Stanton Champion

While shopping in the HEB before leaving San Antonio, I ran across their store brand version of Wheat Thins, unimaginatively called Thin Wheat.

Store brands have a unique problem: they must look appealing while still communicating that they’re knock-offs of another product. Still, a branding crackers with “Thin Wheat” communicates more about knock-off and less about appealing. Consumers generally expect store brands to be less tasty than regular brands; so when the box is completely unimaginative, their expectations have no hope at all. Thin Wheat conveys Thin Taste, Thin Value, and Thin Quality.

Store brands are inherently low cost products, and people buy them to save money. However, a company can still at least try to make them interesting to the buyer some of the time.