From Private Label to 'Captive Brand'

Carrying no evidence of the store’s affiliation, these brands, manufactured by a third party and sold exclusively at the chains (hence “captive”), let the retailer command a price similar to brands produced by consumer packaged goods companies like P&G.

Brandweek focuses on the spike in such brands in the “over-SKUed” beauty category, which already drowns consumers in products and novel niches (and to think just a couple of years ago, the world lacked for self-tanning shimmer lotion).