The Branding Lessons Hiding in the Egg Aisle Every CPG Brand Should Know

What does the egg aisle really reveal about shelf strategy, brand equity, and consumer messaging? In this video, we break down a real-world category walkthrough—highlighting what brands like Vital Farms and Eggland’s Best get right, where private label falls short, and how packaging decisions impact perception, preference, and purchase.

Description

Eggs are among the most purchased items in grocery stores, which is exactly why brand differentiation is so hard to sustain. When the majority of shelf space is owned by private label, the category signals sameness before a shopper even starts comparing options. In that environment, brand value has to be earned deliberately.

What stands out in the egg aisle is how uneven the brand development process is across players. Some brands use packaging, structure, and messaging to actively explain why their eggs are different and why that difference matters. Others rely on familiar category language, organic, cage-free, grain-fed, without making those attributes visually or emotionally distinct. When that happens, even meaningful investments disappear into the background.

A telling example is the quiet shift to cage-free across an entire private-label assortment. The change represents a major operational and ethical commitment, yet it’s communicated so subtly that many shoppers never register it. From a brand standpoint, that’s a missed opportunity to influence choice and reconsideration. If the benefit isn’t immediately visible, it doesn’t factor into the decision.

The contrast becomes clearer when looking at brands that treat packaging as part of the product experience. Stronger brand development examples extend beyond graphics into structural choices, owned symbols, and consistent cues that reinforce quality at every touchpoint, even on the egg itself. These details add up, especially in a category with high household penetration and frequent purchase cycles.

Ultimately, brand development cost isn’t just about materials or marketing spend. It’s about whether those investments actually help a shopper understand why one option is worth choosing over another. Even in a commodity category, clarity, relevance, and intentional design can shift perception and behavior one carton at a time.

Want a data-driven branding strategy to make your brand stand out? Contact us now!

