Wal-Mart takes a blow from Arm & Hammer; are manufactureres making a comeback?

In my last blog I wrote about Wal-Mart’s decision to reverse itself and restore 300 brands to store shelves. It seems that Wal-Mart had gotten so carried away with itself that it thought it could dictate to consumers what they would buy. Not a good idea. Consumers got mad.

So what does all of this mean? Are manufacturers and brand names getting some of their power back; maybe yes?

An Advertising Age article by Jack Neff entitled “Wal-Mart Reversal Marks Victory for Brands,” quotes Leon Nicholas, director of insights at Kantar Retail, as seeing:

[A] bit of a pendulum swing back to the power of suppliers" and national brands at Walmart. He said he’s seeing that not only in the return of items, but also in the return of branded point-of-purchase displays that had largely been wiped out by Walmart’s tougher clean-store policy in the past year. "There’s more supplier branding in the store, and a return … particularly on the weekends, of more pallet displays…

Let’s keep an eye on Wal-Mart. This story isn’t going to be over for a while.