Perusing this week’s SuperStore flyer I saw the “Holiday BIG BRAND$ Sale” (yes they used a dollar sign for an “S”). Anyway, I thought it was odd that they’re associating a number of products with their larger, parent brands. Not only do I think these brands are big enough on their own, the real problem is that they’re undermining the products’ stories.
Take Chef Boyardee for example. You’ve seen the ads where Hector’s mother or grandmother takes him to the market to buy fresh ingredients for his pasta sauce. Inspired, he is still making it the same way she did. Or something. That’s what I want to think about, not a big, cold factory run by ConAgra Foods, which, without the addition of “Foods” would probably pass as a chemical fertilizer company.
Furthermore, this is the first i’ve ever heard of “parmalat” and it doesn’t sound very appetizing, and Unilever is a soap company. What’s wrong with putting Black Diamond cheese or Hellman’s mayo on sale? As a marketing guy I don’t even want to be reminded of the bigger brands behind these products, so I can’t understand how this is a smart marketing tactic for the general public. Or is it just me?
Yeah… This flyer was not well thought through. My understanding is that these companies work very hard to not profile the big names behind them, so this feels like a weird and mistaken departure.