Frequently asked questions
Retailers are investing in the look, not just the price. Walmart is redesigning about 10,000 Great Value items over two years, Target’s owned brands are nearing $4 billion each, and premium tiers are now roughly 40% of private-label spend (Numerator). The old visual gap that separated national brands from store brands is closing, so the pack has to work harder to justify a price premium.
US store-brand sales reached a record $282.8 billion in 2025, up about $9 billion year over year, growing 3.3% against 1.2% for national brands (PLMA, using Circana data). More than 80% of US consumers rate private-brand food quality as the same or better than national brands (McKinsey).
Audit your distinctiveness (can a shopper name you with the logo covered?), make the reasons to pay more physical rather than on-screen, and pressure-test the pack against the actual store brand in production-matched form before committing to production. The premium has to be legible in the hand, which is where the shopper decides.
Only if it makes the brand more recognizable, not less. Only about 15% of brand assets are truly distinctive (Ipsos and Jones Knowles Ritchie), and a decade of minimalist redesigns spent a lot of that down. The goal is to protect the assets shoppers use to find you while making the premium visible, then prove it physically before it ships.