Since the middle of the last century, the concept of branding has become more and more influential in marketing. Brands rather than companies have turned out to be the greatest competitors in the market since consumers can easily identify them as compared to company name (Leading Edge, 2008). Due to the increasing competition in the market, companies have found it necessary to brand their products in order to have an identity in the market. Like companies, supermarkets have come up with branding strategies to create their own identity the market. This is marketing strategy aimed marketing the supermarket. There are four critical areas where supermarkets have concentrated on to ensure their success of their home branding strategies.
The first important area is branding. There are more and more supermarkets which are branding their product with their own brand name which identifies them in the market. Every item time you meet with someone from shaping you can tell the supermarket one has been shopping by the carrying bags they have. These bags whether polyethylene bag or any other carries the name of the supermarket. Some supermarkets have started ordering products which have been branded with their names. For example, the giant Tesco has mobiles phones branded Tesco. (Leading Edge, 2008)
The second area is packaging. Recent branding strategies have seen some supermarket order unpacked product and later packing them in packets branded with their name. In this case the product appears like it has been produced by the supermarket. For example many supermarkets have been ordering unpacked rice from Asian counties and later repackaging it in packs which have their name. After you shop in a certain supermarket, your will be given a carrying bag to pack you things which has the super market name and log. In packaging, supermarkets have even become more creative and pack products in quantities which are more selling. Since they are in close contact with consumers, they understand the selling quantities and therefore they can pack products appropriately.
The third area is labeling. This has perhaps being the most influential branding strategy that has seen almost all products in half of their shelves bearing their name. They have been order finished unlabeled products and later labeling them with their names. Branding is the market entry level strategy which ensures that the supermarket’s name remains in the mind of consumers (Leading Edge, 2008). Like the example we have given above, supermarket stores like Tesco have been ordering finished cell phones and later labeling them with their names.
The fourth factor is evaluation of consumer decision processes. In this regard supermarkets have been carrying out market research data in order to evaluate the effectiveness of their branding strategies. These market-after-purchase evaluations are supposed to evaluate consumer after purchase decision to understand whether consumers are positively acknowledging the branding strategies (Leading Edge, 2008). Consumer makes important decision after they purchase a product and their evaluations of the product are likely to determine whether they will purchase the product again or not. The evaluation of after sale consumer decision making process has helped the supermarkets to asses the effectiveness of their branding strategies
These are the four key areas in which supermarket have aggressively concentrated on in their home branding strategies. They have been geared to ensure that home branding strategies raises the sales of the supermarket stores.
Reference:
Leading Edge (2008): Branding. Retrieved on 10 th October 2008 from http://www. lead-edge. co. uk/stratmkt/branding. html
