Package Design | packagedesignmag.com

(July 2009) posted on Sat Oct 10, 2009

By Perry Seelert

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There is an excitement in the air about retail brands and reinventing "private label," and there is lots of speculation about whether or not the economy will create a permanent shift in consumer behavior. I, for one, think our current behavior is a temporary phenomenon. Very quickly our memories will be erased and even cyclical demand in many categories will overwhelm our so-called "passion for thrift" and suppressions of the moment.

We are creatures of our current means and current culture, and the media is even a more Pavlovian driver than ever, so having just experienced the greatest recession in 80 years, now look out for the greatest bounce back. And what would this mean for retail brands? It will mean that most retailers have missed their biggest strategic branding opportunity of a lifetime.

I do think there are some select retailers whose more emotional, strategically considered retail brands will remain preferred by shoppers—even when the economy starts to recover—and one of them that is successfully breaking the mold is A&P. It is ironic that A&P, the first national supermarket chain in the U.S. and the first to launch their own brands in 1880, is again redefining the industry with powerful new retail brands.

The A&P supermarket chain dominated the U.S. food retail industry in the 1950s with about 75% of the market share. The company that introduced one of the first premium store brands, Master Choice, is now introducing three premium brands—Hartford Reserve, Via Roma, and Green Way. Hartford Reserve products, named after cofounder George Huntington Hartford, are the updated Master Choice lines, while Via Roma and Green Way are completely new product lines.

Italian authenticity

Via Roma, functionally, was about creating an authentic Italian product line for a retailer that has key hubs in New York and Philadelphia, where there is truly a love of Italian food. Via Roma, emotionally, creates an immediate visceral response that is palpable and unmistakable. Underlying all of it is a style of portrait photography that isn't afraid to show off people's real personalities.

To be real, we knew we could not achieve the emotional authenticity we were looking for from a local casting call, actors, or even stock images. So we took our photo shoot to Tuscany, to the village of Lucignano, where we got the entire community deeply involved, even caring about the brand outcomes.