Challenges in Store Brands Packaging Design

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January 18, 2011

By Maureen Azzato

Editor’s Note: This is Part One of a two-part series from the Store Brands Decisions’ Packaging Design Roundtable. Next week’s report will focus on connecting with consumers on the shelf, engaging suppliers in the design process and workflow management solutions.

From left to right: Todd Fryer, Maria Dubuc, Joe McKie, Matt Rompala of Avery Dennison and Tracy Gidich-Zupke.

Over the past five years many retailers have elevated their stores brands packaging designs and store brands marketing, turning consumers’ heads at the shelf and giving national brands a run for their money.

Success, however, doesn’t mean there aren’t a few challenges along the way or up ahead. Retailers often struggle with limited budgets, and the demands of managing large and proliferating brand portfolios. For design agencies, the organizational structure at some retail companies and the variety of people involved in projects can delay and dilute execution, and also impede efficient communications, according to retailers and design agencies who participated in the Store Brands Decisions’ Packaging Design Roundtable in November, sponsored by Avery Dennison.

Todd Fryer and Maria Dubuc

Several retailer participants –– including Smart & Final, Winn-Dixie and Delhaize America –– have or are in the process of consolidating store brands. Two years ago Smart & Final developed a new umbrella store brand and consolidated many of its 23 brands under it, keeping only a handful of specialty niche brands as they were before the consolidation. Communicating the new design strategy to the design agency and executing on the strategy was a huge challenge, said Todd Fryer, Smart & Final’s director of corporate brands and marketing.

“We had to work with our design company to make sure they understood what the new branded strategy was going to be… and then getting them to understand our marketplace,” he said. The biggest challenges were that “we have so many SKUs in so many different categories. So, first of all, how do we develop this new brand and then how do we get that to fit in each category as well as different banners across the organization?”

Joe McKie

Several years ago, Winn-Dixie redesigned and streamlined its store brands as well, consolidating 60 different private label brands under the Winn-Dixie brand. According to Joe McKie, vice president of corporate brands, having so many brands made it difficult for the grocer to build brand equity and communicate tier or quality expectations to its customers and store associates.

“Our challenge is really marketing like a CPG company, which means having a brand identity that is really recognizable, but it changes as you go from category to category,” because, for example, kids’ cereal shouldn’t look like adult cereal,” he said. “For me that’s been the biggest challenge ––how do you get the personality, how do you reach the consumer and have a little fun with it and not get lost in all that?”

As Winn-Dixie moves away from brand equivalency toward true product differentiation, capturing the customer’s attention at the shelf is critical. “When they’re walking by the shelf and they’ve got about a thousandth of a second to look [at the selection] and make a decision, it takes a little more [design] work” to make that happen, McKie said.

Nancy Dumais and Lindsey Hurr

Meanwhile Delhaize America -- which operates seven banners including Hannaford, Food Lion and Sweetbay -- is in the process of consolidating its store brands, many of which are currently banner specific. “We have been moving away from the banner brand in certain categories, primarily because it’s much more cost efficient to be able to sell those products across the entire East Coast than to have it segmented by [regional] brands,” said Nancy Dumais, director of branding and design. “That’s definitely been a big move for our company.”

Tracy Gidich-Zupke

Tracy Gidich-Zupke, brand manager at Ace Hardware, knows plenty about managing ever-expanding brand lines, which she said isn’t likely to change. Ace has 10 store brands spanning 250 categories ranging from hardware and plumbing to paint and housewares. In the Ace brand alone, she managers more than 12,000 SKUs.

When I’m talking to my designers I’m trying to convey features and benefits that each one of these individual consumers [need] because the consumer who’s going to be purchasing wing nuts might or might not be the same consumer who’s going to need a sump pump or pool chemical supplies,” she said. “So it’s identifying that consumer and having the designers be able to translate what our needs are onto a package, and that can definitely be challenging.”

Kim Coovert

For Kmart, which last year launched its Smart Sense line the challenge has been making the umbrella brand work across so many categories. “Our biggest challenge is not only how do you find something that’s ownable and recognizable, but that’s extendable not just to different categories but to different [product and] package sizes,” said

Kim Coovert, brand manager for own brand food and drug at Sears Holdings/Kmart. “The other challenge is finding that right design that fits your format.”

Structure & Communications

Few things will derail a packaging design process more than miscommunication, and large and sometimes convoluted retail organizational structures can be a bear for design agencies to manage.

From left to right: Todd Fryer; John Failla,  founder and president of Store Brands Decisions; Lindsey Hurr and Kim Coovert.

“Part of the issue is there’s a lot of different players with a retailer, whereas with a CPG you’re usually dealing with one [brand] owner,” said Maria Dubuc, creative director of Marketing by Design, noting that in addition to a product manager, retailers often also have a brand manager, broker and vendor involved. “So you end up sometimes with three, four, five different customers all having a different idea of what their goal and mission is.” It’s also challenging for the lead retail executive to manage “because he’s got people coming in going, why is it this way or why is it that way? And he’s got to justify each and every time you bring a new design in.”

Allan Meyerson

Sophistication and communication vary greatly by company whether they are CPGs or retailers, according to Allan Meyerson, creative director for Group360 Worldwide. Clear vision and communication is key, he noted. “I don’t think there is any difference between designing for a retailer or a national brand. Great creative and great design comes down to three important things –– time, talent and clarity. If you have plenty of time but not great talent, you can kind of offset that with the time. If you don’t have a lot of time but you have great talent, you can offset the time. But the one thing that you cannot possibly offset, is clarity.”

Another challenge retailers have versus CPGs is limited advertising and marketing budgets, so their products and packaging have to connect with customers and build equity for them, according to Lindsey Hurr, vice president of Immotion Studios. “[CPGs] are looking for an evolution in the packaging, but they want to maintain the equity they have and they built for many years,” she said, noting that the equity for retailers is often in their logo and/or banner. “So [retailers] may have more luxury to evolve the entire packaging as long as that logo and that brand promise that they communicate to their consumer remains consistent.”

SBD Views: Our 2^nd annual Packaging Design Roundtable once again featured spirited discussion on a wide range of topics. It’s interesting to hear the frustrations that both sides in the packaging design process are experiencing as retailers work hard to raise their game in store brands packaging design. We remain committed to serving the industry by providing a venue for the conversation. -- John Failla for Store Brands Decisions

Read These Related Articles:

• Kroger Named Store Brands Decisions' Retail Innovator of the Year at its Inaugural Awards Program
• Carrefour Redesigns Private Label Packaging
• In-Depth Private Label Packaging Design Research Report Released
• Creating Strength for Retailer Brands
• Market Intelligence and Technology Essential to Effective Packaging Design

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