by Richard Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media

As someone who has shopped at various Kroger-owned supermarkets such as City Market, King Soopers, and Kroger itself, I’ve become quite familiar with the various Kroger brands. As the second largest retailer and largest grocery chain in the united states, Kroger has become an expert at building many different brands. In particular, Kroger has a wide variety of ingredient brands.

Of course, you don’t have to be a grocery store to have ingredient branding for your products. Dodge does a similar thing by branding their Hemi line of truck engines. But, Kroger is perhaps the master of creating private label ingredient brands. Here are just a few that my family and I are greatly familiar with and enjoy


Check This Out / PSST!

One of the best value brands that Kroger chain stores carry is Check This Out household items. While I’ve never been impressed with their diapers, household essentials such as bathroom tissue and trash bags are consistently a good deal. These items tend to be a better value than the dollar store equivalents for roughly a dollar or less.

What I like a lot about the Check This Out brand is how direct the name is. With the little owl saying PSST to you as you glance by the shelf, you feel like you’re being let in on a little secret. Indeed, there are certainly some PSST deals to be had at Kroger stores.


Comforts For Baby

One of my favorite baby diaper brands is actually Comforts for Baby. The price is significantly lower than the name brands like Pampers and Huggies and they have actually held up better for my babies and toddlers than the big name brands. They also have a wide array of other baby care products such as infant gas drops and sippy cups for a good price.

What I especially like about the Comforts for Baby brand is the direct message of the name brand. These are products that can offer my babies comfort.  From my experience, Comforts for Baby products actually do, and I’m happy to go out of my way to a Kroger store to buy them when I need them.



Good to Dough

One of Kroger’s newer private label brands, Good to Dough is the Kroger store brand for loaves of bread, hamburger rolls, and hot dog rolls. It was started in May 2018. While it definitely is one of the cornier names for a private label brand, it is actually accurate to the brand’s mission. The concept behind Good to Dough bread is that it’s actually vegan-friendly and contains no high-fructose corn syrup. That’s not the case with most bread products at the dollar price-point. The bread isn’t gourmet, of course, but it’s more than sufficient for making some toast or a quick sandwich. I actually prefer it to a lot of the name brand breads, actually. The no corn syrup is definitely a plus for health, too.


Pet Pride & Luvsome

For our dogs, we’ve been buying the Pet Pride dog food and Luvsome gourmet dog food for years. As many other major dog food brands keep experiencing recalls, I have not seen this happen with the Kroger private label dog foods. In my experience, my dogs have been healthier eating this food than the more common brands. It is not the cheapest dog food, but it is very affordable and well-worth it at the price point.

For our cats we buy the Pet Pride and Luvsome cat foods and use the Pet Pride litters. The Luvsome litters are good, too, but the Pet Pride does the job at a lower price point.

I like these brands because buying Pet Pride makes you feel like you’re actually taking Pride in your Pet and Luvsome is the brand you buy when you want to give them a bit of extra love. This sounds corny, but these ideas really do get into your head when you buy these products on a regular basis.



Simple Truth & Simple Truth Organic

Kroger has been making it a point over recent years to dedicate more and more time to natural and organic foods. By reducing unnecessary ingredients and using organic and non-GMO (genetically modified) ingredients when possible, Simple Truth and Simple Truth Organic foods have become some of my favorites to buy.

The price point of Simple Truth products is usually similar to other natural and organic food brands, but the price is lower enough and the quality good enough that it is worth the small savings. They also offer some snack foods, such as gluten-free crackers, that other brands don’t even offer, at least at a low price point.


So, what’s so special about these private label brands? They each have branding that is direct to the purpose of the brand. These aren’t just your ordinary store brands. Each of these private label brands exist for a specific purpose that shoppers can easily buy into. That’s the power of ingredient branding, turning everyday items into products that clearly add value to your life.

By using this ingredient branding, Kroger has been able to upsell their store brand products. This branding strategy gives shoppers an additional emotional incentive to pinching a few pennies for a product comparable to, and in my experience even superior to, many of their brand name counterparts. So, how can you apply ingredient branding to your own business?


