Melinda Deines

How Supermarket Brands Can Make Grocery Shopping Fun

Brand Engagement, Brand Strategy / Melinda Deines

Grocery retailers fared better than most through the past five years: despite the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, global conflicts, and inflation, supermarkets are thriving. People need to eat, so it could be assumed supermarkets are invulnerable. However, two key factors suggest otherwise. Firstly, competition intensifies with international discount brands, with Lidl and Aldi entering North […]

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How Legacy Brands Can Become Relevant Again

Brand Strategy / Melinda Deines

Widely popular brands can become yesterday’s news for a variety of reasons. Trends change, and new brands disrupt old ones. Established perceptions that once drove growth can become detrimental. Some companies throw in the towel and decide to start from the bottom up. But, creating a new brand from nothing is even more difficult than

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How Packaging Claims Can Gain Consumer Trust and Why

Packaging Design / Melinda Deines

When customers are shopping for groceries, they make decisions quickly about what to buy. Most of the items they select will be regular, habitual choices. This makes it harder for brands to capture new shoppers. Front-of-pack design is the last opportunity brands have to make an impression. A visually arresting design catches the eye and

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The Future of Shrinkflation for CPG Brands

Brand Strategy, Packaging Design / Melinda Deines

During 2023, a strategy that CPG brands have been using for a long time made headlines, and some customers were concerned about it. You guessed it: shrinkflation. After years of going relatively unnoticed, the practice of hidden price changes is in the spotlight. As grocery prices rose an average of 11% in 2023, customers, journalists,

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How will AI be Regulated? What Brands Need to Know

Brand Strategy, Communications, Organizations, Retail, Thought Leadership / Melinda Deines

Lawmakers around the world are scrambling to regulate advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The European Union (EU) recently passed the Artificial Intelligence Act, while President Biden has signed several executive orders regarding advanced AI. Canada’s Bill C-27, not yet passed, attempts to regulate AI but has come under heavy criticism for being insufficient. As retail

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Building Brand Trust in an Age of Deep Fakes, Bot Factories & Angry AI

Brand Strategy / Melinda Deines

In 2021 we launched a consumer study series to understand how misinformation impacted consumers. We discovered that despite an emerging skepticism, there was a high level of optimism as the pandemic appeared to be subsiding and life was finally “returning to normal.” Today, inflation, the war in Ukraine, climate-related extreme weather, and political division unfolding

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Breaking Category Norms: 6 Brands That Went Against The Flow

Brand Strategy, Digital Experiences / Melinda Deines

In the world of brand strategy, there are norms in each category that are considered to be the wisdom of the day. These rules are in flux, responding to changing market dynamics and consumer expectations, but it is uncommon for brands to deviate from norms. Occasionally, however, someone decides to go against the flow. In

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Theft versus Experience: A Behavioral Approach to Self-Checkouts

Retail / Melinda Deines

Self-checkouts should be working better than they do. Although consumers are warming up to them, theft related to a cashier-less experience is so extreme that some retailers are pulling them out. Others are amping up deterrence measures, but many of these practices are rubbing consumers the wrong way. Is there a better approach? In this

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How to Enter Retail for DTC Brands

Retail / Melinda Deines

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands have disrupted retail with unique niche offerings, greater convenience, and great savings. By rethinking simple products like shaving cream and razors, giants like Dollar Shave Club shook things up. Their success has inspired a sea of entrants into almost every category, driving up the costs of customer acquisition online and making it

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Behavioral Tools for Sustainable CPG Choices

Food and Beverage / Melinda Deines

Consumer research tells us shoppers want sustainable CPG products and will even pay more for them. However, as many brands know from experience, consumers don’t always follow through on this intent. In this blog we take a behaviorally informed view to explore the reasons consumers may not actually purchase more sustainable choices, even though they

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