We Play in Traffic

Target just replaced its Target brand of core commodities with the Up & Up brand.  I’m a believer in the benefits of private label, but I don’t get this one.

Private label at retail can do so many things. It can allow a retailer to capture a higher margin than a “store brand.”  It can help a retailer sell in a category where its core brand may not have the cache the target wants to display (Target does this well with Merona).  It can create a competitive difference because your store is the only place to get the private label brand.

But to replace a store brand that is highly regarded in a category where that brand likely has positive meaning with a brand that has no meaning (and an odd-although-I’m-sure-they-have-research-that-says-its-great name) seems risky.  Maybe even foolish.

In its press release, Target suggests that this move helps them reintroduce 130 products that have been reformulated or enhanced of 800 they sell in this category.  Up & Up will “deliver low prices and great quality with an expanded product selection and a unique new design.”  Take away the unique new design and isn’t that what I expect of the Target brand?

Let’s assume I’m a Target shopper, and I have bought Target branded products for some time.  Now I go in the store and those products are gone, replaced by this unknown thing called Up & Up.  What is it?  Are the prices the same as the Target product (which is now gone, so I can’t compare)?  Is it the product that has performed well for me in the past (I don’t know because it’s an unknown brand)?  Up & Up?  Isn’t that a phrase that suggests something that is trying to overcome deception (as in “being on the up and up”)?  And, am I going to prefer Up & Up products in these categories anymore than I preferred the Target brand; if I didn’t buy private label to start with, I’m probably not going to buy this new, unknown private label?

So, now what does Target sell under the Target brand?  Anything?

This feels a bit like “new Coke” to me, when some people preferred Pepsi over Coke and the solution seemed to be to throw out Coke and introduce a new brand.  Throw out Target because… its baby wipes weren’t up to snuff?  Its paper plates weren’t quite good enough?

They folks in Minneapolis are smarter than me.  They must be; they’ve created successes I’ve only written about.  But this one has me stymied.  Looking forward to seeing how it plays out.