Introduction

Private label has witnessed continued growth, with own brands displacing national brands both in stores and in consumers' consideration set. Wider availability and growing sophistication has led to growing acceptance and trust. The economic downturn has reinforced private labels as a credible, yet cheaper alternative to branded goods, driving awareness and trial across demographic groups.

Features and benefits

• Utilize product, consumer and market insight intelligence to better evaluate the important strategic considerations that private label growth brings
• Understand the scale and growth of the private label food and non-alcoholic beverage opportunity by sector and country, split by category level
• Access insightful proprietary consumer opinion data highlighting the prevailing attitude towards private label food and drinks versus national brands
• Identify and capitalize on the ten trends characterizing contemporary private label food and beverage product development and marketing
• A dedicated focus on food and beverages for more specific and salient insight

Highlights

The economic downturn led to changes in shopping patterns that will remain in the long term—the adoption of private label being a pertinent example of this. In 18 of the 20 countries covered in Datamonitor's consumer research, more than 40% of respondents said that opting for private label to save money has become more important over 2008-10

Own label market shares vary markedly by country/region. Developed markets in Europe and North America have maintained their position as the leading private brand markets, but growth is evident elsewhere as emerging market retailers grow big enough to achieve the economies of scale that helps facilitate private label development

Nearly half of consumers across 20 countries in Datamonitor's consumer research bought more private label in 2009-10. While some migration back to national brands will occur as economic circumstances improve, Datamonitor anticipates it will be less than the private label gain in many food and drink categories

Your key questions answered

• What are the key trends driving consumers' propensity to purchase private label food and beverage products? How do they vary by country?
• What are the 10 NPD and marketing trends reflecting own brand development in consumer packaged goods?
• What private label food and beverage product formats represent the biggest promise/threat to national brands?
• What are consumers' perceptions of private label food and beverages compared to national brands? How do these perceptions influence where they shop?
• What has been the impact of the economic recession on consumers' propensity to purchase private label products? How might this change going forward?