7-Eleven Stocks Up With Private Label

Stacy Straczynski of Brandweek reports that 7-Eleven is diving further into the private label sector. The convenience chain this week announced the expansion of its 7-Select private label line to include 15 bakery-type snack products.

The new products include mini-donuts: Powdered sugar (six-pack and 10-ounce bag), chocolate frosted (six-pack and 10-ounce bag), and crunch (six-pack). The other additions are chocolate cupcakes, gold creme cakes, apple snack pies, cherry snack pies, iced honey buns and glazed honey buns. Several kinds of danishes round off the lineup, including iced cheese, iced cherry cheese, iced apple, and bear claw varieties.

What strategy could 7-Eleven use to introduce their private label goods to their target audience?

Private-Label Sales Up 7.4%

CSPnet.com reports that private-label sales are up 7.4% with a strong emphasis on food products. The Nielsen Co. Its study, "U.S. Store Brand Development," found that both private-label dollar and unit sales significantly increased for the 52-week period ending July 11, 2009 versus the prior year.

"When categories are sorted by store brand share, from high to low, some patterns emerge," said Todd Hale, senior vice president of Consumer & Shopper Insights at Nielsen, New York. "Store brand performance and share is strongest in commodity categories. Milk, fresh eggs, sugar and substitutes and canned vegetables top the list. Where store brand share is the lowest is among categories where we see strong marketing support for top brands including candy, gum, beer and those where a high-level of innovation occurs like detergents, deodorant and cosmetics."

Join us this October in Chicago for The Private Label Impact Conference.

Private-Label Sales Up 7.4%

Driving Loyalty through Mobile Marketing

Jeff Weidauer, vice president of marketing, Vestcom International writes in Convenience Store News that we must use mobile marketing in order to keep shopper's focused during this economy. Weidauer refers to mobile marketing as "a virtual extension of the shelf edge." Weidauer also writes, by making use of this nearly ubiquitous way to communicate, convenience stores now have the opportunity to turn a simple communication device into an indispensable shopping aid that extends the shelf edge directly into the shopper’s hand. Mobile applications are poised to be the future of how retailers will communicate with shoppers in a way that’s most convenient for them.

How do you think that convenience store shoppers will utilize mobile marketing to their advantage? Will adding mobile rewards, games and discounts be the trick to gaining and keeping customers?