The idea of ingredient branding is that you are giving a label to a product or service that is complementary and consistent with your main brand. But, that product is also a key ingredient to your brand’s success. For example, say you have a software-as-a-service (SaaS) package as your main offering. Then, say you particular premium upgrade in your that adds a lot of value. It’s a lot easier to upsell that upgrade as its own brand.

Really, ingredient branding allows you to brand components and features of your products and services that set you apart from your competition. Not only does branding these ingredients to your success help them become more marketable, but people can get a quick mental and emotional attachment with the branding message before you even explain all the benefits of purchasing that particular brand.

Kroger has really mastered ingredient marketing in the grocery sector. It’s a branding tactic that’s used in many different industries. But, there may be a chance for your business to find your own ingredients to brand.

If you’re looking to take advantage of ingredient branding as part of your brand building strategy, contact a Brand Shaman today!


** The author of this post was in no way compensated by Kroger or any of its subsidiaries in any way for this post. The opinions of this author are entirely his own.

At the end of the day, it’s just you and your brand. You and your brand sleep in the same bed at night, whether it’s been a great day, a mediocre one, or a really, really bad one. You gotta take it home with you.

When you look in the mirror, you should see a reflection of your brand. The brand you create should be a direct extension of you and reflect your values and standards. If it doesn’t, then you and your brand need to have a talk.

But my brand isn’t me, it’s just what I do, right?

Well, what you do is you. If you build a brand, even if it’s not your “personal brand,” it still is personal. At least, it should be.

Really, all a brand is at the end of it all is the idea that other people have of you in their minds. It’s what your business represents. And you should be able to stand behind it one hundred percent.

If you feel that you and your brand are separate entities, you will find it slip away from you. Whether that means it’s going to get sold off sooner or later or outright fail, if you don’t stay connected and in tune with your brand, it’s going to get away from you. It’s going to become out of reach. If it’s a good one, someone will be happy to take it over for you.

So, should my brand and I have a sit-down and chat?

If you feel that you and your brand are out of sync, no matter the reason, yes, you do need to step back and refocus. What are you all about? How can your brand become an extension of what causes and ideas are near and dear to you?

You’ll build a much stronger brand, and become a much better person, by staying true to what you are and letting your brand become a vehicle for those things. While staying true to yourself sounds cliche, people don’t really follow that advice. It’s even more rare that a brand is truly used as a vehicle of self-expression and to further ideas and causes.

Yes, it happens. A lot of those brands are wildly successful, because they are authentic. People like authentic, and people love when you take that authenticity far as you can possibly take it.

Those who are willing to make major sacrifices for their brands are the true Brand Heroes. Those who never let their brands go in exchange for money or stock options or anything are the ones who will topple everyone else in the end.

And those doubters will eat their words when they see your success if you never stop moving and taking your brand with you. Your brand is like your vehicle, and built and driven correctly, it can become a steamroller.

Don’t let it go. Have that conversation with your brand. Know that you and your brand are one in the same. Never give up on your brand and never give up on yourself. Only then will you and your brand truly be in tune and become a force for good and whatever change you want to make in the world.

~ Phoenix <3 ~.

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Personal branding has become more important than ever. It matters in job hunting, freelancing, and building any sort of business – even a side-hustle! On the flip side, company brands are becoming more and more like people all the time. The social media accounts of brands you love – and brands you love to hate – have become their own personalities.

Sure, you still have celebrity endorsements. But more and more, people want to connect with people who are directly connected to a brand. You know, the people that actually work for the brand and build it from within.

This is where interviews can come in handy in bringing personality to a brand. Honestly, I don't think a lot of brands – and people – realize the true value of doing an interview. Not only is it essentially free exposure, but you put a face to your brand, a real person who is completely invested in what your brand stands for.

If you're trying to build your personal brand, building your reputation, and marketing your skills, doing an interview with a venue that has a decent audience can be invaluable. There are many kinds of interviews. They can be done on audio podcasts, in YouTube Videos or Facebook Live chats, or in text form on blogs. Whichever type or types work best for you is fine. They all are effective in their respective ways.

What an interview does is to bring new dimensions to your brand, whether it's your own personal brand (as an author or designer, for example) or to your business – or both, really. Obviously, you want to find an interviewer that asks the right questions. But even interviews with more general questions are fine, as long as you have good answers to give.

