Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) reported earnings for the second quarter, and while they weren't that great in terms of growth, they did beat Wall Street expectations. The bottom line came in at an adjusted 65 cents per share from continuing operations. Analysts were expecting 64 cents per share. I know, a one-penny beat isn't necessarily something to crow about, especially when Campbell grew income from continuing operations by only a single penny on a year-over-year basis. In this market, though, this is the stuff of dreams.

In fact, I bet Campbell's shares would have been higher on the news if it wasn't for the fact that the Dow is getting closer and closer to the 7,000 mark (and, please don't worry, we'll see a Dow reading that begins with a 6 before you can scream sell!).

Looking to capitalize on the flight to affordability, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is planning to reintroduce its 'Great Value' private label food brand with new packaging and more aggressive marketing.

Wal-Mart is reportedly hiring (haven't heard that word in awhile, have you?) 75 people for its private-label business, and there would seem to be no better time for expanding this investment. Consumers are always willing to pay a premium for nationally-known brands but in this economy, that premium could be extremely low, giving Wal-Mart an opportunity to increase its private label revenue by a lot -- and keep a great chunk of its food sales in-house.

Where are people making money? According to Jim Cramer on tonight's MAD MONEY, it's in the LBO market. He noted that KKR is actually down in Netherlands since coming public. If you're going to make some money, you'll need to get close to an LBO, and tonight Cramer recommended a private label food company called TreeHouse Foods Inc. (NYSE:THS) as a great play in LBOs. The company is, among other things, the leading supplier of private-label pickles and non-dairy powdered creamer in the U.S.

The soup and baby food units and others are helping it. The company is not just a food company, it's a leveraged buyout play. The owners have done this before with Keebler by flipping it to Kellogg Company (NYSE:K). He thinks THS is worth betting on. The food business is slow and non-growth in general, but this company is an acquisition company and it is growing earnings with select acquisitions.

He has profiled THS before, but the company has grown since. Now it has a high enough share price to go out and make deals -- so he would be a buyer of THS right now even at the 52-week high.

THS has a $18.33 to $30.50 52-week trading range. THS closed up 1.5% at $30.64, a new 52-week high and above the old high noted from Friday; it traded up another 4% to $32.00 after Cramer touted this stock.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers. [Photo Stefan Powell]

I have to giggle a bit these days when reading the marketing labels for private-label goods at just about any large retailer. These marketing spins make it sound like this sacred product was made just for certain retailer customers, when in reality, it's just re-packaged goods from the larger manufacturers and distributors, with maybe a slight alteration in formula or tweaking of a few things to make it different. Welcome to "store brands".

How about the "Sam's Choice" private-label grocery products from Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT)? I especially love the ones with a "percentage" marketing spin, like "18% chocolate chip cookies -- made with 18% real chocolate chips". I don't buy these products, but I study them. Wal-Mart's private-label practices are quite inventive -- I'll give the retailer that. The "percentage" marketing angle is unlike most of what I see in the store brand merchandising arena.

However, even as private-label products have moved beyond the "cheap" category into mainstream competitors with major brands, the marketing efforts behind them to capitalize on this merchandising transformation has not kept up. With these "store brands" being elevated now to a spirited level of competition with the well-known category brands -- Chips Ahoy, Ocean Spray, Wonder Bread and others -- the pricing model has been kept at the same 10% to 15% discount from the top brands. This has stayed constant even as store brands now more directly compete on quality and presentation to the major brands. Time to reclaim some lost profit, food retailers.

Brian White has worked in various executive positions in technology and telecommunications and now focuses on editing and writing.