Industry experts discussed this at the webinar “What should businesses do in the era of private labels?”, which was held on November 27 in the WorldFood Connect business community

The event was attended by Andrey Nedosekin, Director of the Ingate Performance unit, Dmitry Apukhtin, Head of the Ingate Performance production department, and Natalya Zhestareva, Marketing Director of the Siberian Collection brand. The speakers discussed whether manufacturers should work with private labels or develop their own brands, and presented promotion strategies for manufacturers of different sizes.

Today, up to 25% of the assortment in retail chains is made up of private labels, which bring retailers 20% of their revenue. According to experts, the focus on private labels will only increase.

But for manufacturers, working on private labels is not always profitable and interesting. In addition, according to the results of NAFI research, 85% of Russians want strong domestic brands to appear and develop in Russia, and a study by SberMarketing and ORO for 2024 showed that about half of buyers continue to pay for the brand.

What promotion strategies should manufacturers choose if they want to work on their brand in an era when retailers are actively developing their own brands? Andrey Nedosekin and Dmitry Apukhtin talked about this.

If we are talking about:

// young manufacturers, then the focus of the advertising campaign should be on increasing brand awareness through budget tools: promotion on marketplaces, advertising on social networks, seeding in Telegram, contextual advertising with landing on marketplaces, media advertising in limited regions.
// mid-level manufacturers, then you need to choose tools with a focus on sales, not brand awareness: media advertising, which should already be of a systemic nature, TG Ads, context and targeting, bloggers, SMM, creative concepts and receipt promo, advertising on retailer sites, X5 and Magnit analytics tools.
// large brands, the task here is often to change the focus and retain the consumer. The main tools should be: media advertising and retailer segments, SMM, ORM/SERM and industry analytics. The latter should be given special attention.

Natalia Zhestareva advised manufacturers to first of all determine their place in the food market. It should be taken into account that traditional products already have their own love brands, while in young categories the situation is completely different. The speaker noted that if the product is new and there is no major recognizable player in the niche you have chosen, then you can quite easily fight for the main place. And to remain competitive, your brand must correspond to the 4E formula (Experience, Engagement, Everyplace, Evangelism).

Speaking about private labels, the expert recommended going into private labels for those brands that, firstly, have free capacity, and secondly, either do not have a strong brand or have a strong brand in categories where there is a risk of being eaten up by private labels. She also shared the experience of the Siberian Collection brand as a supplier of private labels and exclusive assortments and spoke about strategic partnerships with retail chains.

At the end of the webinar, the experts came to the conclusion that not everyone should go into private label. But if the manufacturer is ready, then this development strategy has a place to be. However, it is worth diversifying the risks and even when working with private label, continue to develop your own brand.