From our internal Campfire chat room:
| Sam S. | i like how supermarket house brands seem to have nice clean packaging lately |
| Jason Z. | totally, Sam |
Have you seen the new stuff Walmart is doing? |
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| Sam S. | house brands used to look cheap but now they look expensive |
| Jason Z. |  |
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| Sam S. | haven’t seen that |
| Jason Z. |  |
| Sam S. | safeway/dominick’s O Organics branding is nice |
| Jason Z. | I think those are pretty fresh |
| Ryan S. | it’s interesting how white space packaging has been slowly moving downmarket |
over the last like, 6 years |
| Sam S. |  |
| Jason Z. | Yeah, but in food packaging all that white space must really make that Great Value stuff stand out. |
| Sam S. |  |
| Jason Z. | Those are nice |
| Ryan S. | who swapped Sam with Richard Bird? |
*calls the authorities* |
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| Jason Z. | Interesting to see some quality photography on all of those |
| Sam S. | lol |
yeah and it’s an actual photo |
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with context |
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like vs. cereal boxes where the photo background is transparent |
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| Jeremy K. | I like the old school monochromatic store brands |
TOASTIE OS on a plastic bag |
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BEER in light blue on white can |
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^ these designs fool you into thinking they’re upmarket :) |
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| Sam S. | i think i’m too young to remember those |
| Jeremy K. | haven’t seen these in years |
| Sam S. | i remember store brand packaging being a crappy knockoff of commercial brands |
| Jason Z. | Just for the sake of contrast. Check out the use of color and photography on the previous Great Value packaging |
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| Sam S. | barf |
| Jason Z. | I know! |
| Jeremy K. |  |
hard to find images of the old generic stuff |
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| Jeremy K. |  |
:D |
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| Sam S. | that rules |
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| Jason Z. | That’s, awesome, JK |
Dylan Hassinger
on 04 Aug 09They’re all trying to keep up with Target.
Happy
on 04 Aug 09Generic and house brands invented white space packaging.
It was a way to save money. No design budget == white box or can with simple text.
On a related note, remember that the term ‘white label’ refers to house brands.
Andy T
on 04 Aug 09Actually, I found that the new packaging is a huge throwback to white-box generics of old, and I can’t get that out of my head.
... don’t get me wrong, it has some sass … I’m guessing it has something to do with the level of white space ;o)
Adam
on 04 Aug 09I bet that scotch is anything but scotish. Probably the dregs of petrol cans and watered down white spirit with a dribble of tea for colour.
Nate
on 04 Aug 09Woah, did Draplin do those liquor bottles? :) I would absolutely buy those generic liquors. Would be perfect for a Lost watching party. And if they suck – pour them through a Brita water filter a few times. We tried a Brita vodka taste test a couple xmases ago, and the Brita vodka was everyones favorite.
Happy
on 04 Aug 09Beware the desire to: “take [a] brand and bring it or evolve it into a more current or modern state.”
Tropicana’s rebranding debacle did more than create a customer-relations fiasco. It hit the brand in the wallet.
wes bos
on 04 Aug 09I’ve noticed that No Name (house brand here in Canada) and Presidents choice has gone totally helvelitica on solid colours. I really enjoy it.
Merle
on 04 Aug 09Stick with genuine Cheerios. They are better.
andrea
on 04 Aug 09And I love the hand-drawn lizard on the Fruity Puffs! (Although i’m not too sure if showing a reptile eating your cereal is particularly appetizing..)
Benjy
on 04 Aug 09I remember Jewel carrying these generic foods in black packaging w/ orange stencil lettering—looked like military surplus or something.
Ryan Schroeder
on 04 Aug 09Target has recently redesigned their house brand as well.
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/bulls_eye_flies_up_and_up_up.php
Brad Huskins
on 04 Aug 09Same thing up here with our President’s Choice brands in Grocery Stores (for example). Though, I prefer the white backgrounds to Yellow.
Duarte
on 04 Aug 09Waitrose, in the UK has some absolutely fantastic packaging:
http://tinypic.com/r/equhvl/3 http://tinypic.com/r/eziekh/3 http://tinypic.com/r/2n0ljba/3
Duarte
on 04 Aug 09Links:
herbs
jam
honey
Heidi Voltmer
on 04 Aug 09The Marks & Spencer house brand in the UK has great packaging with full color photos on them: chicken with bacon lattice and ice cream sandwiches and mac and cheese.
Des
on 04 Aug 09I love when the packaging doesn’t get in the way of the actual food.
http://www.thedieline.com/blog/images/2008/09/08/pasta.jpg
The label Pasta is almost redundant here.
Byron McCollum
on 05 Aug 09No one mentioned the Tropicana debacle?
Michael Dick
on 05 Aug 09TBH, the new packaging makes the broccoli actually look good. #fail
Deltaplan
on 05 Aug 09In France, Carrefour did exactly the same.
They used to have several generic brands : Carrefour (of course), Reflets de France (which already had “authentic looking packagings), and especially “numero 1” for the lowest priced products. The “numero 1” packagings were absolutely awful, people were ashamed to be seen buying that stuff :
http://www.carrefourtunisie.com/web/fr/medias/produits/prodn1/CHIPS_big.jpg http://www.carrefourtunisie.com/web/fr/medias/produits/prodn1/essui-tout_big.jpg
What they did receltely, was to drop the “numero 1” brand, and to create a new brand (for quite the same products), “Carrefour discount”. All the packagings of these products are now similar : white background, big crisp picture of the product.
http://www.couleurgeek.com/img/carrefour-discount.jpg
They’ve not been afraid to use the word “discount” in it, even if it is quite badly connoted in French, but I think it is mostly due to the fact that the “Carrefour” supermarkets in France are believed to be intrinsically targeted to the upper class. That’s also why the “numero 1” brand was not very effective : buying these products was considered by many as a social humiliation, like “he’s going to Carrefour like he’s pretending he’s rich, but he can’t even afford Carrefour products – not to mention brand products…”.
Now, you can see almost any customer at Carrefour’s buying Carrefour Discount products, while it used to be quite segregated before : people who were buying “numero 1” products were often buying only this brand, and the people who could afford better quality products (let’s say it quite clearly, not all “numero 1” products were of bad quality, but some were really awful) wouldn’t even consider buying “numero 1”, even for products which they would acknowledge that they were of equal quality to what they were buying, simply to avoid being seen with that brand…
Don Schenck
on 05 Aug 09I picked up some natural/organic raisins at the local Food Lion recently, and it wasn’t until later that I realized that it was their store brand of “organic” stuff.
Packaging is very well done.
Don Schenck
on 05 Aug 09To wit: http://www.foodlion.com/NaturesPlace/
Michael
on 05 Aug 09Haha, love the punchline.
David William Edwards
on 06 Aug 09The packaging for Publix house brands is very elegant.
Lauren
on 06 Aug 09Wow those old off-brands are quite stark! Yeah Safeway did a really nice job with their Organics line. The new Great Value looks good here, but in stores I was a little disappointed.
Archer Farms has always been my weakness. Not the food, just the packaging.
paul apfrod
on 07 Aug 09This reminds me of three awesome things:
1. Repo Man
2. They Live
3. the “No Frills” range of products from UK chain/franchise “Happy Shopper” which took white-label to the ultimate in ugly-basic.
Bo Pentecost
on 10 Aug 09As it relates to the Walmart goods. I think they are an upgrade (I’m a designer). I recently, however, saw a post on Facebook from an average consumer that said, “Just because I buy cheap doesn’t mean I want things to look cheap.” Eye of the beholder, really.
This discussion is closed.