0:17 Hello, everyone. And, welcome to the webinar. Thank you so much for joining me. 0:28 So look, I'm thrilled to be here today talking to you about the rise of private label brands strategies you can leverage to boost your private label business. My name's Daniel Deller, and I'm the divisional vice president of retail here in EMEA, app as our voice, and I'll be the host for this session. 0:45 So with that, let's go ahead and get started. So today, private label and own brand sales are growing even faster than the broader market. 0:56 One factor is the steep inflation rates, impacting many economies around the world, and there's increased pressure on household spending. So more consumers are starting switch to private label brands. 1:08 According to IRI market research, store brand sales surge seven point eight percent through the first five month of twenty twenty two, and national brands increased only five percent. 1:20 So the question is, how can retailers maintain or grow private labels and build long term brand loyalty beyond the economic downturn. 1:30 We believe that retails can maintain or grow their private labels and build long term brand loyalty by leaning into the, what we call the fourth wave of private label growth. 1:39 So the first wave of private label growth brands were primarily driven by price and differentiation, and consumers correctly thinking that private label brands offer lower prices for the same quality. 1:50 The second way focused on portfolio management with products expanding to meet broader customer needs and moving into premium ranges including organic and free from ranges. 2:01 The third wave of private label brand development was affected by obviously unforeseen market dynamics caused by, you know, COVID and and sort of some of the more sort of economic factors that we are kind of still seeing today. 2:13 And the fourth wave is really happening now. It's all about innovation and product differentiation, driven by products that truly meet the needs of customers. 2:23 The fourth wave is about creating immersive experiences and connecting the customers on an emotional level. Consumers are increasingly demanding environmentally sustainable and ethically sourced products, and private brands are really stepping up to that challenge across multiple industries. 2:40 They are making sure their products leave a positive environmental footprint and their supply chain is socially responsible. This fourth wave combined with inflation will result in an increasing tendency to buy private labels. 2:56 We're seeing this play out in consumer studies as well. According to the Food Industries Association's, two thousand and two power of private brands report, nearly three in four consumers plan to keep buying private labels even after the economy has settled. 3:13 Data from bizarre voice reveals similar trends, in our survey of our influencer members, over ninety percent said they currently, purchase store brands, and another third said they actually prefer buying store brands over national brands. 3:30 Consumers are also embracing the quality of private labels and venturing outside the grocery rails into categories such as home goods, apparel, and health and beauty. 3:38 So this presents a really significant opportunity for the retailers out there. Providing more private label categories is a great way satisfy satisfy, consumers' evolving preferences and capitalize on this popularity when it comes to private label. 3:55 That really leads us on to what we'll wanna talk about here today. So what we're gonna look at is we will look at private label strategies, from top national brands, how to identify the right products to focus on and the importance of brand identity. 4:12 And there will also be, a live q and a after the session. So please do start dropping those questions into the sidebar and we'll be sure to get into as many as we can at the end, and if not, we'll be sure to follow-up with you, because we're really keen to carry on the conversation. 4:27 So let's start with a look at private label strategies. Consumer expectations and behaviors are constantly changing impacted by psychological, social, cultural, personal, and of course economic factors, all of which influence the shopper journey. 4:46 Every consumer takes a personalized path to purchase using a a real mix of channels, and it's critical that private label brands are engaging with consumers across that evolving shopping journey. 4:59 So that means leveraging different marketing strategies designed to drive discovery, consideration, purchase, of course, and then champion or brand loyalty, really kind of driving that that you wanna see from your customers. 5:14 So retailers should really take a three sixty degree approach that equally balances physical and digital marketing platforms to engage with shoppers at these different touch points. 5:26 So if we start at that discovery stage then and how consumers learn about your products, Successful private label starts with knowing where different market segments go to discover products. 5:37 A recent survey revealed considerable differences between what consumers say influences their brand awareness and purchase decisions, and what their marketers' perception and assumptions are of of how they make those decisions. 5:50 Gen Z as a millennials, for example, it may be no surprise, but they turn to social media for product discovery. But often find out about products through word-of-mouth or digital advertising. 6:02 So you can really see a disparity between how each generation prefers to discover products affirm compared to what is actually happening. 6:11 So why does that matter? Ultimately, you may need to realign your private label marketing strategy to match the customer, engagement and segments that you're going after. 6:22 It's essential to meet your customers where they actually are and not where you think they are, really challenge those assumptions and learn from your customers and listen to them. 6:32 So if social media is the top way millennials discover and and purchase, of course, products, it really makes sense to prioritize this as a channel. 