How CPG Brands Win Against Private Label at Costco in 2026

The numbers are impossible to ignore and uncomfortable to dismiss. Private label sales in the United States reached $271 billion in 2024, growing at 3.9 percent — nearly four times the growth rate of national brands. The club store segment — led by Costco — holds the highest private label penetration of any retail channel in America, with store brands accounting for 47 percent of all private label growth. Sixty percent of American consumers now believe private label products offer the same or better quality as national brands.

And Kirkland Signature, Costco's own private label powerhouse, generated $90 billion in sales in 2025 alone — outpacing Procter and Gamble's Tide, Unilever's Dove, and ConAgra's entire brand portfolio combined.

For branded CPG companies, these numbers represent the most significant competitive challenge in the history of the consumer packaged goods industry. The question that every brand founder, product entrepreneur, and CPG executive needs to answer clearly and urgently in 2026 is not whether private label is a threat — it demonstrably is. The question is: what do CPG brands do about it? And more specifically: what does a CPG brand do about it at Costco, where the private label competitor is Kirkland Signature — arguably the most successful store brand ever created?

At MOJO Sales & Branding, we have been navigating this competitive landscape for over two decades, and we have a clear, evidence-based answer. CPG brands win against private label at Costco not by trying to out-price Kirkland — that battle is unwinnable — but by doing the things that Kirkland, by its very nature as a private label, fundamentally cannot do. And the Costco Roadshow is the single most powerful arena in which branded CPG companies can execute this winning strategy.

Why CPG Brands Win Against Private Label Costco Through Live Brand Storytelling

The most fundamental advantage a branded CPG company holds over Kirkland Signature — and over every private label product in every retail channel — is a brand story. Not a product description.

Not a list of features. A genuine, human, emotionally resonant narrative about who created this product, why it exists, what problem it solves, and what values it embodies. Kirkland Signature products are excellent by almost any measure of quality and value. But they do not have founders. They do not have origin stories. They do not have a mission beyond delivering quality at Costco's price standard. They cannot look a member in the eye and tell them why this product was born and what it stands for.

Your brand can do all of those things. And on the Costco Roadshow floor — where a trained, passionate sales professional has a live human conversation with every member who approaches the booth — those things matter enormously.

Research from CPG brand strategists is consistent on this point: the brands maintaining premium market share in a private label dominated market are not winning on product claims alone. They are winning on brand position — a clear, differentiated point of view about the world, a cultural territory the brand genuinely owns, or a specific consumer identity the brand is built around. That kind of position creates a reason to buy that price alone cannot compete with. The roadshow format is the most powerful live delivery mechanism for this kind of brand position that exists in retail today.

In those critical 30 to 60 seconds of direct member engagement, your brand's story — told compellingly by a skilled sales professional — creates an emotional connection that no shelf placement, no matter how prominent, can replicate.

The Private Label Price Trap and How Branded Brands Escape It

One of the most common strategic errors branded CPG companies make when competing against private label is trying to win on price.

This is a losing strategy for a simple and unavoidable reason: private label products, particularly at Costco, are structurally designed to win on price. Costco caps its markup on outside brands at 14 percent and on Kirkland products at 15 percent — a deliberate policy that keeps both competitive. But Kirkland benefits from supply chain scale, manufacturing partnerships, and Costco's institutional buying power that allow it to offer exceptional quality at price points that branded companies with independent supply chains and marketing overhead simply cannot match on a pure cost basis.

The escape from the price trap is not to compete on price at all — it is to compete on value, which is an entirely different conversation. Value is not what something costs. Value is what something is worth relative to what it costs. A branded product that delivers a meaningfully superior experience — better taste, better efficacy, better sensory quality, a more compelling origin story, stronger scientific backing, or a more authentic emotional connection — at a price premium that the member can clearly justify is not losing to private label. It is creating a distinct value proposition that private label by definition cannot occupy.

