JKR

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.