One of the most important features of the future of private label brands is only recently coming to the attention of forward-thinking marketers. Over the past several years our ethnographic research has identified a clear trend occurring at the intersection of retail and private label whereby critical components of the retail and brand experience (in this case, we're speaking of the retail brand) appear to be working synergistically to create a highly differentiated private label brand worthy of premium brand status-and beyond. In the case of Trader Joe's, for example, highly specialized components of the retail experience-authenticity, community, knowledge and so forth-all contribute to heightened perceptions of the associated private label products that go far, far beyond simply what is in the package. Moreover, in the case of Trader Joe's the noted absence of competing premium branded products in many categories even serves to further enhance the quality perception and perceived value of private label selections. If they only have Trader Joe's black beans, the thinking goes, then that means they don't believe a better option exists anywhere. While private label offerings by the likes of Trader Joe's, Central Market, Wegmans, Wild Oats and other retailers with a noted brand halo do not yet command the same market attention as conventional private label selections by the likes of Costco, Wal-Mart, Albertsons, Safeway and the like, we believe that the future of private label can be found in these retailers. Indeed, we believe that the private label success stories of tomorrow will be found in those retailers who are able to stage the most compelling experiences in food retail.
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