January 9, 2007
THE 'SS' STANDS FOR SAVINGS
Private label brands are basically just knock-offs of more recognizable brands that are sold under the name of the store in which they're being sold. Drug stores are a great place to save money by switching to the private label brand. Why spend $7 on a bottle of NyQuil when you can buy the bottle that's essentially the same and with an identical amount of the active drug ingredient for $2 less?
One of the reasons private label products are cheaper than name brands is that the former doesn't have to spend as much (or any) money on marketing as the latter does. Offsetting that price advantage, however, is the lack of brand equity, i.e., the level of trust, affinity, and predisposition to purchase one product over its substitutes for a number of reasons. Brand equity, which is bought dearly with many advertising dollars and years of reputable operating practices, can be diluted heavily when a competitor attempts to co-opt the "name" competitor's brand equity. That is why a chain like McDonalds tends to frown on competing fast food restaurants opening under the name of MacDonalds with a red, white, and yellow color scheme.
That's why I had to laugh when I recently saw a bottle of private label cough medicine called Tussin. It is clearly an alternative to the name brand Robitussin product. Apparently, one of the likely ways the manufacturers of Tussin decided to reduce costs was by replacing its marketing director with an alcoholic drug-addled homeless person, who spent most of his workdays huddled under the desk in his office, occasionally screaming for more "TUSSIN! TUSSIN!" to chug down. And just like that, the name stuck.
The great thing about Tussin is that it can't even claim to be anything other than a blatant abbreviation of the brand it's trying to copy. Robitussin is a completely made up word whose only recognizability is due to decades of thoughtless repetition. Tussin is like a private label analgesic called MyLenol. Online retailer Drugstore.com, conscious that the makers of Tussin were straying into a grey area, includes the following notice under the product on its site:
*This product is not manufactured or distributed by A.H. Robins Company, Inc., owner of the registered trademark Robitussin®.
I'm sure A.H. Robbins Company, Inc. appreciates any confusion avoided.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at January 9, 2007 7:56 PM
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