Let’s begin with defining a private label. Typically, it is a retailer’s house brand. Craftsman is a well know Sears brand. Sears is not a manufacturer, so the Craftsman products were other brands cosmetically enhanced to have the brand color and badge of Craftsman. GE appliances and Milwaukee Power Tools are two of the major brands that provided Sears “private labeled” products.

Bloomindale's and Cotton rolled out a 1-minute interactive video giving shoppers a fashion show experience. Using a celebrity host and targeting Gen Z, the virtual runway featured young models on the cat-walk in a variety of outfits that the viewer could purchase with a call-to-action button.

First and foremost, people are willing to pay for the best. If you already have a strong brand reputation for luxury products it is easier to launch additional products. When you are an unknown brand you have to build a “high end” image and reputation. Existing brands moving into luxury category have a head start but still have to consider how to effectively add the luxury price category to their reputation.

Great brands build it. Weak brands destroy it.

It only takes an instant. A customer sees your product package, website, maybe a post and immediately makes a judgment on your brand based solely on that single experience.

That one instantaneous judgment can result in loss of credibility. All the hours and money invested in creating the product is wasted. It’s a fact of business.

The end of the year is soon upon us. Retailers everywhere are ramping up for the holidays, which for some translates to a third of their annual sales total, and the online retail space is no exception. Indeed, last years’ Black Friday and Cyber Monday generated $7.9 billion in sales to become the biggest online shopping experience in US history. This coupled with the multiple holidays during October through December make Q4 a prime time to realize some serious profits.

Some call this defining your “customer persona”.

Few products and services are so specialized that they have only one target audience.

Yet many brands -- in an attempt to stretch budgets -- use one general message which reaches too broad of an audience. This creates a diluted message that delivers lower ROI than if it was targeting the single best customer.

Immediately you think of the old loyalty programs, earning points to get a reward. That’s part of what this is about. How does Starbucks and Chic-Fil-A have such loyal of repeat customers that will only buy one brand of coffee and drive an extra mile to get to Chic-Fil-A? These customers want more than convenience.