TIKTOK & PRIVATE BRANDS
GOING VIRAL WITH TIKTOK
THE POPULAR VIDEO APP IS BEING USED BY RETAILERS TO PROMOTE STORE BRANDS AND HAVING A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THE ITEMS SHOPPERS ARE BUYING By Zachary Russell
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n a few short years, TikTok has quickly become the social media platform where most viral trends are born. The video app’s popularity skyrocketed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to new trends popping up on a daily basis. Cooking trends were and still are among the app’s most popular videos, with salmon rice, baked feta pasta, yogurt toast and bell pepper sandwiches becoming popular meals made at home, according to Clean Eating Mag. “People love food, and food is always on the forefront of what’s trending,” said Hilary Topper, president/CEO of HJMT Public Relations, a blogger/podcaster at HilaryTopper.com, author of “Branding in a Digital World” and adjunct professor at Hofstra University teaching digital media. “People want to see content that is relatable and fun. Since the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of people were on their phones scrolling much more often looking for different activities to try while quarantining or working
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from home. TikTok DIY videos help people feel like they can cook and crowdsource fun recipes. People got to have fun testing out these rather simple recipes and feeling like they were part of something much larger than just cooking in the kitchen.” TikTok is already shaping how retailers manage their inventory of own brand products. Liz Tyler, category strategy manager of Our Brands at Sprouts Farmers Market, said that the retailer sees the impact of these viral trends on store shelves. She added that TikTok is making customers hyper-aware of product attributes as well. “We saw the impact at our store when all of a sudden feta is cleared out [for the baked feta pasta trend], and you never know if that trend is going to stay. You have to stay on top of the trends and be able to pivot really quickly,” said Tyler, speaking at the April 27 Store Brands Industry Forum on Consumer Trends. “Another impact of social media and TikTok is that customers don’t take
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6/3/22 12:34 PM
