Who Pays for Marketing Private Label?

RetailWire’s and Private Label Buyer’s own Warren Thayer, the magazine’s associate publisher/editorial director, writes in the May issue of the trade publication that retailers and manufacturers can agree that private label needs to be marketed “like a brand.” What they can not agree on is who should pick up the marketing tab.

It is not in either the retailer’s or the manufacturer’s business models to support private label like a brand. However, since the retailers own the equity in the brands, they should be the ones to invest in them, according to Mr. Thayer.

Consultant Chris Hoyt, president of Hoyt & Company, agrees that its time for a mega-retailer to really start investing in its private label “like a brand.” Everybody else would then have to follow, he says.

Moderator Comment: Two questions:

1. Who should pick up the tab for marketing private
   label as a brand?
   
2. Which is best, private label managed by a dedicated
   person or by individual category managers?
   

[George
Anderson – Moderator]

• Click to download (MS Word format): “Who’ll Pay for ‘Marketing Like a Brand?’” from Private Label Buyer Magazine, May 2002