This is the third guest post in a three-part series from Perry Seelert the strategic partner of united* dsn, a design consultancy based in New York and San Francisco. In an upcoming book on “Grocery Store Brand Design”, to be published by Liaoning Publishing Group the agency was asked to write the preface. The series includes the preface and The Seven Key Principles for creating strategically compelling Private Brands.
To purchase the book, please contact alice.lnpress@gmail.com
Principles #6-#7:
Steve Jobs never asked the consumer
Apple is one of the most innovative and well thought of, successful companies in the world. When asked, in a New York Times article, what Steve Jobs thought about research, and how Apple utilizes it in guiding new product development, he said “none…it isn’t the consumers’ job to know what they want.” There are too many retailers who use research in their creative development process for store brands, and this is a mistake. Consumers will always veer towards safety and what is comfortable to them, so you won’t get the most innovative outcomes if they are your only sounding board. The Via Roma brand would have never seen the light of day if research were the decision-maker.
Own the brand’s positioning
There are no general rules in utilizing your store’s name on the actual store brand packaging, just as there are no generalizations to make in how wide the store brand can span. In creating Greenway, Hartford Reserve and Via Roma for A&P, each of these brands had a very definitive strategic positioning, and this collaboration that defined the brand’s role was a very important part of the process. Define it clearly, know where you want to differentiate the brand other than pure price, own it thoroughly in the mind of the consumer, and repeat it appropriately.
These seven principles will serve you well in the creation of an innovative store brand program, and they are principles that many of the examples in this book abided by with real conviction. The store brand industry needs to be guided by continued creative innovation, a true steel hand in branching out from the sole veil of “price”, and store brands need to be marketed with the vigor, inspiration and media support to be compelling in their own right.
Perry Seelert is strategic partner of united* dsn, a design consultancy based in New York and San Francisco. To contact Perry: perry@uniteddsn.com or 917.267.2857
Christopher Durham
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Very nice. And I agree.
I’ve heard this about Jobs and Apple before. There’s an inference in this that Jobs ignores what the consumer wants and there’s some magical pull to anything he touches, “build it and they will come”. He may not ask them for validation but he certainly understands them. He knows what they want even if they can’t articulate it.
His genius comes from forging ahead in his belief that he KNOWS the consumer so he doesn’t need to ask them what they want. It still starts with a consumer grounded insight.
Apple is: Insight & Idea & Action
Apple is not: Insight & Idea & Validation & Action