Albertsons Rebrands Private Labels as Signature SELECT
Albertsons Companies, Inc. will rebrand its Signature Farms, Signature Care and Signature Cafe products under one master brand, Signature SELECT, which features a refreshed, modern logo, bold packaging and a new marketing campaign designed to build an emotional connection with customers. The transition to Signature SELECT is under way across stores including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and more, and is expected to be complete in early 2024.
“Signature SELECT is our flagship brand offering shoppers an incomparable assortment of quality products at an incredible value,” said Jennifer Saenz, EVP and chief merchandising officer. “We are incredibly proud of our Signature family of brands and by bringing these sub-brands together under one name, we are building greater brand recognition, driving brand loyalty and creating customers for life.”
Signature SELECT is already the largest brand in the company’s Own Brands portfolio boasting over 8,000 products including packaged salads, ice cream, frozen pizza, coffee, paper goods, pasta, snacks, canned vegetables and fruit as well as ground beef, pork and chicken.
Following the consolidation of Signature Farms’ fresh poultry and produce, Signature Cafe’s deli items and Signature Care’s line of personal and baby products, the master brand will feature the modern Signature SELECT logo with a unified package design across its broad assortment of product categories so shoppers can easily identify the brand throughout the store. To reinforce the quality associated with every Own Brand item, Signature SELECT guarantees 100 percent customer satisfaction or they can receive a full refund of the purchase price.
The Signature family of brands was introduced to the Albertsons portfolio of stores in 2016 following the merger of Albertsons and Safeway. However, the ‘S’ branding dates back as far as the 1960s when Safeway sold products under the ‘S’ brand including milk, bread, ice cream, coffee, jellies, soft drinks, lunch meat, canned fruits and vegetables, frozen foods and paper products. The ‘S’ brand remained a key private label for Safeway until 2012 when the company retired its namesake brand and merged its products under the Safeway Kitchens, Safeway Farms, Safeway Home and Safeway Care brands, which ultimately became the Signature family of brands.
The Signature SELECT consolidation and rebranding follows recent updates to the company’s Own Brands portfolio including the evolution of the O Organics brand and redesign of Open Nature. These brand innovations are supported by a recent survey commissioned by Albertsons Cos. revealing that consumer demand for private labels continues to grow with 93 percent of Americans embracing and expanding their purchases of store brands. Respondents cited price, quality and availability as the main drivers of these purchases with a large number writing in that better taste was a factor when choosing a private label brand.
To celebrate Signature SELECT, the company debuted a new summer campaign appearing now in print, social, online and streaming channels. From family cookouts, backyard brunches, summer treats and more, the creative highlights in-the-moment imagery of how Signature SELECT elevates everyday life with convenient, affordable alternatives to national brands in every aisle – without sacrificing taste or quality.
“When developing the marketing campaign to accompany our expanded Signature SELECT flagship brand, we knew we wanted to celebrate the brand’s virtues of quality, taste, value and convenience,” said Brandon Brown, SVP of Own Brands at Albertsons Cos. “Our Signature creative showcases warm, welcoming scenes that puts the Signature SELECT brand at the center of life’s moments. We’re creating an emotional connection with our customer and showing her how everyday occasions can have their own signature flavor and style.”
Signature SELECT is part of the Own Brands portfolio, which includes trusted household names such as O Organics, Lucerne, Open Nature, Primo Taglio, debi lilly design, waterfront BISTRO, Soleil and Value Corner. Shoppers can find Own Brands products exclusively at Albertsons Cos. stores.
For more news of interest to the private label industry, subscribe to Gourmet News.
