• Brandweek, Ad Age , Monday, October 13, 2008 10 AM

Brandweek takes the tack that bad times are good for certain brands, including the unlikely trio of McCormack spices, private labels and Wal-Mart. "If you're a brand you eat, drink, smoke or wash yourself with, you're going to be OK," says Marc Babej, partner at the strategy firm Reason.

Ad Age , meanwhile, surmises that that the sometimes-but-not-always prescient Wal-Mart is ramping up its private-label program after a year of de-emphasizing it. It mostly pins its story on a new job description -- director-portfolio strategy, private brands - that's being shopped by a Cincinnati-based headhunter. The position reports to Andy Ruben, vp-private brands.

Wal-Mart's private-label unit shares declined throughout 2007 and into the first quarter of 2008, according to a June report by IRI, even as private-label shares were rising overall across the package-goods industry. Wal-Mart private label has been losing share consistently among shoppers described by IRI as "doing well" -- a species that may be in decline for the foreseeable future.

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