The grocery aisle has become a battlefield. Value-conscious shoppers are actively looking for reasons to trade down. And retailer-owned private labels or lower cost alternatives are waiting with open arms.
Let me tell you a story about my own family. We recently tried Walmart’s meats and fresh veggies. We were absolutely shocked by the freshness and taste compared to our usual premium grocery store. The quality was indistinguishable. Now? We happily make two separate grocery stops.
In marketing science, this represents a massive shift in friction tolerance. Consumers are willingly forgoing the convenience of a one stop shop. They are taking on extra physical effort to find the best value because the perceived quality gap has vanished. The switch happened.
Private labels are no longer just the cheap, inferior alternatives sitting on the bottom shelf. According to a 2026 report from Circana, private brands now account for a massive 22.6% of all CPG dollar sales and 24.4% of unit sales. Over half of all shoppers completely trust store brands, and 44% rate them incredibly high for quality.
So how does a legacy national brand survive when money is tight?
You have to aggressively justify your premium price tag. You cannot coast on a century of brand awareness. This comes down to price elasticity. If the perceived value of your national brand does not explicitly exceed the price gap between you and the store brand, the consumer will switch. If you want to stop a shopper from trading down, you have to prove exactly why your product is worth the extra three dollars.
“The private-label conversation isn’t simply about price anymore. Consumers are asking whether the national brand delivers enough additional value to justify the premium. Creators can help answer that question by translating brand differentiation into something people can actually see, understand and relate to,” says Gina Johnson, VP of Sales for CPG at IZEA.
Creators are the ultimate defense mechanism. They bring invisible brand differentiation to life. A shopper might reach for a store brand air freshener on a random Tuesday. But right before a holiday party? They reach for Glade or Air Wick. Why? Perhaps because a trusted creator showed them exactly how a premium scent completely transforms the atmosphere of a home for arriving guests.
Defending Against the Value-Conscious Switcher
If you want to understand private label pressure, look at Costco. It is ground zero for the switcher mentality. The choice architecture of the warehouse club is designed to make the retailer’s own Kirkland Signature line look like the smartest option. National brands must constantly defend their sales velocity against it.
Silk Almondmilk faced this exact threat. They needed to grow sales of their premium varieties and ensure health-conscious shoppers did not trade down to a lower cost store brand.
Instead of launching a discount campaign, they deployed a creator led defense. IZEA partnered Silk with wellness experts and busy moms. These creators showed exactly how premium Silk fits effortlessly into daily health routines. Rather than debating price, the creators focused purely on taste, premium ingredients, and performance.
This strategy completely bypassed the generic price comparison trap. The campaign drove a meaningful retail sales lift at Costco. It moved tens of thousands of incremental physical units and generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in incremental sales.
You see this same dynamic in the dairy case. Cheese is a heavily commoditized category overrun by low-cost store brands.
Athenos Feta needed to break out of that generic trap. To execute this competitive conquest, IZEA deployed a collective of culinary artists and storytellers. These creators abandoned traditional recipe videos. Instead, they showcased highly visual, elevated use cases for feta. They creatively educated consumers on how the specific quality of Athenos actively transforms an ordinary meal into an experience.
By visually proving a superior end result, the campaign completely justified the premium price point and drove massive trial over lower cost competitors.
Solidifying Premium Shelf Space
The threat of the switcher extends to household products as well. Scented oils and candles are incredibly oversaturated categories where consumers frequently trade down to discount alternatives.
A popular national CPG home fragrance brand needed to increase category growth at Walmart, Target, and Dollar General. To penetrate this highly competitive market, IZEA engaged creators with strong, native ties to each specific retailer. These creators produced highly styled home aesthetic content demonstrating exactly how the premium brand elevated their living spaces. This organic storytelling was then amplified with targeted paid media.
The results were phenomenal. The campaign achieved a high single digit average retail sales lift across all three major retailers. It generated nearly a hundred thousand physical units moved. Most importantly, it attributed well over a million dollars in direct purchases directly to the creator content.
The modern switcher can be ruthless. They will happily change their daily routines, make an extra grocery stop, and abandon legacy names the second they find better value elsewhere. But this fluid loyalty is a massive opportunity for brands willing to put in the work. Shoppers will gladly pay your premium price and stick around if you give them a visual, tangible reason to believe in it.
John Francis is the Vice President of Sales & Marketing Operations at IZEA Worldwide (NASDAQ: IZEA), a full-service creator economy agency. Powered by its proprietary ZED technology, IZEA provides comprehensive influencer marketing solutions for brands. Since 2006, the agency has facilitated nearly 4 million brand-creator collaborations and partnered with over 1,500 brands. John leads the go-to-market strategy for IZEA’s enterprise services, working directly with marketing leaders at Fortune 500 companies across the CPG, media and entertainment, mobility, and consumer electronics sectors.
