Here’s What the Salad Dressing Aisle Can Teach Us About Brand Blocking and Category Ownership.

What makes one salad dressing brand win over the competition? In this full salad dressing category teardown, we walk the aisles of Super Target to see what works and what doesn’t in brand blocking, color ownership, and form innovation.

Description

Why Hidden Valley commands nearly one-third of the category.
How consistent brand blocks drive instant shopper recognition.
The role of form innovation (cups, mixes, squeeze bottles) in owning a category.
The merchandising quirk that makes packages look “upside down” at shelf.
What challenger brands can learn about staking out color and real estate.

If you’re in CPG, retail, or packaging design, you’ll walk away with actionable insights you can apply to your own product lineup.

Video Transcript

00:00:00 And you come over here. Oh my gosh. What
00:00:03 does this brand have that these other
00:00:05 brands do not? Whoever is doing this
00:00:08 aisle decided to put all the packages
00:00:10 upside down.
00:00:13 Hello everybody. It is Shopping with
00:00:15 Christie and I am taking a look today at
00:00:18 the salad dressing set here at my super
00:00:22 Target in Colorado. A couple things that
00:00:24 I notice and in generally when I'm
00:00:26 looking at a category, one of the first
00:00:28 things I look at is how much real estate
00:00:31 that actual category has. You can
00:00:33 usually actually tell retailers set in
00:00:36 4ft sections. So, it's actually really
00:00:39 easy to see. So, here's one, two, three.
00:00:44 So, that's three 4ft sections. My math
00:00:47 would say that's 12 feet. Thank you,
00:00:49 elementary school math. Anyway, so this
00:00:52 is a 12-oot set and you can see that
00:00:55 generally speaking, it's kind of split
00:00:56 up into three sections. The very first
00:00:59 thing I noticed after the size of the
00:01:01 set is how the set is oriented very
00:01:04 clearly. They have it in brand blocks,
00:01:07 right? You can kind of see. So, I would
00:01:09 say in this world, it is advantageous to
00:01:13 consider owning a particular color.
00:01:16 Those brands are popping much more. You
00:01:18 can see right here, Brianna's, like I
00:01:22 see that brand really, really, really
00:01:23 well. Obviously, Market Pantry, they do
00:01:27 very, very well here. Olive Garden,
00:01:30 that's got that core look. And then
00:01:32 Craft, well, they're not really a brand
00:01:33 block. They just have a huge amount of
00:01:35 Caesar salad there. You know, if I was a
00:01:37 brand here, I would consider going into
00:01:40 more of a brand block look. Just a
00:01:42 thought for people. I mean, even here,
00:01:44 you can kind of see Skinny Girl. I know
00:01:47 that this brand doesn't do as high
00:01:48 volume, but at least it kind of you see
00:01:50 boom boom boom three SKs pretty clearly.
00:01:53 I think the other thing I want to point
00:01:54 out is again if you think about the real
00:01:56 estate of the category 1 2 3 that's
00:01:59 three 4ft sets that's 12 ft and you come
00:02:02 over here. Oh my gosh. I actually
00:02:06 already talked about ranch and America's
00:02:08 love affair with ranch in another video
00:02:10 recently, but look at this. Hidden
00:02:12 Valley Ranch has just crushed it. You
00:02:15 know, it's got almost an entire third of
00:02:19 the category. And I'm not even sure who
00:02:21 owns this by the makers of Hidden
00:02:23 Valley. Like, how did these three SKs
00:02:25 get here? Who owns this brand? Craft
00:02:27 Hinds. Oh, so I don't know how they got
00:02:30 three little products in here, but they
00:02:32 did. Good job, Craft Hinds. Anyway,
00:02:34 Hidden Valley has almost an entire third
00:02:36 of a set. And I would argue probably one
00:02:39 of the reasons for that is what does
00:02:42 this brand have that these other brands
00:02:44 do not? two things. Number one, I think
00:02:46 a fairly consistent brand block, just
00:02:48 like I was talking about earlier, this
00:02:51 stands out. You know, it's one brand.
00:02:52 It's got that green look, that sort of
00:02:55 ranch visual that's very distinctive to
00:02:57 them. And then the second thing that
00:02:58 this brand has more of than anyone else
00:03:01 is form innovation. If there is a way to
00:03:04 get ranch or use ranch, they're going to
00:03:07 offer it. They are just owning ranch.
00:03:09 And we know that about this brand. They
00:03:11 could have gone out into other flavors.
00:03:13 And they do have variations on ranch.
00:03:15 You can see here, right? Here's spicy.
00:03:18 This is dairyf free. That's fine. Oh,
00:03:21 this is like a This is upside down
00:03:22 Chipotle ranch, but you get the idea.
00:03:24 But it's always ranch. And so whether
00:03:26 it's your multi-erve bottle, your huge
00:03:28 squeeze bottle, your medium bottle, you
00:03:30 know, regular sort of what we all know
00:03:33 as standard, you know, dressing bottles
00:03:35 here with a flip top. That's nice. Look
00:03:37 at that. Seasonings and dip mix. Here's
00:03:39 cup. You don't want to make your own?
00:03:40 Here we are. We already did it, right?
00:03:41 Grab and go kind of snack cups and then
00:03:44 even recipe mixes, dip mix. I mean,
00:03:46 they're telling you right here, infinite
00:03:48 possibilities. That is the story to me
00:03:51 of Hidden Valley Ranch. Love it. I have
00:03:54 like a love affair with this brand right
00:03:55 now. The other thing that you'll notice,
00:03:57 and I actually saw it over here, too, is
00:03:59 for some reason whoever merchandised
00:04:02 these products here, whatever person
00:04:04 stocked it or maybe they just did a
00:04:06 reset cuz boy does it look nice. It
00:04:08 seems like the store is putting the
00:04:10 products upside down if it's in a
00:04:12 squeeze bottle. You can see it right
00:04:14 here. Literally, boy, that would drive
00:04:16 me nanners and does as a marketer and
00:04:19 someone who now has gone deep, deep,
00:04:20 deep into packaging and graphics. So, I
00:04:23 don't know if this is an anomaly or if
00:04:24 all super targets are doing it. Look,
00:04:26 Hen Valley's like that. Let's see.
00:04:28 There's another example.
00:04:35 And it's over here, too. You can see not
00:04:37 these little minis for whatever reason,
00:04:39 but here you can see Best Foods Helman's
00:04:41 mayonnaise upside down. Upside down. So,
00:04:44 whoever is doing this aisle decided to
00:04:47 put all the packages upside down. All
00:04:49 right, this is making me very hungry for
00:04:52 salad and very hungry for ranch. So, I'm
00:04:55 going to buy more ranch cuz that's how
00:04:56 much I love it. Okay, bye everybody.

