An increasing number of retailers including M&S, Halfords, Tesco and B&Q are putting much more focus on own brand products.  The logic is that the price to customers can be reduced because the producers of the product can not charge a brand premium to the retailer. The big question is how successful will retailers be in promoting and positioning their own brands against each other and the main stream brands in their own stores?
Historically several retailers started out very well with clearly positioned own brands but over time the differentiations become unclear and customers became confused.
Thinking and acting like brands will certainly be a challenge for some retailers but those who get it right could be very successful.