Generic Brand Purpose
There is a lot of buzz about what brands are today and what their roles are in society (good or bad). The moniker of “brand purpose” is not a new one, but is one that has taken on new meaning in recent years as branding and marketing people continue to struggle with ways to invent value for their audiences—and justify their high salaries. But I would like to reminisce about a simpler time and discuss a forgotten hero of branding from which we all could learn: Generic brand products.
Now, generic or store brand products still exist today, but other than not being a familiar “brand name,” they attempt to blend into the retail landscape, mimicking their larger big-name competitors. However, back in the ’70s and '80s, generic brands were truly that: generic. They stood out like a row of sore thumbs. Black & white labels with just simple text that labeled the contents of their can, box, or bottle.
Generic products were the antithesis of CPG branding of the day. Without the costs of glitzy packaging design, marketing strategy, or advertising campaigns these simple products offered beer, cheese, cereal, and a plethora of other consumer favorites at a significant discount—often with a parity quality of their sleek branded shelf mates. Many were packaged in the same factories, with the same ingredients, right alongside their branded counterparts.
As a brand designer, I love the pure, simple, and functional design that generic products displayed. No violators. No marketing fluff. No brand promise. They were beautiful objects in their deliberate lacking. But I also love the reason they existed; their brand purpose was so embedded in their presentation: they were there to save you money, and they did it in such an honest and unapologetic way.
High inflation and economic recession were rampant in America during the decades when generic products flourished. No one needed to be told or sold on why these products were on the shelf. Their value was inherent to the need they fulfilled. It was ingrained into the brand — or lack of brand — that people didn’t require any marketing guidance to understand their worth. Another rarely discussed benefit was that generic brands didn’t clutter the marketing landscape. By not participating in advertising, generic brands had the added differentiator of not bombarding consumers with sales messages—today this would be a marketing device and a branding differentiator.
A few new brands have clued-in to the power of the generic brand business model and are revitalizing it in new ways. “Brandless,” being the most obvious, has literally built a brand out of being a generic brand. Their model is very much aligned with the ideal of simple quality products that eschew the costs and overhead of traditional marketing and distribution. Though sadly, they have started actively marketing their brand and products—but I digress.
Too many brands today are trying to manufacture brand purpose that never existed in the brand, or worse, are trying to adopt unrelated cultural shifts in an attempt to make their brands relevant to new audiences. Brand purpose isn’t something you sell… it is something you just are. Many of today’s brands could learn from the simple idea that generic brands embodied. Instead of trying to “elevate the world’s consciousness” or “sell happiness,” more brands should focus on what their core reason to exist is and make sure their purpose aligns with that. Generic brands tried to sell you nothing. They didn’t want to be a part of your life or change your world view. This was their power. They simply existed to fill a need, at a fair price. Imagine if more companies remembered to do that?
Got photos or images of generic products or have seen them in wild recently? Send them my way.
