Brand Power: how to win when own-label gets serious

The aisles have changed, and consumer thinking along with it. They are no longer just undercutting on price but learning the language of design, convenience and quality. Which means brands can’t rely on being “the brand” and expect shoppers to quietly fall in line.

This was the spark behind our latest Ignite Webinar, Brand Power: How to win the battle against own-label, which was hosted by our Senior Strategist, Bella Ali-Khan and joined by fantastic guests:

• Adrian O’Brien from Lucozade,
• Jessie Kenneth from Pip & Nut,
• Rebecca Denne from Belazu.

The session explored what food and drink brands can do when own-label becomes a serious challenger, not just a cheaper alternative.

The Ignite Webinar Series is our thought leadership platform for practical, honest conversations around the big challenges facing brands today. This time, the question was simple: when price sensitivity is rising and retailers are backing their own ranges, how do brands stay meaningfully different?

The answers from this session and the insights from our guests were encouraging as own-label isn’t winning everywhere.

Yes, value matters. The proportion of UK customers willing to switch to cheaper brands rose to 72% in 2025, up from 68% the previous year(1). But the bigger learning was that brands are still growing where they know how to win.

So, what did we take away that can help you succeed?

1. Obsess over real lives and occasions

To become part of someone’s habitual shop, brands need to respond to real moments, not abstract “consumers” with laminated personas that fall into neat persona boxes.

People don’t buy in a strategy deck. They buy in the weeknight rush, the lunch-at-desk scramble, the post-gym refuel, the “we’ve got people coming over in 20 minutes” panic, or the little “treat myself” moment that keeps the day from falling apart.

That means brands need to know exactly when they matter. What job are you doing in that moment? Are you delivering speed, comfort, health, discovery, status, reassurance, joy? The more clearly you understand the occasion, the more sharply you can shape your proposition, pack, messaging and comms around it.

It also requires a little humility. Sometimes brands get too mighty about how much mental space people are giving them. Most shoppers are not standing in the aisle waiting to decode your full brand architecture. They are making fast, emotional, practical decisions. Help them. Don’t make them work for it.

2. Stack a product edge on a brand edge

A strong product matters. Obviously. But product reasons-to-believe can be copied.

Clean ingredients, no palm oil, functional benefits, better sourcing, improved recipes. These are important, but once a category proves demand, own-label can often move fast. What begins as a point of difference can become a point of parity. The thing that was once special becomes the thing everyone now says in six-point type on the back of pack.

Brand meaning is harder to steal.

That’s where the most resilient brands build a double edge: a product truth and a brand truth that reinforce each other. Belazu’s credibility in Michelin-starred kitchens, hotels and neighbourhood cafés gives its products a story own-label cannot simply borrow. Pip & Nut’s playful personality makes its health credentials feel human, not worthy. Lucozade’s challenge, as Adrian put it, is not to assume the same product can keep selling forever, but to keep building culture around the product function.

The challenge for any brand is simple: if own-label matched your product specs tomorrow, what would still make you worth more?

3. Build and repeat a distinctive brand code

People eat with their eyes. They shop with them too.

Distinctive brand assets are not decoration. They are shortcuts. Your colours, character, icon, tone of voice, visual style, pack architecture, origin story, content, these are the cues that help people find you quickly and remember you later.

The temptation, especially inside a brand team, is to change things because you are bored of them. But internal boredom is not the same as external fatigue. What feels repetitive to you may only just be starting to land with shoppers.

The smart move is to understand what is already sticking. Research what gives you mental availability. Find the two or three assets that people genuinely recognise, then commit to them with glorious stubbornness. Use them on pack, in-store, on social, in paid media, in shopper, in trade. Not as a museum piece, but as a living system.

Great brands don’t reinvent themselves every quarter. They build memory.

4. Reframe the retailer conversation

When retailers have strong own-label ranges, asking them to stock your brand because “we’re great” is unlikely to set the room on fire. The better conversation is about the category problem.

What is the retailer losing without you? Where is own-label underperforming? Where is premium growing? Where is the shopper need not being met? Where is there incremental value that your brand can unlock?

For example, Belazu looks at the categories they operate in and how they help retailers expand and grow into new segments, new consumer needs.

That shift matters. It moves the conversation from brand defence to commercial growth. It shows you understand the greater landscape and shows your brand as a category builder, not just another logo asking for space.

So, what does brand power really mean?

Brand power is not shouting louder than own label. It is knowing where you win, why people care, what only you can credibly own.

• It’s the discipline of building meaning around product advantage.
• It’s consistency when everyone else is chasing novelty.
• It’s packaging that works hard, positioning that earns its place, and communications that make value feel clear rather than claimed.

Own label will keep getting better, that’s not going away. But strong brands still have the tools to win, especially when they stop fighting on price and start building around real human behaviour, distinctive assets and proof.

If your brand needs help sharpening its position, strengthening its design system, rethinking packaging or building communications that make people care, we’d love to help.

Get in touch with Catch A Fire and let’s build the kind of brand that own-label can’t copy.

Watch the full Ignite Webinar below 👇

Sources:

1 – https://www.askattest.com/our-research/2026-uk-consumer-trends-report