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They’re all trying to keep up with Target.

Generic and house brands invented white space packaging.

It was a way to save money. No design budget == white box or can with simple text.

On a related note, remember that the term ‘white label’ refers to house brands.

Actually, I found that the new packaging is a huge throwback to white-box generics of old, and I can’t get that out of my head.

... don’t get me wrong, it has some sass … I’m guessing it has something to do with the level of white space ;o)

I bet that scotch is anything but scotish. Probably the dregs of petrol cans and watered down white spirit with a dribble of tea for colour.

Woah, did Draplin do those liquor bottles? :) I would absolutely buy those generic liquors. Would be perfect for a Lost watching party. And if they suck – pour them through a Brita water filter a few times. We tried a Brita vodka taste test a couple xmases ago, and the Brita vodka was everyones favorite.

Beware the desire to: “take [a] brand and bring it or evolve it into a more current or modern state.”

Tropicana’s rebranding debacle did more than create a customer-relations fiasco. It hit the brand in the wallet.

I’ve noticed that No Name (house brand here in Canada) and Presidents choice has gone totally helvelitica on solid colours. I really enjoy it.

Stick with genuine Cheerios. They are better.

And I love the hand-drawn lizard on the Fruity Puffs! (Although i’m not too sure if showing a reptile eating your cereal is particularly appetizing..)

I remember Jewel carrying these generic foods in black packaging w/ orange stencil lettering—looked like military surplus or something.

Target has recently redesigned their house brand as well.

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/bulls_eye_flies_up_and_up_up.php

Same thing up here with our President’s Choice brands in Grocery Stores (for example). Though, I prefer the white backgrounds to Yellow.

Waitrose, in the UK has some absolutely fantastic packaging:

http://tinypic.com/r/equhvl/3 http://tinypic.com/r/eziekh/3 http://tinypic.com/r/2n0ljba/3

Links:

herbs

jam

honey

The Marks & Spencer house brand in the UK has great packaging with full color photos on them: chicken with bacon lattice and baked crumbles

Trader Joe’s also has fun packaging with photography on it: ice cream sandwiches and mac and cheese.

I love when the packaging doesn’t get in the way of the actual food.

http://www.thedieline.com/blog/images/2008/09/08/pasta.jpg

The label Pasta is almost redundant here.

No one mentioned the Tropicana debacle?

TBH , the new packaging makes the broccoli actually look good. #fail

In France, Carrefour did exactly the same.

They used to have several generic brands : Carrefour (of course), Reflets de France (which already had “authentic looking packagings), and especially “numero 1” for the lowest priced products. The “numero 1” packagings were absolutely awful, people were ashamed to be seen buying that stuff :

http://www.carrefourtunisie.com/web/fr/medias/produits/prodn1/CHIPS_big.jpg http://www.carrefourtunisie.com/web/fr/medias/produits/prodn1/essui-tout_big.jpg

What they did receltely, was to drop the “numero 1” brand, and to create a new brand (for quite the same products), “Carrefour discount”. All the packagings of these products are now similar : white background, big crisp picture of the product.

http://www.couleurgeek.com/img/carrefour-discount.jpg

They’ve not been afraid to use the word “discount” in it, even if it is quite badly connoted in French, but I think it is mostly due to the fact that the “Carrefour” supermarkets in France are believed to be intrinsically targeted to the upper class. That’s also why the “numero 1” brand was not very effective : buying these products was considered by many as a social humiliation, like “he’s going to Carrefour like he’s pretending he’s rich, but he can’t even afford Carrefour products – not to mention brand products…”.

Now, you can see almost any customer at Carrefour’s buying Carrefour Discount products, while it used to be quite segregated before : people who were buying “numero 1” products were often buying only this brand, and the people who could afford better quality products (let’s say it quite clearly, not all “numero 1” products were of bad quality, but some were really awful) wouldn’t even consider buying “numero 1”, even for products which they would acknowledge that they were of equal quality to what they were buying, simply to avoid being seen with that brand…

I picked up some natural/organic raisins at the local Food Lion recently, and it wasn’t until later that I realized that it was their store brand of “organic” stuff.

Packaging is very well done.

To wit: http://www.foodlion.com/NaturesPlace/

Haha, love the punchline.

The packaging for Publix house brands is very elegant.

Wow those old off-brands are quite stark! Yeah Safeway did a really nice job with their Organics line. The new Great Value looks good here, but in stores I was a little disappointed.

Archer Farms has always been my weakness. Not the food, just the packaging.

This reminds me of three awesome things:

1. Repo Man

2. They Live

3. the “No Frills” range of products from UK chain/franchise “Happy Shopper” which took white-label to the ultimate in ugly-basic.

As it relates to the Walmart goods. I think they are an upgrade (I’m a designer). I recently, however, saw a post on Facebook from an average consumer that said, “Just because I buy cheap doesn’t mean I want things to look cheap.” Eye of the beholder, really.