Price Cuts & Private Label: Protect Your Brand

Mid-February is when “value pressure” stops being a headline and becomes a buyer conversation.

And the signals are getting louder.

PepsiCo has said it plans to cut snack prices by up to 15% to boost sales—reported in recent coverage tied to slowing snack volumes and consumer price sensitivity.

Meanwhile, AlixPartners reported a jump in the share of value-seeking shoppers choosing private brands—up to 47% from 32% a year earlier.

Those two forces together create a very specific supplier problem:

Your competitor might not be another brand. It might be the shelf itself.

The mid-Feb squeeze: “Support the item… and don’t raise price”

By February, retailers have:

• seen early-year traffic patterns

• evaluated price perception

• refreshed private-label plans

• started pressing brands for support that doesn’t break their value story

Suppliers often respond with one of two moves:

1. cut price hard and hope volume saves you

2. hold price and “add promo” until trade spend turns into a black hole

There’s a better path: price-pack architecture + value clarity.

A fictional example (clearly fictional)

A sauce brand sits at $3.99. Velocity is healthy.

Then a major competitor resets suggested pricing, and retailers follow. The category “reference price” shifts downward.

Now the buyer says, “We need to maintain value perception. What can you do?” The supplier funds a deeper promo. Velocity lifts. Margin disappears.

The item didn’t fail. The strategy did—because it relied on temporary fixes instead of a sustainable ladder.

What suppliers should do instead (practical moves)

1) Build a “good / better / best” ladder—on purpose

You don’t want your only value option to be “discount the hero SKU.”

Create:

• a price-accessible pack (smaller size, simpler variety, leaner cost)

• a core hero

• a premium or differentiated SKU that earns trade-up

This gives the retailer a story that isn’t “price down.”

2) Define “value” beyond price

Value can be:

• fewer steps/less prep time

• cleaner ingredients/wellness benefits

• better taste experience

• fewer returns/less waste

• higher reliability (in-stock consistency)

AlixPartners also notes that consumers are becoming more methodical—planning meals, avoiding impulse purchases, and opting for less expensive options. That means your messaging needs to fit “planned” shopping, not just impulse.

3) Stop measuring success by shipment volume

In value-driven periods, you win on:

• net margin after trade

• repeat rate

• basket role (is your item a staple or a treat?)

• in-stock reliability (retailers reward less friction)

4) Make promotions feel effortless

If shoppers feel promotions are complicated, they disengage. That’s not theory—that’s showing up in survey-driven reporting: nearly two-thirds of shoppers said they value deals but feel it’s “too much work” to capture all offers. So your promo strategy should bias toward clarity and simplicity.

5) Use price cuts surgically, not emotionally

When a major brand cuts prices, it changes the category conversation.

Your response should be deliberate:

• hold price but improve value communication

• introduce an entry pack

• shift promo frequency instead of depth

• protect your hero SKU margin

The goal is not “win the week.” It’s “stay profitable in the new reference price.”

Where Woodridge Retail Group fits (no hard sell)

This is the kind of moment where suppliers need calm math—price-pack modeling, promo ROI discipline, and a narrative the buyer can use internally. That’s the lane we live in.