There’s a shift going on in the retail world. Where once manufacturers competed against one another for consumer loyalty, today they face sharp competition from retailers, the very places that stock their brands. To give an example, there was a time when rivals such as Pepsi and Coca Cola viewed each other as their main competition, but today on the supermarket shelf the big two often stand beside a brand of soda bearing the retailer’s own label. In the region we can see the phenomenon in supermarkets such as Monoprix or Spinneys, where consumers can find the retailer’s private label next to similar global brands. In Europe generic label brands have won high profile recognition, but in the Middle East, retailers often adopt a more low-key approach to their store brands. This can make it hard for consumers to recognize the product’s origin and attributes, compounded further by weak marketing