6:41 But aligning your marketing strategies not only helps with discovery, it also impacts consideration. Can just get to next slide. 6:52 Sorry about that. So what is the best way to stand out from National Brand in the consideration stage the shopper journey. Every industry, whether it's health and beauty, furniture, or food and beverage, has one thing in common when it comes to researching behaviors. 7:07 Shoppers research products before making a purchase, and they do this both online and in store. Nearly three quarters of consumers surveyed said they conduct research before buying something online, while over half conduct research before making an in store purchase. 7:26 So how does this information impact your private label structure? Well, product search and disc product search and discovery overwhelmingly begin online. So success depends on reinvisaging your funnel for a digital first retailing world. 7:44 In the consideration stage of the shopper journey, potential customers are interested in buying but are still evaluating products at net value. So let's first consider the type of content shoppers seek out when conducting research. 7:57 When asked what content they found relevant, shoppers identified seven forms of user generated content, including product ratings and reviews, questions and answers, shopper photos, and and and some others as the most important. 8:11 So that's why having a really rich product detail page with user generated content is key to attracting shoppers to your digital shelf. 8:19 Top private label brands maximize their presence beyond brick and mortar. And that's something that, you know, we need to match, across all of the different, segments and different industries that will be here today. 8:33 Now let's look at the purchase stage. So retailers can maintain or grow their private label brands by focusing on factors other than price. 8:41 So like things like value, quality, and packaging. So if we start with value, our data shows that value is shoppers first most consideration followed by cost. 8:53 So how do you show value to customers? You need to make sure that you have a clear, set of brand values and communicate what that brand stands for, how you're giving back to the community, and what your company can offer that others can't. 9:08 Retailers must make their private label brands more than just a product on the shelf, but a really valuable brand in its own right. 9:16 So if you then look at quality, there really was, if we're probably honest, there was a distant gap between the quality of private label and brand name products. But today, that doesn't have to be the case at all. In a Nielsen study, forty percent of shoppers agreed that private labels deliver higher quality than main brands, as consumers started to embrace the value of private label products, finding opportunities to lower prices without having to sacrifice in quality, which is essential. 9:46 And then finally, packaging. Packaging plays a huge role in purchase decisions. This is an important area to focus on. The design should be distinct and include the unique attractive features of the product. 9:58 Whether that's functionality, sustainable ingredients, or something else, but make it unique. Price is just the beginning. Private label brands offer retailers a unique opportunity to deliver a better, more engaging customer experience, and ultimately keep those customers coming back. 10:17 When it comes to champion, the fourth stage in the buyer journey, this is where bizarre voice can really help. Turning your buyers, sorry, into advocates is huge, huge value. 10:28 So, firstly, we generate and collect content for your private label products to help you generate high quality content in any format from any community. So that includes your own communities. Many of you, many of the retailers here today will like to have your own loyalty schemes, and and have those communities where we can really activate a subset to go turn them into top quality content creators and advocates for your business. 10:54 Of course, social influencers that I'm sure many of you are working with today, and then there's a bizarre voice community of over seven million everyday consumers in in, within the influence app that I mentioned earlier. 11:06 We can also enable sampling to generate reviews and social buzz on your newly launched products. So we can activate influences to post tons of visual content, for your social programs, but also those that you can bring back to your e commerce site. 11:21 Once we then help you with the kind of getting the volume through the door, we can then help you curate that vast volume of content moderate it to keep brand standards in place, and authenticate it to keep it fraud free. 11:34 We've got the industry's gold standard in this area to keep customer trust high and while helping you stay ahead of ongoing compliance and regulatory changes. 11:44 This content is so powerful. So we then help you distribute your content across all of the relevant channels such as search, multiple country sites, partner sites, and of course social. 11:58 This will mean that you'll rank higher in search, inspire new customers on social and ultimately increase sales. On top of that, we make it really easy for you to learn from the content that you collect you'll get actionable recommendations that take the guesswork out of where to start or what to do next. 12:16 You'll also receive performance insights across all your channels and products including sentiment insights about what your customers are feeling and saying about your products. 12:26 The very nature of private label products means that this, information is super, super helpful in for informing not just what your customers care about, but then really helping to inform your product development processes and really making sure that you're launching new products successfully. 