Ban the Brand

[jake-the-peg]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6977844.st m

Neil Boorman has spent a year without buying a single branded item

Could you do the same? Easy? Rember - no Heinz Ketchup, unbranded washing powder in some areas it's impossible - how do you buy an unbranded car?

Could you do it or is there a brand you simply couldn't give up?

[andrea81]

I couldn't do it completely, I have trust in some brands i.e. my son has sensitive skin and after trying everything I can only use one or two brand of sun cream. I would also trust the ingredience of good brands having obsessed over E numbers (you do that when you have a hyporactive child)!

But I do acconomise on my ow perchises!

[B00]

I don't understand his difficulty? Am I missing something? Are supermarkets own brands considered brands in their own right? If so then yes,maybe I can understand it....a smidgen.

And no, there isn't a brand I wouldn't/couldn't give up.

[China Doll]

Do supermarket own brands count?

[theonlyone]

I normally buy super market own brand products , as most of them are made by the big brand boys , never found much difference in them . But I have to have Marmite , have tried the others and not the same !!

[jake-the-peg]

It's the supermarket that's the brand not the own brand bit.

So if has to be Tesco Own brand rather than Sainsbury's - it counts but if you're as happy with anybody's budget beans then it doesn't.

But would you swap your car for an identical one with a far Eastern badge you'd never heard of if I put �1,000 in your hand?

[China Doll]

Well I don't drive so that's not a major issue.

I would struggle with clothes. I don't buy ultra trendy or labels. In fact I'm a rather a big fan of primark as it goes but that would count as a brand wouldn't it?

But then I'm sure I could get by on what I have already.... Oh, and Tescos and Sainsburys sell clothes too...

I only really like PG tips as tea brands go... But then I don't drink much tea so I could forgo that.

Do you know Jake, you've really got me thinking. I'm seriously tempted to try this for a month to see how I do!

[Curry King]

Baked beans have to be Heinz and same tomato sauce for me.

I could not go without branded products.

[Whickerman]

Pepsi Max - losing that would be a step too far...!

[China Doll]

I did have a thought.

I smoke and I smoke marlby lights and they are my preference. That's a brand....

But then... I do need to get up...

[RATTER15]

I wouldn't even try!!

[annie0000]

I do buy a lot of supermarket own branded products, but there are some things that would be impossible. I can only use Surcare washing powder as anything else makes my husband ill - he has undefined mulitple chemical allergies. This is not a big brand in the way that persil or bold is, so as long as i could get away with that then i would be okay. Problem is that I like different things from different supermarkets, so I already have to go to both Tesco and sainsburys every week I can see that getting worse if i have to find suitable replacements for other branded goods.

[LoftyLottie]

Same as Curry King. Must be Heinz ketchup and baked beans. Oh, also Marmite.

[jno]

what on earth is an unbranded item? It's not just cars. Every book I have bears the publisher's name (and the author's name; those constitute brands too, if you think you'd like to read 'the latest Dan Brown'). Even my Primark t-shirts are a brand. I wonder who made his jeans? His glasses? I wonder why he's told his story on that world-famous brand, the BBC?

This is the territory of the super-wealthy. They get their clothes bespoke from tailors, they build their own mansion rather than buy Wimpey houses, they have the decorations handmade by craftsmen, and they get all their veg from the kitchen garden, not packaged by Tescos but prepared by their own cooks. Nice for some, no doubt, but not for us Primark shoppers.

[jake-the-peg]

I think the point for most of us is whether you decide to buy by brand or whether the brand is unimportant to you.

And last night all my vegtables came from my garden - maybe I'm superwealthy and didn't even know it!

Anyway my brand confessions are Special K and the Radio Times

[jno]

I'm still unclear exactly what constitutes a 'brand', but I'm guessing it means where two products are near-identical and you choose one because of something about the manufacturer's name: Gucci where you might have chosen M&S (or the reverse, of course). I don't think the Radio Times is a brand, it's a unique product - once upon a time you could choose between it and the TV Times and you might choose one or the other because you preferred the BBC or ITV; but I think it's now bought on its own strengths rather than because it's a brand. Special K: only if it tastes the same as something else, otherwise it too is a product rather than a brand.

But as far as I'm concerned Tesco's own-brand ketchup is as much a brand as Heinz.

[jake-the-peg]

Brands at best are a way of being able to distinguish a companies product to secure repeat custom because you like the quality.

They have in some areas been taken over by marketroids to associate a trade name with glamour and make them desirable and exclusive so that you can charge a premium for that.

How much is an unbranded piece of clothing actually worth? However well designed whatever the quality? Now stick a label like Versache on it and all of a sudden you can sell it for three four five times the price.

It's a confidence trick to appeal to people's vanity.

You'd think food would be seen more as a commodity - but no this isn't just food this is M&S food! How blatent does it get?

Do you remember Dasani? - Coca cola bottles tap water and sells it to you with an exotic sounding name
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,3604,11 74127,00.html (if you've forgotton)

Petrol the greatest commodity item - unbrandable surely - no just do a deal to rub the shiny shiny from an exotic brand and you magically have Shell Optima developed with Ferrari!

For me the Radio Times is a brand because I don't go to buy a "listings magazine" but that one.

Personally I sometimes wonder if Bill Hicks was right "If you work in advertising or marketing...Kill yourself!...no really it's the only way to save your f*ing soul!"

[China Doll]

Oh, you know what Bill's doing, he's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market, he's very smart." Oh man, I am not doing that. You ******* evil scumbags! "Ooh, you know what Bill's doing now, he's going for the righteous indignation dollar. That's a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We've done research - huge market. He's doing a good thing." Godammit, I'm not doing that, you scum-bags! Quit putting a godamm dollar sign on every ******* thing on this planet!

[Reverandfunk]

Surely everything is branded?

If you buy bread does any loaf say "plain white bread" and nothing else?

What a pointless exercise, I haven't bought any branded items but 2 billion people globally have. Yawn.

[cambus]

We live in the counry and have a string of polo ponies.
Our only branded goods, are the obligatory Range Rover and our pre-ordered shopping from Harrods, which is delivered every Friday.
It must be terrible having to go shopping with the masses and reading this thread, has made me realize, just how lucky I am.