Brand Name and Private Label

Manufacturers and designers build brand names to create a unique identity for their lines of products. Brands represent a certain style, lifestyle image, price range, and quality that consumers recognize. Brands differentiate products from competing products.

In the past decade, retailers have developed their own store brands or private labels, such as JC Penney's Arizona brand and the Gap's private label.

At the same time, manufacturers and designers no longer produce all of their products in factories that they own and often source production off-shore. Branding has become a marketing strategy with little relationship to who is actually manufacturing the product. The high quality and identity tied to a product brand depends on the involvement of the design team and quality assurance in the production and distribution process, regardless of factory location.