Driving innovation for The Kroger Co.’s Retail Brands is a big responsibility — and Natalie Taake fits the role well.

During a session at the Velocity Institute (RBI) Innovation Summit, Taake, who is Senior Innovation Manager, relayed insightful perspectives on how to achieve success.

“There’s never been a better time to be in private label and innovation,” she said.

Emerging consumer trends are creating new opportunities for innovation, she added.

“We can meet needs that we never had to solve for before.”

Tactical Thinking Can Hinder Success

Taake said innovation is an over-used word that often has a “fluffy” meaning. “In so many organizations where the focus is on strategy and tactics, innovation gets overlooked as a powerful weapon,” she observed. “Innovation starts to become lip service.”

Acing innovation requires more than just rolling out new products and copying existing items. “Private label brands from Kroger do not grow to $26 billion by being cheap, low quality knockoffs of national brands,” Taake said.

Poor Choices Can Stifle Progress

Some organizations inadvertently prevent real innovation through poor strategy choices, she observed. One example is failing to provide a wide range of solutions for diverse customer bases.

“It’s important to have products for every consumer and anticipate their needs,” she said, citing examples from the Simple Truth and Kroger Retail Brands. “There are offerings for the price-sensitive seeking value, and for the less price sensitive. You need to have something for everyone.”

Retailers Need to Understand Consumers

Taake pointed to other imperatives to win with innovation, including the following:

• Staying on top of consumer insights and not being late to the game in catering to new trends.
• Ensuring that at least some team member roles are dedicated to forward-thinking innovation strategies.
• Operating a culture in which mistakes are allowed, because “you can’t just play it safe.”

“Build a fearless culture that recovers quickly from failure and can learn and be better for it,” she said.

Today’s more fragmented consumer market requires organizations to rethink their expectations, Taake added.

“At the top levels of organizations, there needs to be a shift in mindset about what success looks like. The wins are going to be smaller than in the past in a fragmented market. Make sure you have options for different consumers to come into your stores.”

The Innovation Summit’s sessions can now be viewed on-demand. The presentations provide a wide range of important perspectives about innovation in Retail Brands.

Still ahead is the RBI Sustainability Summit, which will be held online on December 8 and 9 of this year. FREE TICKETSare Now available.