Upping the ante on store brands

The Target bullseye logo enjoys awareness comparable to Nike’s swoosh and McDonald’s golden arches, but the retailer abandoned its iconic logo in favor of an unproven creation that adorns the recently launched up & up brand. Not that there is anything wrong with the graphics or color scheme of the newly created logo, but Target’s bullseye is one of the company’s greatest assets and rather than leverage that equity an effort is being made to build a new brand from scratch.

According to the company, up & up products have been phasing into stores since March and by the end of September more than 800 everyday essential products will be present in 40 categories including household, healthcare, beauty, baby, and personal care. Nearly 100 of the items are brand new for 2009, including a few new categories such as cotton balls and swabs, laundry detergent and baby food. The launch of up & up is taking place at the same time as Walmart is relaunching its Great Value brand.

“By re-launching Target brand as up & up, we’re able to create a unique identity for this powerful owned brand,” said Mark Schindele, SVP merchandising. “The new packaging incorporates an element of design, giving us the opportunity to deliver on both the ‘expect more’ and ‘pay less’ sides of our brand promise.”

According to Target, it consistently reevaluates its owned brands to ensure they meet customer expectations and before introducing up & up, Target reviewed more than 4,000 guest comments on the quality and performance of its store-brand products. This resulted in the reformulation or enhancement of more than 130 products in the line. Additionally, a third-party testing facility examined a majority of the Target brand products for characteristics such as flavor, aroma, ease of opening packaging and appearance. These tests helped to guarantee that up & up products are equal in quality to national brands.