Reaching for the yellow bag
Nov 8th, 2011 by elichan
Chips. Who doesn’t love reaching into the bag and pulling out a nice big salty potato chip to crunch-crunch in your mouth? (But personally for myself, I have this habit of crushing the bag before actually tearing open the top so the chips inside will become smaller and more evenly seasoned, but that’s another story.)
Back then, when I was younger, I would always succeed in persuading my mom to buy me the oh-heavenly Miss. Vickies (still my favourite!) or Crunchies (the skinny type of Cheetos). They would always be stocked up in the pantry 24/7.
Nowadays, though I don’t eat it quite as often, what I find in the pantry is completely different from what it was before. My brother still has the passion and love to go out and buy the chips for me, so he has the final say on what brand/flavour to get. Unfortunately, although I do appreciate the effort, he usually just goes to Superstore – to get their no name brand chips, aka. the chips inside the yellow bag.
Well, the yellow bag just gives out the impression that the chips inside might not be as good. And my meaning of good refers to the flavour, the thickness of the chip… etc. Perhaps this is due to how I have positioned the branding of the yellow bag in my mind- as a cheap, affordable brand that reaches my minimum satisfaction level.
In a blog found from an external source on brandchannel.com, Miller suggests that the current trend for North American consumers is the tendency to reach for the lower-priced items on the shelves, whether they may be the ones on sale or just the more affordable brands. As most of us are continuously struggling to recover from the economic recession, our act of ‘buying down’ is certainly not something out of the blue; it’s part of the typical consumer’s mindset to purchase an item that can just maximize our satisfaction at the bare minimum with respect to our budget (aka. our wallet).
While the trend will continue for at least several more years, the no name brand has successfully targeted the right segment in the market (and considering the economic factor in the macroenvironment, they have done it at the right time too!)
I must admit, however, that the no name brand chips were better than I had expected. But nothing can beat Miss. Vickes. Nothing.