• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, June 29, 2010

Look out, national brands: Private-label sales are gaining on you in ways you'd never imagined. Thanks to high-quality generics from such chains as Target, Safeway, Kroger and Whole Foods Markets, SymphonyIRI reports that consumers are increasingly likely to buy these store brands, and the more categories they dabble in, the more likely they are to be satisfied.

"It's all about branding and positioning with the customer," Sean Seitzinger, SVP/Consulting and Innovation Group at SymphonyIRI Group, tells Marketing Daily. "The concept of a store brand just being the cheaper, value choice doesn't really apply anymore—consumers are happy with these products." In fact, he says, the likelihood that they will buy experiment with private-label offerings in a new category doubles after they've had a positive store-brand experience.