12:46 If we apply that framework then and look at a really excellent case study that we're super proud of a bizarre voice, with PetCo, and we and how we work together to boost private label. 12:56 So Petco's goal was to increase brand awareness, SEO traffic, and conversions for its wholehearted and ready private label brands. 13:06 These products, weren't generating the number of reviews Peco wanted, so they worked with us to develop their spotted sampling program to produce user generated content that they could then use to to drive impactful outcomes across the entire journey. 13:24 So firstly, discover. So First, Petco set out to boost organic, page views and trafficked for the wholehearted and ready private brands. 13:34 The content generated with the bizarre voice program led to eighty percent increase in clicks from organic search. Sixty seven percent increase in the number of pages, ranked organically and a hundred and forty percent increase in impressions from organic search. 13:51 Moving into the consider phase, the fresh new products, reviews gathered by the spotted sampling program generated a four hundred and five percent lift in review volume, and a nine percent lift in average rating. 14:04 Plus the quality of those reviews, the re you know, the richness, of that content then collecting, improved massively. But all of that content is great, but did it actually drive to more purchases, which is the ultimate goal? 14:19 Yes. The spotted sampling program also drove a forty eight percent revenue increase on sample products, driven by a twenty eight percent increase in conversion rate and a fifteen percent increase in average order value. And I think we can agree. 14:33 Those are some really impressive purchase metrics and really demonstrate the value of a program like this. And then finally, with bizarre voice, Petco was able to harness the champion ability by collecting, curating, and amplifying high quality content at scale, across various different forms, including ratings, questions and answers, and vision and social content. 14:58 The technical team is even taking, a step further, see how they can leverage this rich UGC content on in store displays for private label products and using in store space to incentivize future collection of reviews So again, really joining that loop between both online and offline because we know this is where customers want to see this type of content. 15:23 This case study was really a master class in how the sort of spotted, spotted sampling program really completes a full funnel UGC solution for PetCo. 15:32 We'll be sending out the link to the full, case study and may even be able to include it in chat here. But as you can see from Hannah's quote here, This program was extremely helpful in driving private label brand success, by boosting conversions and traffic to site. 15:48 So moving on, how do we identify the right products? So, you know, how the I guess the question is, how can your products bring value to consumers so that they can be ultimately become the shopper's preferred choice. 16:03 Can you update the packaging or do more marketing to illustrate the value proposition of private label products, or could you work with manufacturers to develop new products that big brands aren't offering today. 16:16 Ultimately, I would recommend prioritizing products that offer a unique offering as a way to identify the right private label products, don't just do what everyone else is doing, look for those opportunities to stand out. 16:28 Build and execute consumer centric private label strategies based on true consumer needs, and then and then ask yourself some of these key questions, you know, what is the key persona and experiences that you want your products to play a role in? 16:45 Where is there a gap in the category to be unique? And how will your products create an elevated experience that represents your brand values? 16:55 How do your products improve your customers' lives more than others? What categories are set for significant growth? And what data do you already have access to that you can leverage to identify opportunities? 17:08 Find these needs by looking at your research, your data, but ultimately, most importantly, listening to your customers and really deliver innovative products that your shoppers are looking for. 17:21 Let's share some examples then of how retailers are doing this. So for the vegan audience members, online, you're probably familiar with some of these brands already. 17:30 With the surge in sales of plant based foods, which are expected to triple in the next ten years, retailers have wisely invested in products that suit this need. 17:40 Target, for example, has extended its very, popular good and gather range to, to add good and gather, plant based So this line extension brings new dietary option to more than thirty plant based dips and meat alternative products. 17:55 If we look at then Australian, retailer Woolworths, they've, their brand plantitude, whose line, whose line now has thirty vegan products, and we see Marks Spencer increasing the size of their plant kitchen range. It's already one of the largest owner, own brands with two hundred and fifty product existing in the range, but the plant case ranges are updates with seasonal offerings like new things to try and dig annually, for example. 18:26 Moving away from, from food. This next example is from Lowe's with its newest in house brand targeting millennials. 18:36 So last year, Lowe's added, origin twenty one. And it's modern range to complement. It's already popular Home Decor, private brand, Alan and Roth, which is that more traditional brand. 18:47 Origin twenty one was created to target millennial consumers and deliver modern on trend items each season. And then this is another great example. So Target recently announced it is expanding new stores nationwide, upgrading a ton of existing stores and launching or expanding more than ten private label brands. 