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.
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‘Modern-Day Supper Club’ Grace by Nia Opens in Boston
Three of Boston’s award-winning business leaders in the hospitality and entertainment sector — Nia Grace, owner of Darryl’s Corner Bar & Kitchen and The Underground Café & Lounge and Ed Kane and Randy Greenstein, owners of Big Night Entertainment Group — have joined forces to open Grace by Nia, a modern-day supper club for which Eastern Bank is providing financing. Opened on May 11 in Boston’s Seaport District, Grace by Nia puts a new twist on the supper club concept, featuring over 5,000 square feet of restaurant and live entertainment space, a Southern soul-infused menu and a stage for live jazz music. Eastern Bank provided the term loan for the lease-hold improvements to support the build-out of the space.
Darryl’s Corner Bar & Kitchen and Big Night Entertainment Group have been customers of Eastern Bank, and this newest financing helps to expand the reach of their business owners in one of Boston’s most dynamic and thriving neighborhoods.
“With this latest concept, Nia and Big Night Entertainment Group are reinventing a part of the local hospitality and entertainment sector and importantly expanding diversity of business ownership in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood,” said Bob Rivers, CEO and chair of the board of Eastern Bank. “We are proud to support these leading entrepreneurs as they break down barriers and bring greater diversity, inclusivity and vibrancy to this area of Boston.”
Grace said, “Eastern Bank understands the value of supporting women business leaders whose different perspectives create greater innovation and diversity in our economy, and we appreciate the time their team has taken to deeply understand what we are launching and to support me as one of the first women of color to open a hospitality business in the Seaport.”
Kane said, “Through the years, we have worked with Eastern Bank for financing our restaurant and entertainment concepts across the region. They’re always available to talk through ideas and loan scenarios, and we are excited to work with them again as we launch Grace by Nia.”
Eastern Bank provides a range of commercial financing offerings to help companies across many industries to improve cash flow, increase efficiencies and build for the future. Commercial lending solutions include working capital/lines of credit, equipment/term loans, real estate loans, acquisition financing, asset-based lending and employee stock ownership plan-related financing.
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Doctors Group Files Complaint Over ‘Wood Milk’ Ad
In April, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service approved an ad that features “The White Lotus” actress Aubrey Plaza mocking plant milk. But the now-viral “Wood Milk” ads violate laws forbidding federal agricultural promotions from depicting products in a negative light, according to a complaint filed with the USDA Office of Inspector General by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit public health advocacy organization.
Using a fictitious product named “Wood Milk” as a stand-in for plant-based milks, the ads deride plant-based milks.in
The “Wood Milk” campaign violates the statutory prohibition against advertising that is “false or misleading or disparaging to another agricultural commodity” and the regulatory prohibition against “unfair or deceptive acts or practices with respect to the quality, value or use of any competing product,” the Physician Committee’s complaint says.
It also violates a federal law that says USDA milk advertising dollars can’t be used to influence legislation or government action or policy. On Feb. 23, the FDA announced new proposed guidelines that would allow plant-based milks to be labeled using the word “milk.” The agency invited the public to submit comments by April 24, before final guidelines would be established. The “Wood Milk” ad campaign was launched before that comment period closed. On May 1, the comment period was extended to July 31. The “Wood Milk” campaign has run continuously since then.
The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service administers the federal commodity promotion and research programs, commonly referred to as “checkoff” programs. The USDA approves all “checkoff” advertising and is responsible for reviewing and verifying all nutritional claims.
The Physician Committee’s complaint requests that the Office of Inspector General issue a recommendation that the “Wood Milk” ads stop and that the milk “checkoff” issue corrective advertising that explains the benefits of plant-based milks.
“The ‘checkoff’ is a government program,” said Physicians Committee President Neal Barnard, MD, FACC, adjunct professor of medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine. “It is one thing for it to promote cow’s milk. It is quite another thing to mock the products that many nonwhite Americans choose for health reasons.”
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