Private labels find no place like home

DSN Retailing Today, Nov 10, 2003

You know that mass market private label has more than arrived when Martha Stewart Everyday appears as a close-out item at Bed Bath & Beyond, as it did one recent autumn day in a New York City store. Broadliners particularly have been honing private and proprietary labels to make inroads with specific demographic groups even as they help drive home sales overall.

In many ways, Kmart pioneered proprietary labels as the central element of home goods operations, first with Martha Stewart Everyday and more recently with Joe Boxer. Around this time, MSE gains even more profile as Kmart launches the Martha Stewart Holiday collection. Despite the woes Martha Stewart Omnimedia is suffering on the publishing side of the business, suppliers say that MSE business has remained consistent and strong, taking into consideration Kmart's scaled down store count.

MSE focuses on more traditional styles, but Kmart built on that, targeting younger audiences with a line of Joe Boxer home products. Now, its launch of the Hispanic-oriented Thalia Sodi collection has helped Kmart focus on Latino consumers.

While the apparel side of the launch may have received the most attention, The Thalia Sodi label graces a significant assortment of home goods. Of about 400 SKUs in the line, some 80 are in home products.

The degree of focus is evident in its rollout strategy. "The Thalia Sodi Collection is in 335 Kmart stores," said Abigail Jacobs, a Kmart spokesperson. Those stores, out of around 1,500 total Kmart locations, were selected based on customer demographics.

These days, Target is probably the most aggressive of the broadliners in using proprietary and private labels in home to position the department and store as fashion forward, offering brands like Martex, Calphalon and Furio--a furniture brand that Target has lately augmented with the rollout of the Facil no-tool-assembly line.

And the beat goes on, and not only in Target's eponymous outlets.

In October, Mervyn's launched an exclusive cookware collection developed with Aaron Sanchez, co-host of the Food Network show "Melting Pot" and chef/owner of Manhattan's Paladar restaurant. Sanchez recently authored the cookbook "La Comida Del Barrio." The cookbook is on sale at Mervyn's 266 locations for $30, along with the 12-item cookware line, which has a price range from $6.99 to $19.99 and is merchandised together with specialized signage at the stores.

The cookbook holds the key to understanding Sanchez's potential appeal, said spokeswoman Jennifer Gordon-Conde. It features dishes he researched in Latin-American neighborhoods, or barrios, throughout the United States. "He really has mass appeal to the Latino community and the market in general," she said. "Everything Latino is cool right now."

So, Sanchez doesn't appeal to just one group among the many that make up the Hispanic community, but reaches across the boundaries based on national backgrounds. With a heavy concentration of stores in California, Mervyn's occupies markets where the Aaron Sanchez cookware line might expect a warm reception. So private and proprietary labels are developed with a range of purposes in mind, among them to focus on key demographic groups, as is the case with the Aaron Sanchez line and the Thalia Sodi collection, as well.