JKR

Recently we commented on the current trend of budget advertising which, more often than not, dilutes the value of the brand by using generic price flash tactics – step up Tesco, Asda and the like.

The new campaign by Dixons on the other hand has memorable copy, a distinctive brand feel, and turns rival brands’ visual equities against them. By openly acknowledging Dixons as “the last place you want to go” in the ad’s tagline, the sign-off cleverly chimes with consumers’ perceptions – it’s obviously a double edged sword to so wryly acknowledge one’s own weaknesses, but such honesty is a strong trend at the moment.

It’s a refreshing change from cluttered value ads with big price stickers, even if the promise that Dixons is the cheapest might be more perception than unassailable reality.

Above: Back when it was all about price, not emotion.

I thought it would be interesting to know which packs found in a supermarket appealed to the style cognoscenti. So I asked Tyler Brûlé (founder of Wallpaper and Monocle magazines and generally regarded as one of the most style savvy men on the planet) what he liked. Eshewing the Tesco Metro he told me “I like Kewpie mayonnaise from Japan”. Kewpie is the major mayonnaise in Japan, first launched in 1925. It’s a household staple, with an interesting combination of glass bottle and plastic wrap and of course a Kewpie doll. The point of sale is pretty arresting as well (see top right).

Delighted to get an answer and drunk on success, I then emailed a long list of acknowledged style and cultural leaders, my idea being that their choices would, as a whole, create a kind of the ultimate stylish shopping basket available at an affordable price. Sadly they all seemed to be summering away from the coal face of driving taste and were understandably not that fussed about replying. With one exception – Cath Kidston came back with Strawberry Angel Delight  – “It’s 20p a pack, whips up a treat and the packet can’t fail to bring a smile to your face!”.

So there you have it  -  my in depth investigation offers you a choice of two packs which both have a certain charm. Which would you pick? Or do you have a better suggestion? If so, send us a jpeg of the pack via our facebook page, and we will publish our own “everyday packs which gladden my heart” round up here in a week or two…

My thanks to Tyler Brûlé and Cath Kidston for taking the time to answer a random email.

It’s hard enough for a company to differentiate its brands from the competition. Even harder when one’s portfolio of brands is the competition. And GM has really made life difficult for itself when it ‘successfully’ harmonised car production to create cost savings across its brands. So now the fundamental engineering and styling of rival brands at wildly different prices seem rather similar. In which case “I’ll have the cheap one, please”. Now stuck with the nickname “Government Motors”, the company is perhaps wisely dropping the GM “mark of excellence” from its new cars. This will make the various brands a little less homogeneous, although perhaps some styling quirks which reconnect with the various brands’ original souls might also help a bit?

Back around January there was much speculation that consumers would dump brands in favour of own label. While the truth of this seems to swing with every new report, it’s clear that the rival supermarkets had a golden opportunity to define their own personalities while encouraging shoppers to switch and save. Instead, each day sees a tsunami of competing generic price messaging which leaves consumers, I would hazard, no wiser about who is genuinely offering the best value – all those big numbers become interchangeable wallpaper after a while.

Tesco used to have brilliant copy (above) which offered value with quality (even if using green did play a little to their rivals’ identities). Now these nuances have been abandoned for price comparison (with rivals often confusing shoppers with various counter claims within the same ad break…).

Waitrose have been famously successful with their essentials range (and to declare an interest, we were involved in helping develop the strategy on ‘essential Waitrose’) – so Sainsbury’s have produced a copycat campaign (presumably a “spoiler”). However, unlike Waitrose, I’m not sure that Sainsbury’s telling us they offer a basics range is offering particularly new news.

The net effect is lots of visual noise and little clear communication. And while some supermarkets abandon a sense of brand values in pursuit of becoming interchangeable commodities, which are supposedly only chosen on price, they are failing to give consumers the reason they need to trade out of branded goods. Even on a functional price flash level, brands such as BA and Orange show that it is possible to offer value information without losing brand values or visual distinctiveness.

There are plenty of valid but contradictory views around the impact the recession has had on the relationship between premium and value brands. My take above is certainly debatable, but at least the diagrams were fun to draw…

Until the recession kicked in, we were seeing basic commodities becoming posher and fashion brands launching ever more affordable lines. This double whammy created a huge mass-premium category. Fancy smoothies replaced plain old juice in our fridge, along with organic yoghurts and puddings sold in ceramic ramekins. Meanwhile, “designer” accessories were as likely to be real as knock-off. The downturn appeared to tighten the belt on this swollen middle, creating an hourglass silhouette that could give Dita Von Teese’s corset a run for its money. A polarisation away from the centre could be perceived in the success of value lines such as essential Waitrose (with a predicted £600 million of sales in the first year) at one end, and the burgeoning “super luxury” brands (8% growth last year according to the wealth bulletin) at the other. At the middle meanwhile, as belts tightened, sales of take-away lattes and Innocent Drinks (surely the brand most synonymous with the mass premium trend) dropped. Meanwhile the Gü puddings brand is reportedly up for sale.

So what next? With Waitrose reporting healthy business in their premium ranges (chiming with new Nielsen figures indicating that premium own-label is once again seeing an upturn), perhaps the hourglass figure is breathing out again. In design terms, I’m not sure the declining fortunes of the mass premium category have resulted in generally cheaper looking design; we have become used to getting a more finessed and sophisticated level of branding whatever the price point. Perhaps as the green shoots appear, the visual distinctions between “good, better and best” categories will remain permanently blurred?