You may not think you're that great at giving an interview, but you're probably better than you think. After all, the whole point of an interview is to put you on the spot a bit. You're going to get some unexpected questions and how you answer them can go a long way towards giving people a good impression.

So the best thing about doing an interview? You don't really have to do the research. That's all on the interviewer to do. You just have to answer some questions. Being prepared is good, knowing the interviewer and all that. But your main job is to just be you and answer questions as honestly as you can – within reason, of course. The smarter your answers, the better you and your brand will look, of course.

Think of an interview as a conversation about your brand. Try not to stress about what questions are going to be asked. The whole idea is to come out from behind your brand and put yourself out there. That can be very difficult to do. But the rewards are well worth it. Not only do you get yourself and your brand out in front of new people, but you also bring personality to your brand and give it a face. People like to relate to people, and the more your brand becomes like a person, the more people will want to interact with it.

So, if you have a chance to do an interview, don't delay. The sooner you do it, the sooner you give your brand a new chance to grow!


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"You can observe a lot just by watching." - Yogi Berra

Oh, Yogi, of course, you can observe a lot just by watching!

The great Yogi Berra was an amazing baseball player and later a very good team manager and coach. He's also famous for saying a lot of things. Many of them, often known as "Yogi-isms" seem odd at face value, and many of which seem obvious. However, sometimes if you really think about these "Yogi-isms" you realize that there's more to it.


Observing Means Paying Attention to the Right Things

Actually, what Yogi Berra really meant is that you can learn a lot from observations if you pay attention to the right things. In baseball, as well as football and other sports, there are little things to watch for to give you a competitive advantage. You may have heard of "stealing signs." Indeed, cracking the code to your opponent's coaching signals certainly helps. It's a big deal in American football, too.

Just by watching the social pages, blogs, and other public channels of those companies who are in a related field as you, or even your direct competition, you can learn a lot. Seeing how people interact with other brands can tell you what they might be doing right, or not doing right. You can then adapt some of these things that are working for them to attract the same sort of engagement to your brand.

But beyond just taking cues from your competition, you can learn a lot by observing your own brand's interaction, as well. You can glean valuable insights into what you may or may not be doing correctly just by how people interact with you (or don't). Actually, if people aren't interacting, you may want to consider how you can get them to. In other words, how can what you're putting out there offer more value?


Watching How People Interact With Your Brand Can Give You Clues About What to Do Next

Watching how people interact with your brand should give you an idea if something should work or not work. Obviously, if something you post on your blog or website is getting more views than usual or more likes on social media, then you are doing something right.

Also, it also doesn't hurt to hint at things that you're trying. It's a sort of passive market research. Social media, in particular, is a great place to test out ideas before you commit to them.

But what if your brand is consistently getting no real engagement? What is there to watch, then?

You just have to watch the right things. If your website and/or blog is getting page views, that's something. If people are liking your page, that's something. Engagement isn't always super obvious. But, it's watching the less obvious things that can give you the most important information.

For example, say you have a blog post that consistently gets views when you share it om social media. It could also be a post that gets a lot of search traffic on its own. Obviously, people are attracted to that post. Creating social media content around that post, taking quotes from it, and making attractive images out of them, is one strategy. Sometimes, you can just reshare popular content that doesn't compete with your brand, but complements your brand's values.

The knowledge and insights you need to take your brand in the right direction are likely there already for you to see. You just have to take a step back and observe. Sometimes it's what's not being done by others, or done as well as you could do it, that you end up seeing.

The key to jump-starting your brand may even already be right in front of you!


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Remember the time that Harley Davidson tried their hand at making bike soap? Yeah, that didn't go over so well.

It is very possible for a brand to do too much. Whether it's a personal brand, a company brand, or any kind of brand, people come to expect a certain image. A brand is meant to encapsulate the ideas, concepts, and values your brand stands for. When you step outside those bounds, your brand can take a serious hit.

Most Missteps Won't Kill Your Brand

While not every misstep will destroy your brand – and most won't – you do have to be careful. Whatever you do with your brand, you have to be consistent. If your brand goes and does something out of character, it's going to have a negative impact across your whole brand.