Christy Lebor Partner & Head of Brand Development, SmashBrand

15 Articles

Christy Lebor is a Partner and Head of Brand Development at SmashBrand, a premier brand development agency championing the FMCG space. With two decades of Fortune 500 CPG experience, Christy harnesses her background from industry titans to infuse brands with a growth trajectory that transitions them from category disruptors to legacy brands.

Her portfolio includes:

Brand management roles at global giants: Kraft, PepsiCo, and Unilever.
Launching pivotal products: Axe Body Wash in the US and the original Dove Campaign for Real Beauty at Unilever.
Steering innovative product lines at PepsiCo: Gatorade chews, protein bars, Mio Fit, and Amino Energy.
Pioneering breakfast innovations at KraftHeinz: Just Crack an Egg
Leading the branded business segment and global innovation at JBS, the world's largest meat company in the world.

Prior to her tenure at SmashBrand, Christy's track record spans various senior management and development roles. Each role has honed her expertise in the intricacies of FMCG, enabling her to cultivate category advantages for brands. From SKU rationalization to directing pivotal innovation stage gates, Christy's acute expertise in FMCG has consistently placed her at the forefront of the industry. Her ability to make incisive, strategically sound decisions has been key in propelling brands to market leadership.

Her philosophy pivots on the principle that timely, relevant data, integrated with brand strategy, is the linchpin for brands aspiring to scale and establish market dominance. At SmashBrand, Christy intricately weaves this philosophy, ensuring brands are not just strategically poised but holistically developed.

Educationally, Christy is equipped with a BBA from The University of Michigan Business School, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, and additional prowess in Private Equity and Venture Capital from Harvard Business School.

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