Video Transcript

00:00:00 There's tons of room for marketing
00:00:01 messaging here. Wait a minute. Literally
00:00:06 all of these. There's two different
00:00:07 strategies going on here.
00:00:12 Hey everybody, it's Shopping with
00:00:13 Christy. Today I'm going to talk to you
00:00:15 about the egg category, which is a
00:00:17 category that's been a lot in the news
00:00:19 recently. Do we all remember when eggs
00:00:21 were like you just s your arm and a leg
00:00:24 to get some eggs? Well, now it's a
00:00:25 little better, but there's still quite a
00:00:27 bit of innovation in the set. I want to
00:00:29 talk to you about it. So, here you go.
00:00:31 This is the egg set at my local Kroger.
00:00:35 Here in Colorado, we call it King
00:00:37 Supers. But always, always, always when
00:00:39 I'm looking at a category, the very
00:00:40 first thing is I get a layer of the land
00:00:43 visually in terms of real estate. One of
00:00:45 the things I'm noticing is that actually
00:00:48 over there and then on the bottom, you
00:00:50 know, it's one, two, three, four full
00:00:53 sets of coolers, but let's call it two
00:00:56 and a half of a cooler. One, two and a
00:00:58 half is actually the Kroger brand
00:01:01 itself. That's a lot. Actually, probably
00:01:03 more cuz this bottom is simple truth as
00:01:05 well, which is a Kroger brand. So, let's
00:01:07 call it 2/3, maybe even 34s of the real
00:01:10 estate in this category is private
00:01:11 label. That's usually a very clear sign
00:01:13 that a category is more of a
00:01:15 commoditydriven category. We've had some
00:01:18 wonderful brands, you can see her here
00:01:20 under this banner, come out and push the
00:01:22 industry forward. Vital Farms is one
00:01:25 I've been following for years. I got the
00:01:27 chance actually to talk with the founder
00:01:29 a couple years ago. That was really
00:01:30 cool. But um they're actually publicly
00:01:32 traded, but they really pushed the
00:01:34 category forward in terms of
00:01:35 pasture-raised and this new hybrid
00:01:38 structure carton where you've got
00:01:40 cardboard on the top and then sort of
00:01:42 your standard egg carton on the bottom,
00:01:44 but more again recyclable and
00:01:46 compostable. One thing that's lovely
00:01:47 about them is they've got this wonderful
00:01:49 sort of information on their actual
00:01:52 farms and and hens and things like that.
00:01:55 And there's tons of room for marketing
00:01:56 messaging here. They've done a really
00:01:58 good job. You also have Pete and Gir's
00:02:00 here. Just one skew up here. Uh and then
00:02:02 Organic Valley seems to be out. But
00:02:04 those are the main players. Then you
00:02:06 come over here to the mainstream brand,
00:02:09 Egglund's Best. I got to say, hats off
00:02:12 to the Eggland Egglund best marketers.
00:02:14 They've done a great job um remaining
00:02:17 relevant and pushing their brand. I see
00:02:20 their advertisements on TV. Look at
00:02:22 these beautiful shelf talkers here.
00:02:24 only's best organic. This is something
00:02:27 where I really love one of the best
00:02:29 things about their brand and their brand
00:02:31 execution is that they've created this
00:02:33 distinctive asset of the EB quality
00:02:36 approved EB. In fact, they talk about it
00:02:39 here. It's part of their logo. And in
00:02:41 fact, if anyone's ever bought their
00:02:42 eggs, which I have, they actually have
00:02:44 every single egg stamped with that on
00:02:46 there. That is a wonderful way to signal
00:02:48 to consumers, this is not any old egg.
00:02:50 This is Neglin Best egg. And I I do
00:02:52 think that's really helped them. I
00:02:54 cannot stress enough and I have lots of
00:02:57 stories I'll share another time of other
00:02:58 brands and other categories that have
00:03:00 done it's when you're branding and
00:03:02 you're developing brand [music] equity.
00:03:04 Yes, it's your look and feels your
00:03:06 graphics, but you got to take that all
00:03:07 the way through to your product
00:03:08 experience. And even when you have a
00:03:10 commodity product like an egg, you can
00:03:13 still do things like what Eglund's Best
00:03:15 has done to provide that reminder to
00:03:18 consumers that our eggs are of a
00:03:20 different quality. I want to show you
00:03:22 something that I didn't even notice
00:03:24 until today. I actually usually shop the
00:03:26 organic and specifically pasture-raised.
00:03:29 My little heart can't handle the idea of
00:03:32 chickens cooped up. But over here, I
00:03:35 never noticed this before. I was really
00:03:37 looking at this category today and I
00:03:39 noticed and I would not have noticed it
00:03:40 otherwise. I walked up and I was really
00:03:43 looking at the graphics here. It's like
00:03:44 K tree there and I was like, "Oh, it's
00:03:47 on the side." Wait a minute. Wait a
00:03:50 minute. Literally all of these, like
00:03:54 every single one is cage free. Is all of
00:03:57 Kroger's eggs cage free? Have they gone
00:03:59 100% cage-free? I probably missed a
00:04:02 press release on that. I missed it,
00:04:04 guys. I had no idea that the entire
00:04:06 category went cage-free, at least at
00:04:08 Kroger. And my little call out to Kroger
00:04:11 is maybe for someone like me who's been
00:04:14 shopping the premium set, I do
00:04:16 understand there's a difference between
00:04:17 pasture-raed and cage-free. So, I don't
00:04:19 know that I am going to switch, but cuz
00:04:20 there is a major difference, but still,
00:04:23 I missed this new news and I think it
00:04:25 would have been much smarter. You know,
00:04:27 most people aren't reading CPG industry
00:04:29 news like I am every day, but it would
00:04:31 have been much smarter. I already see
00:04:32 you do multiple printing tones on your
00:04:34 package. Like you have multiple colors.
