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| 01.11.04 | |
| more German stories? |
Retail brands are 'becoming cults'
Aldi, A&P, Migros &
Co. are taking over from traditional manufacturer brands.
| Traditionally, the brand landscape
has been dominated by manufacturer trademarks. More and more, however, shoppers are
putting their trust in lower-profile, less-promoted retail brand names, to the point where
these are developing into 'cults'. That, at least, is the opinion of Inga Wermuth, head of the Hamburg agency Satelliten Media Design and founder of one of Germany's most established brand- related websites, slogans.de.Together with a partner, Wermuth set up her current agency last year. Now she has been talking on slogans.de about the growing power of retail brands. |
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| The image of retail brands, Inga says, has changed. One-time 'no-name' products such as 'Ja!', 'Tip' and 'Gut & Günstig' ('good & cheap') or 'A&P' are now not only accepted and consumed by shoppers, they are also preferred as brands in their own right. Do you now cook your pasta 'Aldi-dente style'? For some years now, the cook-book of the same name has been claiming a firm place on the shelves of German kitchens. The book, which shows recipes for dishes that can be made using only products bought at the discount grocery chain's outlets, has even been extended into a successful range of cooking, diet and household titles. A real community of fans has grown up. On the internet, 'extreme' Aldi fans post notices whenever new stores are opened or old ones closed, or instructions for the best route to take through the larger outlets in order to pick up all the bargains. The love of cheaper brands, however, goes much further than just Aldi. 'M-Budget', the low-priced private label range marketed by the Swiss chain Migros, for example, holds a successful series of parties, again exclusively featuring 'M-Budget' branded products. The first official 'M-Budget Party' was held in Lucerne at the beginning of this year, Wermuth says, and was so successful that the concept has been taken on tour across Switzerland. The concept? From the decoration to the toilet paper and the free soft drinks, everything bears the 'M-Budget' brand. The design of many brands and products sold through discounters has also improved greatly in recent years, contributing to their attractiveness. Even those ugly Aldi carrier bags have been given a redesign, with a Bremen-based graphic artist having turned them into a trendy accessory with cult appeal. Intensive contact with discount brands is about much more than just the consumption act. The dominance of branded products in recent decades has grown so much in recent years that some sort of 'resistance' was called for. If, in the 1908s, people loaded 'Ibu' crisps from Aldi into their car in a hald-embarrassed manner, such brands have noe established themselves to the point where their quality can hardly be differentiated from that of 'real' brands, as an ever-growing number of studies and consumer tests prove. So it's hardly surprising that these 'no names' should have grown into independent brands in their own right. |
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