalist cheap ranges are still about and serve a purpose, but in has come the middle own-brand range on popular products and then a premium own-brand range that’s a bit more luxurious, experimental, and appealing to the higher-paying customers – bumping up that profit margin higher.
Beyond supermarkets, DIY stores like the UK’s B&Q offer seven different own-brands to cover their departments.
This isn’t to say that national or major brands don’t have a part to play in this or would be overrun by own-brands.
After all, there needs to be this competition on the shelves to enhance both lines. Still, brands that invest in own-brand products tend to reap the benefits – especially when that own-brand product is at least on par with branded ones.