19:12 This is a really bold move given, move given that inflation is forcing consumers to shift their focus to groceries and household goods versus more discretionary items such as clothing and home furnishings. 19:23 The target has really remained focused on differentiating its offerings with innovative and trendy products like future collective a fashion brand dedicated to inclusivity. 19:33 Future collective's approach is to leverage different guest designers and social media fashion influencers to bring together diverse fashion perspectives while offering customers fresh new collection year round. This approach heavily uses social media, as an excellent platform to showcase content for inspiration and discovery. 19:51 And this strategy is an innovative response to the changing consumer market that's seen a really great success, for target. 20:00 So now that we've seen know, which products to focus on and and kind of which strategies, it's really then about how, you know, with that retailer experience and private label offerings being so connected, How can we establish high performing private label brands, you know, and that and make that a key strategy to boost loyalty and drive more traffic to online and brick and mortar stores. 20:26 So in fact, private labels are big reasons that shoppers even choose to to shop with certain retailers. So according to Emarketer, About sixty six percent of shoppers said that if they like a retailer, they assume that that retailer will also have good own brand products. 20:43 It makes private label products an increasingly important part of retailer's strategies. So much so that private label product are now an intrinsic part of a retailer's brand, values, and reputation. 20:54 With the right practices in place, your customers will come for your retail experience but stay for your private label brands, creating a sustainable cycle that propels your business forward. 21:08 Costco's house brand is one of the most famous, private labels in the world. The Kirkland signature, label today appears on about twenty percent of the products found in Costco on everything from toilet paper to champagne. 21:22 This private label strategy is core to Costco's overall success and achieves two main things. It delivers direct revenue on a fifth of its catalog, and it delivers on the Costco promise of quality and and value. 21:36 It acts as a helpful comparison to name brand quality and prices, keeping them competitive, and ensuring that every, category succeeds. 21:47 A final example to bring it home and align back to our fantastic case study that we saw earlier from Petco is with Ready So Ready is Petco's premium lifestyle, own brand for dogs. 21:59 This brand was launched in twenty eighteen and quickly became one of Petco's most popular brand It was inspired by millennial urban pet parents looking for high quality, functional, and sustainably made products for their pets. 22:12 The brand offers a really broad assortment, including everything from apparel, collars, leads, to beds, bowls, feeders, and travel accessories for everyday adventures. 22:24 The Reddy brand also helps Petco live up to and demonstrate its sustainability commitments to its customers while also capitalizing, on a really hot trend. 22:35 So eighty five percent of its own brand designs are created with plastic from recycled bottles, which is a really great claim to be able to make. When you are kind of making broader claims around sustainability elsewhere. 22:46 So they're really kind of walking their talk when it comes to ready. Going back to the fourth wave, this brand is hitting all the marks on fitting the lifestyle needs of their customers and aligning to their values. 22:59 So in conclusion, retailers that push the limits of their private label brands are ultimately going to reap the rewards and the long term market share growth. So some key takeaways to think about, think like a national brand and consider how to optimize the entire buyer journey. 23:17 Dare to be different and then go further. Make sure innovation is core to your private label strategy. Elevate your brand with private label lines to, align to what your brand promises and keep it on brand. 23:31 Invest now in a downturn and build brand loyalty for long term growth. So That's it from me. So thank you so much for listening, and I'd really like to open up the conversation now. 23:44 Does anyone have any questions? Perfect. 23:52 So seeing, a couple of questions, one, and I actually really like this first question, which is around any particular private label examples that are kind of really interesting in the in the UK right now. 24:08 I think for me, one that I'm, you know, that have been quite close to, is is actually something to happen over at Sainsbury's. So in one of my slides, I've kind of talked about those, the the waves of a private label, and actually they probably would have noticed they're all actually Sainsbury's and Sainsbury's group examples. And actually, I think one of the most interesting plays that they've made recently, is around the Stanford Street. Range. 24:31 So this is their kind of essentially the rebranding of their, their value grocery, range, which is, first of all, a great nod to the kind of like some of the history of the company. And actually, I think a recognition that, you know, there's I think In recent year, probably less so in recent years given some of the challenges that we talked about, but actually, upon certainly previously, I think there's almost like a stigma about, you know, with with shoppers about picking up those, like, kind of, you know, very obviously branded, you know, obviously branded kind of value ranges. 