As our stores and supermarket chains grow and gain prominence in our communities, launching the private label project is necessary because it will give us our personality and is the only one that will not depend on the direct competition. The previous research and data collection will be crucial for the success when launching your store’s private label.
We will divide the preliminary research into primary and secondary. The primary information is the one we have to collect with our means, such as all our customers’ consumption and preference data of those products we will create as a private label.
In addition, we will also investigate the movements of those products with our closest competitors.
Secondary information is already researched and published data, and we will only have to know how to find it. Secondary research is the least expensive because it is already done. However, not doing primary research would be a serious mistake for our calculations and commercial future concerning the product to be created.
Part of the primary research we will have to execute as a first step is to conduct surveys of our loyal customers; surveys in the store’s aisles or through our social networks. It will always be more advisable to take more time to collect information from in-person interviews in our stores, where the customer will be more direct and sincere.
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Retailers have been fighting for years to cut out the intermediaries and ensure that the product reaches our customers with the best quality and price. This tendency is even more compelling when we try to develop private labels. With all the data in our possession (actual consumption in our stores, competitor research, customer preferences), it is time to go to the market to negotiate our new private label product with manufacturers.
Once contacts with the manufacturer have been initiated, it is time to test flavors (or aromas, colors) and quality. We must always focus on the taste, aroma, or color of the leading brand (the one that sells the most in our stores, the global market leader), as long as it exceeds 25% of the sales penetration of the rest of the product family.
With product and quality approval, we will begin the process of price projection and purchasing with the manufacturer.
In the case of the private label, which will be branded or will always remain associated with our stores, a partner-supplier agreement must be signed, as all parties must be aware of the costs from the beginning of the manufacturing process until the end customer pays for the product in our stores.
The logistics and supply agreement are the last and most crucial points. The manufacturer will have to demonstrate in advance that the quantities we have forecasted will be able to be manufactured and delivered on time. Considering the problematic logistics situation worldwide, this will be a great challenge to conquer.
With the product already in our stores, we will be periodically evaluating the rotation and conservation of the quality agreed upon from the beginning of the project; this will involve quality reviews in the productive factories of our partner supplier.