More private labels to use celebrities

Private label fast-moving consumer goods continue to steadily increase their share of the global marketplace.  Based on ACNielsen data collected from 14 product areas containing 80 categories in 38 markets, private label goods comprise more than 17% of total value sales.

In terms of growth, private label more than doubled the growth rate of manufacturer brands, 5 to 2%.  In fact, in more than two-thirds of the markets studied, private label value sales grew faster than manufacturer brand counterparts.

In Europe, private label value sales had a 23% share across 17 markets and a growth rate of 4%. As found in previous studies, Asia Pacific and Latin America also have small private label markets in terms of share but did not achieve the same double-digit growth rates as in the emerging markets.

Private label has made major gains beyond commodity categories like milk and eggs to stake its claim in categories from cereal, frozen foods and snacks to consumer electronics and health and beauty, by using celebrity promoters.

For instance, when Kroger's (the largest supermarket retailer in the US) wanted to launch a healthy children's food line, it sought the help of Mickey Mouse for the line of food dubbed Disney Magic Selections. Other retailers who've signed up celebrities include Target, Wal-Mart, Costco and Kmart.

The celebrity trend is part of private labels' spiffed-up image with packaging and product upgrades while maintaining affordable prices. The result? About 41% of consumers now consider themselves "frequent store brand shoppers" and consider store brands to be on par with national brands.