Yes, you can recover. Harley Davidson did, after making a lot of their hardcore fan base mad. And the product is still out there, but they no longer focus on it. So, you can backtrack and be fine. However, don't be the brand who did too much.

One thing that some brands do is try and take advantage of trends. While it's great if you do it right, plenty of brands make some weird choices. But usually, it's one ad campaign or one bad product launch, and you can go back to your brand's strengths and be fine.

But, then, brands take some really huge risks that don't make a lot of sense.

Taking Risks with Your Brand Purely to Take a Risk is Not So Bright

Take, for example, the "crunchless" Doritos for ladies. I'm not sure where that idea came from, and not only was it strange, but the way that they launched was actually kind of offensive. So what, chips are messy? Frito-Lay took a big hit from that.

They actually had an interesting idea, but they launched it very badly, and it came off all sexist. Also, "crunchless" chips is NOT something you would associate with DORITOS. It was just a really bad misstep. But you know what? They're a huge brand. They took a risk, but they'll bounce back.

Most brands, though, can't bounce back from a PR disaster like that. That sort of mistake can actually ruin a brand.

However, sometimes you still have to take risks with your brand, as long as that risk makes sense.

Do Everything You Can with Your Brand... Within Reason

I'd like to draw on a "brilliant" quote from Ashleigh Brilliant: "Not being able to do everything is no excuse for not doing everything you can "

While Ashleigh was not specifically talking about branding in this case, like people, brands can find themselves not doing as much as they can. As long as you are taking your brand in a positive direction, building on your brand's values, it's OK to take risks here and there. But never assume that you can survive taking massive risks that go against what your brand stands for.

So what if you don't want to ruin your brand? Create another brand. Yes, it's actually OK to create spin-off brands. Companies do it all the time, and sometimes the spin-offs even surpass the mothership brand.

Also, if the brand fails, the backlash is not going to be ANYWHERE near as bad as it could be. Sure, people may know your brand was associated with it. But people tend to forget the missteps by a lesser-established brand.

So what's the major take-away here? Make sure that you allow your brand to grow – and occasionally make mistakes – as long as your brand's mission is always clear in view. Advance the concepts, ideas, and values your brand has established.

When You Should Create a Spin-Off Brand

If you really want to create a new direction, build a new brand. It's more work, but the worst that can happen is that brand fails badly and goes away. More likely, you'll create a new brand that brings in a completely different dimension to your business.

Even though brands can appear completely separate to the general public, many companies own several different brands. Some bigger companies own dozens, or even hundreds, of brands. Why? Because if one brand fails, your business still has all those other brands to fall back on.

What if Harley created a new brand for their bike wash products? They could have saved themselves both PR headaches and lost sales. Yeah, Harley-Davidson would have been in the fine print in the commercials and on the bottles. But very few people actually read that. The PR impact may have been completely different. But the decision to use the brand to sell the product did NOT fit and the public responded by backing away from the brand.

And if Frito-Lay had introduced the "Ladychip" as a separate brand entirely, yeah, it would have been slammed. But the new Doritos Blaze chips, which are actually quite good, saved them this time. The Ladychip ad campaign could have ruined the Doritos brand entirely had they not introduced that other on-brand product (And Tyrion Lannister of Game of Thrones, weird as that Super Bowl ad was, didn't hurt.)

So Frito-Lay even knew they were taking a huge risk and took off some of the heat by releasing a solid product around the same time. PepsiCo also introduced a new Mountain Dew drink at the same time with a partnering ad with Morgan Freeman. Not sure how well that went over – it's not selling at my local supermarket, but the Blaze chips are!

Don't Be the Brand Who Did Too Much

The great news is, like Frito-Lay showed, you can bounce back by having a fallback plan whenever you take a risk. Always seek to build your brand, but don't be the brand who did too much.

Harley took a hit and Doritos took an even bigger one. Doritos just had a better comeback.

Don't make the same mistake. But if you do make a brand mistake, make sure it's a "good" mistake. Make sure it fits your brand's overall plan. Otherwise, you will cause some head-scratching, and potentially, lose business.


Want to become a Brand Hero? But, not sure where or how to start? Hire the Brand Shamans and we’ll show you how!

The vibes your brand puts out there are important to your company's success and image. Is your brand representing its true purpose? Does what your brand puts out there truly align with what you envisioned for the company? Do you know your brand's true purpose or does it even have one yet?