00:04:36 Multiple color. Multiple color. I would
00:04:39 have made this cage free a different
00:04:41 color. Make it red. America notices red.
00:04:45 Make it orange. Imagine a world where
00:04:48 for your brand that cage-free flag was
00:04:52 red. Boom. Boom. I would have noticed
00:04:54 that right away and it would have caught
00:04:57 my attention and maybe I would have
00:04:58 reconsidered my purchase. I mean, I see
00:05:00 you print red right there. It's right
00:05:02 there. There it is. Why didn't you print
00:05:04 cage-free in a color that would pop?
00:05:05 That's a big investment. That's
00:05:07 something America needs to know. I buy
00:05:09 eggs every week. We eat a lot of eggs in
00:05:10 my house and I would not have known. So,
00:05:12 that's my like big rant to Kroger about
00:05:15 their cage-free eggs. Last thought here
00:05:17 for you guys is this is a fun one. I do
00:05:20 want to talk about these shelf hangers
00:05:22 and and I want to really point out
00:05:24 there's two different strategies going
00:05:25 on here. Their packaging is sort of a
00:05:28 core category packaging. You know, it's
00:05:30 those standard category drivers of it's
00:05:32 natural, it's kry, grain-fed. I guess
00:05:35 that means they're vegetarian fed. That
00:05:37 actually is a thing. Not all birds are.
00:05:38 Isn't that gross? So, that's what that
00:05:40 means. Grainfed. And then they're using
00:05:42 their merchandiser here, you know, shelf
00:05:45 clang or rather a door cling to sort of
00:05:48 elevate and talk equity a little bit.
00:05:50 I'm like, what is Kipster? Next level
00:05:52 cage-free eggs. Scan code to see us in
00:05:56 action and to learn more. This is not
00:05:58 the moment to ask people to like scan a
00:06:00 QR code and learn more. Like, nobody
00:06:02 cares at this moment. They're just
00:06:04 buying their eggs and getting out. And I
00:06:05 also don't know what Kipster is. Maybe
00:06:06 I'm too mainstream to know, but to me,
00:06:09 this was a challenge. Whereas, if you
00:06:11 look at what Vital Farms is doing, this
00:06:13 is a totally different strategy. And
00:06:14 this is a strategy I love. You look at
00:06:17 the packaging, it is eggs, but these
00:06:19 eggs are different. You know, you're
00:06:21 getting eggs, but they're really pushing
00:06:22 on their point of difference. And that's
00:06:23 fine. For me, it worked because I buy
00:06:25 this product so much. I already talked
00:06:26 about it. Egg household penetration is
00:06:28 high enough where you can really build a
00:06:30 really big brand by shouting the point
00:06:31 of difference more so than anything
00:06:33 else. You can do that cuz it's a big
00:06:34 category. So, they're doing that.
00:06:35 They're shouting their point of
00:06:36 difference here on their package, which
00:06:38 is opposite of a simple truth. It's a
00:06:40 more category drivers, category norms,
00:06:42 you know, more so than really looking
00:06:45 different. But then what are they doing
00:06:46 here? Vital Farms is smart enough to
00:06:48 know that in the moment of purchase,
00:06:50 which is literally right here. I mean,
00:06:52 you couldn't get closer to the moment of
00:06:53 purchase. If you're going to have a
00:06:55 moment and you're going to invest in a
00:06:57 advertising vehicle, you should have
00:06:59 something that makes you want to buy
00:07:01 right now. This is not about driving
00:07:03 equity. This is about buy me. Remember,
00:07:05 don't you want eggs? Doesn't this look
00:07:07 delicious? This looks so healthy and
00:07:08 delicious. Start your day with eggs made
00:07:11 with fresh air and sunshine. Ooh, I want
00:07:13 fresh air and sunshine. I want eggs. I
00:07:16 want these eggs. Right? Like boom. It's
00:07:18 driving that category demand. And yes,
00:07:22 whispering your relevancy and why they
00:07:24 should buy you. It's because it's made
00:07:25 with fresh air and sunshine cuz they
00:07:27 don't say it, but they're queuing it
00:07:28 that fresh air and sunshine might get
00:07:30 you eggs that look like that and a meal
00:07:32 that looks like that, which looks
00:07:33 incredibly appetizing. This is what I'm
00:07:35 trying to say to you. Vital Farms has
00:07:37 found a way to connect their point of
00:07:39 difference which is shouted on their
00:07:41 packaging and their packaging is
00:07:43 featured here because now people know
00:07:44 it. But the what they're really saying
00:07:46 here with their shelf talker is this is
00:07:48 going to be delicious. They're shouting
00:07:49 taste which is always a key category
00:07:51 driver for any food category. They're
00:07:53 shouting taste and they're backing it up
00:07:55 and finding a way to link taste to the
00:07:57 point of difference which is which is
00:07:59 sort of this connection to
00:08:01 pasture-raised which you can imagine
00:08:02 pasture-raised gets fresh air and
00:08:04 sunshine. It's a beautiful written. I
00:08:07 have a love affair with this little
00:08:08 shelf talker right here. As you can
00:08:09 tell, I totally get what they're doing
00:08:11 and it's great. All right, that's my
00:08:13 thoughts. Thanks everybody.

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Mary Marnell Director of Content & Marketing

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A seasoned veteran in the CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) industry, Jason Vaught brings a wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience as the director of content and marketing for SmashBrand. His comprehensive role at the forefront of brand communication ensures that CPG brands remain well-informed about the suite of services SmashBrand offers. Furthermore, his insights derived from the company's strategy, design, and testing services are invaluable to brand owners and managers seeking expert guidance.

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