The yearly round of brand rankings has kicked into full swing with various philosophies and schemes for rankings come from all over the world including stalwarts: Interbrand, Landor, Millward Brown and Harris Interactive. This year’s edition of San Francisco based branding agency Landor’s Breakaway Brands published by Forbes, which measures sustained growth in brand strength over a three-year period includes a who’s who of the worlds greatest brands including: Facebook, Keurig, Skype, Amazon.com, Vizio, Samsung, YouTube, Netflix, USMC and Apple. In addition to 
the Breakaway Brands Landor has created an extra list of three “Brands to Watch:” Kobalt, Foster Farms and Norton. The brands in this list exhibited significant upward momentum but did not make it into the top 10. Landor is watching them as potential future Breakaways.
That’s right Kobalt – the Private Brand from my former employer Lowe’s in a list of the worlds Breakaway Brands with the likes of Apple and Amazon…It’s about time! What’s even more impressive at no point does Landor or Forbes call Kobalt a private label or talk about value – Kobalt is simply and powerfully a BRAND.
Forbes describes Kobalt’s emergence in this way
Sometimes a brand has to connect to consumers through one person. Kobalt, one of our brands to watch, has been able to involve its community with the strategic sponsorship of NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson. As Johnson accumulated victories, and was voted Associated Press’ Male Athlete of the Year in 2009, Kobalt gained increased visibility and positive associations. From sponsoring races to working with Johnson’s team to design a line of tools, Kobalt’s decisive partnership has allowed the brand to carve out a distinct identity.
Congratulations to Greg Palese the former Kobalt Brand Manager and my co worker, he has moved onto to other things at Lowe’s but he spent the last five years building the Kobalt brand.
Still Kobalt is not the only Private Brand mentioned in the article:
Amazon’s marketplace is an extensive, yet intuitive one. With over 40 product categories from used books to gourmet food, it manages to offer customers selection and simplicity. In 2007, Amazon launched its MP3 store and released the first (Private Brand) Kindle. In 2010, it was second only to iTunes (tied with Walmart) as the top U.S. music retailer, and its ebooks were outselling paperbacks in America. By extending its straightforward design and markedly low price point, Amazon has been able to seamlessly add digital offerings for a holistic shopping experience.
This year’s Breakaway Brands list reveals the potential for Private Brands to become BRANDS as well as the simple but powerful truth: To flourish in today’s environment, brands must excel at being trustworthy and helpful.
Connect people. Make their lives simpler. Give them a sense of confidence. More than ever, to demand brand loyalty requires that a brand is loyal to its own values and its customers.
So do you know your Brand values or perhaps the better question is does your brand have values? It is time for retailers to stop apologizing for their brands, stop creating things that are by their very nature second best “at a value” at simply create great brands, create “Breakaway Brands.”
Does your Private Brand portfolio contain any brands that can truly become BRANDS or are you simply perpetuating the clichéd “compare & save” strategy of private label.
Christopher Durham
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Chris — couldn’t agree with you more — great potential on this list for store brands. I’m a little surpised that GAP didn’t make the cut. And I don’t mean to dis your job alma mater but I am also a little surprised that a Lowe’s brand made the list but not a Sears brand.
Tim
Thanks for the comment – I would be surprised if either GAP or any of The Sears brands made this list – as the list is ranking Breakaway Brands. Follow the links and check out what they measured – mostly three year sentiment – the GAP has grown old and tired Sears continues to lose share, and despite their heritage the Sears brands can not make up for the anchor that the mothership has become.
Carving a distinct identity through strategic partnerships is definitely a brand building effort. However, the common thread for this brand and the brands discussed above is product quality (especially in this category). Regardless of NB/PL, brand loyalty will most likely come into play more as product performance/durability improve. So long Lowes manages it’s R&D and funds exceptional product sourcing, those efforts will not only outlast any sponsorship effort, but will only compliment it’s current co-branded activity with Jimmie Johnson. Coincidentally, look no further than a brand from a retailer above (Sears) – Craftsmen. Not only is the sub-brand propping up the master, in many regards, this particular “brands strength” has endured decades almost solely based on quality alone and of course with the “Lifetime Guarantee”. GAP, with the advent of the economic downturn, has taken it’s flagship brand and opted to produce items that are more aligned with it’s value-tier offering, or that of Old Navy. Again, another quality standard issue. It too will continue to fail miserably if quality is to be compromised. Looks like it’s time to man-test the Kobalt line of tools and in the meantime, get a pulse from users on durability, continued performance, innovation with end-user in mind and the like.