25:05 And actually what they've done here is actually to completely rebrand that. Something looks really cool. It doesn't necessarily scream. Kind of value range, but absolutely kind of still delivers that value from a price perspective and and obviously from that quality as well. 25:17 So I think that's definitely a a really interesting example that would encourage anyone to to kind of look into for sure. So if we look at the another question we've got here, so So some someone's picked up on the on the kind of sampling conversation, that, I started in there and actually, you know, looking at those different options. 25:38 I think question speaks specifically to the, when you wanna use your own community and really kind of activate that community and turn them into content creators. So This question is around, like, the actual optimal community size. 25:51 So what's the optimal community size if you're looking to kind of start sampling, whether from private label, whether that's something you wanna monetize with branded products. Ultimately, probably a good mix between the two is often is often the answer, but a really unhelpful answer is ultimately that the the the the community size, it can really differ depending on kind of your your existing community size, whether that's from from a loyalty, perspective. 26:17 The biggest thing to think about is, do you have enough demand, or do you have enough product from a sampling perspective to continuously seed into the community size that you choose because what you don't wanna do is go too big on the community size and then not be able, and then, you know, leave some of those members dormant because you're gonna kind of lose their advocacy. They're gonna, you know, they're not gonna be engaged. 26:41 Basically, you don't wanna send, like, fifty products a year to to one person. So you do need kind of like that size. So it really kind of does depend about depend on how much product you expect to send. And that will depend, or obviously, on the type of industry you're in, you know, if it's consumer electronics and your sampling fridge freezes, which has happened through bizarre voice, then then you're probably not gonna be doing hundreds that because of the costs associated naturally, if you hit that sweet spot of ten reviews, that are really positive, and a lot of authentic and, you know, good quality and that were collected through sampling program alongside maybe some other, you know, just those kind of, organic native reviews. 27:22 Then that would be fine. If, however, we're talking about kind of a a much lower cost health and beauty item, actually, that you really wanna stand out across that, you know, Dolores and, and and and whoever in the big brands, you might actually say that, actually, we wanna get at least a hundred high quality reviews. 27:39 It's a low five term. It's something that we can do, on mass. And also, we've got the we've got the community size to go do it. So it really does depend, but you need to make sure that you're keeping that community engaged, and that you're sending an appropriate amount of product and and obviously, you know, working with a, you know, experts in the space that can help advise based on, you know, based on experience. 28:03 So I think maybe just time for one more question. In. So, yeah, so this is actually one that we get, a lot. So balancing essentially the prioritization of private label when if you're already working with Brazaboys, for example, when you are accepting a lot of syndicated content already from brands. 28:23 Now is syndication essentially harmful is I think is what we're kind of getting at here is having lots of brand content actually harmful to private labels actually. And ultimately, no, because if you focus on, you know, on your if you just focus your native strategy on that private label, then having that additional content from a brand perspective is is gonna be no harm at all. And ultimately, we want retail sites to be flooded with as much content as possible, as long as it's high quality, fraud free, and meeting brand guidelines, which obviously we can we can which we can ensure through through the various tools we've got. 29:02 So I would never suggest that it's one or the other. Ultimately, a really healthy use generated content program, whether that be ratings and reviews, whether that be social content, has a really good mix across all kind of product. 29:16 There'll be retailers on the line that are probably thinking the water we're never gonna get to a hundred percent, right, when it comes to coverage because we've got our catalogs so big. And that's and that's probably true. 29:25 But actually being really selective about where you put your efforts from a native collection perspective and then having syndicated content to really kind of just as that always on, reassurance of of, you know, in some cases, millions of reviews or millions of pieces of content, across the branded side, it is is is a really kind of nice balance to have. 29:47 So I would say if if you do have a lot syndicated content from brands, then and you're concerned about that, then I would encourage you to lean in to really making sure that you are collecting enough content, whether that be through sampling, which is obviously a really great effective way, or whether it's just around kind of in the first instance, just making sure, that your review request emails are all going out to to every customer. 30:10 Are you collecting from in store customers as well as online customers all of these different things and just making sure that you got a healthy program will ultimately balance out, the the private label versus syndication. 30:22 Volume, of, you know, content volumes, over time, so, should not be a concern. Look, I think that's all we've got time for today. 30:31 So if there are any other questions, then please feel free to, to to contact us through either through the website. Normal channels, or feel free to contact me directly, on my daniel de la dot, sorry, at bizarro voice dot com, or, of course, on linked in all those normal channels as well. 30:47 So look, thank you so much for for joining us today, and, I look forward to seeing you all again soon. Thank you.
