2009 has come and gone and it was definitely an exciting year for Private Brands. I began this blog in late December of 2008 and it would be hard to imagine a better time to begin writing about Private Brands. Retailers have stepped up and invested in their brands and national manufacturers have responded in a myriad of intriguing ways.

I continue to be surprised by the overwhelming reception this blog has received from the entire Private Brand community. Everyone from retailers to branding agencies; from Private Brand brokers to investment analysts have subscribed and contributed both comments and compliments. So I find myself taking stock of the year’s posts and creating lists it is a common tactic for traditional media they love to present the prior year in a list and I find myself attracted to the idea. The following is a list of posts and topics that according to Google Analytics attracted the most readers.

1. Great Value Relaunch – Walmart
   Great Value was the subject of the year and more than just one post it is an entire series of more than a dozen posts detailing the radical redesign and the strategic shift that it signaled. The footnote to this is the apparent demise of the Sam’s Choice brand.
2. Up & Up Launch – Target
   Target made news just after Walmart when it made what was arguably the most significant strategic shift in Private Brand eliminating the iconic Bullseye brand and replacing it with Up & Up.
3. Target: Restyles Redecorates and Reorganizes
   The Room Essentials redesign and relaunch is the unheralded piece of Target’s Private brand strategy, combined with the Up & Up launch it illustrated how a Private Brand portfolio strategy can create a group of brands that builds and reinforces the retailer brand. Essentially the redesign of Room Essentials and the launch of Up & Up allowed Target to use the Bullseye logo on the redesigned Target Home – creating a premium home decor brand that further validated their “Expect More, Pay Less” tagline.
4. Piggly Wiggly Redesign
   This article features the redesign of the Piggly Wiggly house brand. Through the lens of a store walk/shop. Shopping for supplies during a summer vacation my family and I visited a Piggly Wiggly just outside of Charleston, SC. Piggly Wiggly loved the post and has a link to it on the front page of their website.
5. 

   Olivia and Sarah pose with Mr Pig

   Chief Private Brand Officer, Great Idea or Anomaly?
   This features the appointment of the first ever (to my knowledge) Chief Private Brand Officer, Timothy Adams, at Macy’s

6. The Green Idea Supermarket – PLMA
   The PLMA’s 2009 Private Label Trade Show included the Idea Supermarket and this article featured a look at green trends in Private Brand.
7. Private Brand: Trading Down or Shopping Smarter?
   After this guest post Alex Miller, the president of Daymon Worldwide drew a record number of comments on both this blog and numerous LinkedIn groups.
8. Clover Valley Tastes Better With Great Design – Dollar General.
   Dollar General has been a surprising star of this blog; posts on Clover Valley consistently draw a large and interactive readership. The redesign featured in this post is particularly impressive for the dollar channel.
9. Private Brand: Our Time is NOW!
   This post features a urgent and inspiring presentation given at the FMI Private Brands Summit by Andres Siefkin, vice president of marketing and consumer insights at private brand broker Daymon Worldwide.
10. Private Brand under Sheetz
    After a trip to Pennysylvania this post on a store walk of the convenience retail icon Sheetz has consistently drawn readership.