Every Brand Needs A Purpose

Does your brand have a purpose? It should! Each brand's purpose is what helps people connect. If there's nothing behind it except a product, people will have a hard time understanding why they want or need it. Does your brand help people in some way? Does it have a unique meaning behind it? Make sure there is a purpose for doing whatever it is your brand or product does.

Your Brand's Purpose Needs To Be Obvious

Not only does your brand need a purpose, but it needs to be very obvious. For instance, if your brand's purpose is to spread the word about a specific cause, that should be evident in everything you do. Logos, blog posts, social media posts, ads, product labels, shipping packages, and anything else put out there by your brand needs to reflect that purpose.

What Vibes Is Your Brand Representing?

Are you sending out mixed messages or vibes? Does your brand truly represent what you want it to? Listen to your audience. Watch their reactions to what you do. Does it really reflect that purpose? If your brand is about healing, like ours, do all things put out by your brand reflect healing? Make sure that nothing puts out vibes that are the opposite of what you intended. If you've mistakenly done this, no worries! You can still fix it! That's what the Brand Shamans are for! We help heal brands.

If your brand needs help discovering its inner spirituality or purpose, let us know! We can help!

Many brands, communities, and other entities often forget about the connection that needs to happen with their audience and members. This connection is what keeps them interested and also is what keeps your brand or community authentic and focused on what it's all about. We call this brand or community spirituality. If you think about it, your brand or community is an entity that you and your audience or members are dedicated to. There is a spiritual bond. If not, there should be! We help you bring everything into focus surrounding the spirituality or inner connection of your brand or community. Once this happens, the rest falls into place quickly.

We Study Your Business And Help You Heal It From The Inside Out!

We'd love to know more about you, your business, and your goals. Drop us an email via the contact form (below) to give us an idea of who you are and what you need and we'll get back to you. If you don't have time to give us a life story, a few lines is fine. We'd love to explore your website for the rest! As a complementary test run, we'll even interview you for FREE to introduce you to our audience and publish the results on one of our popular channels (also FREE). This is one of the very first steps in helping heal your business, brand, or community and it's FREE, so you have nothing to lose.

Is This A Religious Service?

It's whatever you want or need it to be. We base our services on what you would like your brand to be and represent. Brand spirituality refers to your brand as an entity and in itself is not a faith-based service. This is a journey of discovery! You may be familiar with self-discovery. This is the same thing, but for your brand. Though, if you would like a certain faith implemented into your brand, we can help you with that, too! We are non-faith-based and open to helping with any beliefs or non-beliefs.

Analysis Of Your Brand Helps Discover Its Inner Spirit

Is your brand really doing all it can for you? Is it representing the values and ideals you want it to? What message is it sending? Is it one you agree with? Are you connected with your audience and staff? For a small fee, we can analyze your brand (this includes your website, social media accounts, and more). Brand refers to your product, book, or anything else that needs branding. The analysis will be personalized based on your brand's needs.

Your Brand Needs A Customized All-Inclusive Community Building & Engagement Plan

Once one of our Brand Healing Specialists (aka Brand Shamans) has done an analysis, we can outline what we feel will work best for you based on that research. This step is FREE and is where you will gain your FREE insight that is needed in order for us to take action. Actions may include things like email discussions on what your brand means to you, interactions via social media and/or your online community, content marketing that matches your brand, and more! This custom brand healing plan can help you find your brand's inner spirit and begin the healing process on your company's life path.

Why You Need To Take Action!

Once you have your analysis, it's in your hands to take action by having us kick your brand or community's spirituality into high gear. If there's not enough interaction going on around your community or brand, it's not connected properly. Let the Brand Shamans work together as a team with you and your audience to find your brand's inner spirit and strengths.

Watch Your Brand Or Community's Spirituality & Positive Interactions Improve!

When the connection has been found, watch how your brand or community's spirituality and positive interactions improve! Many companies and communities forget the connection part when it comes to engaging with their audience and members. We help you bring everything and everyone together to find a common ground and purpose surrounding your community or brand. Once this happens, the rest falls into place quickly.

Take Action Now! Get A Head Start On Your Brand's Healing Process Today!