Fresh & Easy Buzz: Private Brand Showcase Déjà Vu: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Announces its New 'Gourmet' Brand

Private Brand Showcase: The '24/7' news cycle

Yesterday we published this piece - February 7, 2011: Getting There First...Plus, Are Tesco's Fresh & Easy and Safeway Traveling Down A Similar Private Brand Aisle? - in which, among other things, we discussed the fact that Fresh & Easy Buzz reported on January 21, 2011 that Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market was in the process of introducing a new private brand, 'Fresh & Easy Kitchen Gourmet,' which the fresh food and grocery chain has yet to publicly announce the launch of.

But that was yesterday. This afternoon, a mere 24-hours after our piece was published, Tesco's Fresh & Easy has made that announcement in this press release, which includes an attachment featuring a "menu" of the 'Fresh & Easy Kitchen Gourmet' brand fresh and frozen products.

Since we first reported on the grocer's new private brand on January 21, Fresh & Easy has added a line of three frozen deserts to its 'Fresh & Easy Kitchen Gourmet' brand. The three SKUs are: Dark Chocolate Raspberry Gelato Truffles; Lemon Tartlets; and Mixed Berry Tartlets.

In its announcement today, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market refers to its new brand simply as 'Gourmet,' in one case, and 'fresh&easy Gourmet,' in another instances in the press release.

However, the actual brand name on the product packages is: 'Fresh & Easy Kitchen Gourmet.' So that's what we call the brand. We believe in the old adage: 'What it says is what it is.'

As noted in our January 21, 2011 report, "Gourmet" is the focus of the brand's name. But because 'Fresh & Easy Kitchen' is also used as part of the brand name on the package labels, it's technically a co-brand, incorporating the Fresh & Easy name.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy is pegging its announcement today to the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday, which is good timing from a promotional merchandising point of view because in addition to the many customers who go out to eat at restaurants for the special day, along with those who cook Valentine's Day meals from scratch at home, there's also a growing segment of people who are looking for higher-quality but affordable prepared meals which they can heat-and-eat at home for Valentine's Day evening dinner, coupled with some fresh flowers for the table, a bottle of champagne, and some decadent chocolate for dessert.

As we all know, timing can be crucial - whether it involves a publication's reporting on a grocer's launching of a new private brand, or a retailer announcing the introduction of that brand, tied to a particular special event or holiday it hopes will help it sell the new branded products. And in today's brave new world of the '24/7' news cycle, we've all got to struggle to keep up.