The Costco Roadshow is the ideal venue for this value conversation because it allows for the kind of direct, personalized, experiential demonstration that makes the value case undeniable. When a member tastes your product and their eyes light up with genuine surprise at how exceptional it is, the price premium becomes irrelevant. When a sales professional explains exactly how your product is made, where its ingredients come from, and why those sourcing decisions make a meaningful difference in quality, the Kirkland alternative sitting three aisles over suddenly feels like a very different product choice — because it is.

CPG Brands Win Against Private Label Costco Through Innovation Velocity

The private label model, for all its commercial power, has a structural limitation that branded CPG companies can consistently exploit: it is inherently reactive rather than innovative. Kirkland Signature enters categories where consumer demand has already been proven and where the quality and price standards are well established. It does not create new categories. It does not pioneer new product concepts. It does not take the commercial risks that genuine product innovation requires.

Branded CPG companies that win at Costco are the ones that stay ahead of Kirkland by continuously innovating — bringing new formulations, new flavors, new delivery mechanisms, and new product concepts to the roadshow floor that members have not encountered before and that Kirkland has not yet had the opportunity to replicate. The treasure hunt psychology that makes Costco's shopping experience so compelling is powered entirely by branded innovation. Every new and exciting product that generates genuine member discovery at a Costco Roadshow is, by definition, a branded product — because that is where genuine product innovation comes from.

Private label growth data reinforces this insight. According to Circana's 2026 analysis, private label momentum is increasingly concentrated in categories where retailers are delivering consistent quality and credible value — meaning established, stable categories where the product concept is mature. In emerging categories, in innovative formulations, and in products with genuinely differentiated stories and sensory profiles, branded companies retain a significant competitive advantage. Costco's buyers understand this dynamic and actively seek branded innovations that bring the discovery energy to their roadshow calendar that Kirkland products, by their very nature, cannot provide.

Building the Three-Pillar Brand Defense Strategy for Costco

CPG brand strategists tracking the private label competitive landscape in 2026 have identified three core pillars through which branded companies successfully defend and grow their market position against private label pressure: continuous product innovation, premium packaging and brand presentation, and direct digital engagement with consumers. All three of these pillars have powerful applications in the Costco Roadshow context.

Innovation is the foundation — your product must genuinely and demonstrably deliver something that Kirkland does not. This is not a marketing claim but a product reality that your sales team can demonstrate live and that members can experience firsthand.

Premium packaging communicates quality before a word is spoken — your roadshow booth display, your product packaging design, and your visual brand presentation all send immediate quality signals that differentiate your brand from every alternative in the member's consideration set. And direct digital consumer engagement — built through social media, email marketing, and the organic advocacy that great roadshow experiences generate — creates ongoing brand relationships that private label products, which have no independent brand identity, cannot cultivate.

MOJO Sales & Branding helps branded CPG companies execute all three pillars in the Costco roadshow context. We develop roadshow strategies that showcase genuine product innovation in its most compelling live format. We work with brands to ensure their booth presentation communicates premium brand quality at the highest visual standard. And we build the social media and digital engagement frameworks that extend roadshow brand relationships far beyond the warehouse floor.

The Roadshow Advantage That Private Label Will Never Have

Here is the most important and liberating truth for every branded CPG company competing against Kirkland Signature and private label products at Costco: private label will never run a roadshow.

Kirkland products do not have founders who can stand behind a booth and answer member questions with genuine passion. They do not have brand ambassadors who can share the story of how a product was born and why it matters. They do not create the kind of live, human, emotionally resonant discovery experience that converts curious members into loyal brand advocates.

The Costco Roadshow is your unfair advantage. It is the one selling environment in the entire Costco ecosystem where your brand's humanity — its story, its values, its people, and its genuine product excellence — can compete against Kirkland's institutional scale on genuinely equal terms. And with the right strategy, the right sales team, and the right execution partner, it is an advantage that branded CPG companies can win decisively every single time.

Contact MOJO Sales & Branding today at 732.433.7873 or Susan@MOJOSalesandBranding.com and let us build your winning strategy for the private label era.

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