There’s an important industry insight in this win:

Private label is flipping their posture from follower to leader when it comes to brand design. The opportunity for retailers is tremendous. With 30% higher margins on every own brand product sold, there is plenty motivation to crack the design code. Unlike national brands, there will be no confusion about design’s impact when they get design right due to the absence of “other factors” and intimate knowledge of when the new designs hit the shelves. The register tape at week’s end will be the proof of the redesign’s impact.

By contrast, national brands have long dismissed design’s impact on sales since any significant rebrand has the assurance of “gold standard” validation. So when 40% of launched redesigns are followed by significant sales losses, marketers and analysts assume their misfortune is driven by other factors. Without understanding the high rate of false-positives generated by traditional validation methods, the big guys will continue to be vulnerable to this new era of private label competitiveness.

CVS’ remarkable reimagining of their beauty care line is surely a sign of where the battle for consumers is headed. These are interesting times.