Managing Product Lines

Many companies have multiple products and brands and now even more department stores and groceries stores are beginning to create their own brands as well as supplying other well known brands. These are known as private-label brands which are text defines as "brands that are owned and sold by a certain retailer or distributor." In my own shopping I have come across many examples of this and the same things seem to be true. Private-label brands are often times less expensive than the products they compete with while they look/taste the same. Still people are hesitant to purchase them for some reason.

New Products and Innovations

In this chapter we discussed products and the need to always be constantly innovating. One of the terms listed in the chapter was "staples" which are "basic or necessary items that are available almost everywhere. In the apparel industry an example of a staple item would be a white cotton t-shirt. These can be found anywhere from Wal-mart to Nordstrom and in a wide range of prices. Items such as these are straight re-buys for buying centers and are often made automatically by computer when the inventory is getting low. For each season that same t-shirt may be modified for that seasons trending colors and placed in retail stores. This requires little effort from the buying center yet is an easy way to innovate.