Webinar to provide insight on 'Understanding Disruption'
Store Brands continues its “The Power of Private Brands” webinar series on Thursday, April 20 at 2 p.m. with the second of four presentations — “From the Consumer: Understanding Disruption.” The webinar will feature Heath Osburn, director of private brands for Ahold Delhaize, and Mark McKeown, client insights principal for IRI. Registration is open at “The Power of Private Brands.”
Store Brands is teaming with the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) to present the webinar series, which focuses on various facets of the recent report, “The Power of Private Brands,” from the FMI’s Private Brand Leadership Council. The report confirmed that private brand sales at supermarkets and regional grocers — hampered by deflation and a decline in supermarket trips — haven’t kept up with national brand sales the last two years. But the report, which FMI conducted in conjunction with Information Resources Inc. (IRI) and Daymon, stresses that supermarkets and grocers can take advantage of the growth potential of private brands by customizing products, recognizing the need to invest to drive store brand innovation and embracing a wider range of promotional vehicles, including emerging social media platforms.
The webinar, “From the Consumer: Understanding Disruption,” moderated by Store Brands Brand Director Kevin Francella, will discuss the importance of comprehending consumer trends while understanding private brand trends. Retailers and manufacturers spend countless hours trying to understand disruptive consumer behavior, but often they don’t get a full understanding of what’s driving shoppers. That’s because consumer behavior is a moving target, and findings depend on which groups of consumers are being analyzed and which research methodology is used.
This webcast will provide insight and analysis of the following factors:
• The pervasive nature of private brands in U.S. households.
• Why millennials are embracing private brands and why they’re more likely to be heavy buyers.
• In which categories the best store brand quality perceptions exist.
• Quality perceptions of specific categories do not vary much by generation, but OTC healthcare is an outlier.
• How consumer usage of social media platforms varies by age and how millennials seek out store apps when looking for advertised specials.
• How heavy buyers of private brand use social media to seek recipes and look for deals.
• The effect of traditional grocery private brands commanding fewer social mentions than those of mass, club or other channels.
As director of private brands for Ahold Delhaize, Osburn and his team are responsible for brand positioning, package design, product development, sustainability, product sensory testing and nutrition. Over the past few years with Delhaize, Osburn realigned the product portfolio, built a team and lab for product quality testing, and launched award-winning designs across multiple categories. Previously he worked in sales, marketing and innovation on consumer packaged goods brands including Chiquita, Oreo, Planters and Post Cereal.
McKeown is a leader in IRI’s private label manufacturing practice in North America. McKeown led the research and produced the insights in the “From the Register” and “From the Consumer” sections of “The Power of Private Brands” report, released in January.
More information on the webinar program, including viewing the first webinar “From the Register: Looking Deeper for Answers,” which was held on March 29, can be found at Store Brands webinars.