Cause Marketing

Now through November 11, 2011 participating IGA stores across the United States are offering $0.05 to the Wounded Warrior Project for each case of certain private label food brands sold. This is an echo of a similar effort from participating IGA stores undertook for the Wounded Warrior Project from Memorial Day last May through Labor Day earlier this month. Only instead of private label foods it was for cases of IGA private label water and the donation amount was $0.10 per case. In turn, that seemed influenced by a campaign Kroger did for breast cancer research in October 2010. IGA is a huge buying and distribution cooperative for 5,000 member stores in 40 countries. The Wounded Warrior Project is a nonprofit charity that raises money and awareness for the nation’s injured service members. I became aware of this effort via a news announcement from the IGA in tiny Wendell, North Carolina, east of Raleigh. I’ve been agitating for private label cause marketing in these pages since Nov...

For several years now I’ve been agitating for cause marketing for retailer’s house brands. Now I’ve finally seen one from Kroger benefiting breast cancer research. Here’s my argument; in recessions house brands do very well. But once the hard times are over, consumers return to the name brands. But if a cause marketing effort could help a retailer preserve even 5 percent of the customers that switched during the recession, it could potential be worth tens of millions to the bottom line every year. I originally made my case for house brand cause marketing back in a post on November 18, 2008. In the declining economy, people in the UK, the US and elsewhere are buying more ‘house brands.’ Of course they are, you say. What could make more sense than to get the same-quality or nearly the same quality for a meaningful savings? I don’t have a handy chart to demonstrate, but this is what always happens in bad economic times. When the economy dips, sales of cheaper house brands and generics tak...

Faithful Readers: My main computer is in the shop and I’m scrambling a little more than usual. I saw a news item today from the Associated Press that showed that store brands are showing a meaningful and bottom-line important uptick in sales. Key sentence… "Kroger said 27 percent of its sales in its most recent quarter came from its own brands and fueled most of the company’s overall grocery volume growth for the year — a trend it expects to continue." So in honor of my computer I’m going to repost something on cause marketing and private label brands that originally appeared on November 11, 2008. In the declining economy, people in the UK , the US and elsewhere are buying more ‘house brands.’Of course they are, you say. What could make more sense than to get the same-quality or nearly the same quality for a meaningful savings? I don’t have a handy chart to demonstrate, but this is what always happens in bad economic times. When the economy dips, sales of cheaper house bra...

In the declining economy, people in the UK , the US and elsewhere are buying more ‘house brands.’ Of course they are, you say. What could make more sense than to get the same-quality or nearly the same quality for a meaningful savings? I don’t have a handy chart to demonstrate, but this is what always happens in bad economic times. When the economy dips, sales of cheaper house brands and generics take off. And when the economy recovers consumers go back to the major brands. For the foreseeable future, price is going to be major driver for the consumer. Imagine this scenario: a shopper faces two cans of cream of mushroom soup, the store brand and the dominant brand in the US, Campbell's. The store brand has respectable quality and is 26 percent cheaper per ounce. In a face off like that, Campbell’s market share would erode very seriously sans their incredible market shelf space and decades-old Labels for Education program, in my view. Now if the store brand started a well thought-...