Downbranding: Finding Cheaper Alternatives
July 2nd, 2008 | POSTED BY ROB
Here’s an interesting post on downbranding - buying a less expensive version of a product which is available in 2 or more different brands. Possibly the best example of this is supermarket own brand food, e.g. baked beans.
You know that it wouldn’t make sense for Tesco to run it’s own factories for producing everything it stocks on its shelves, so they must use other producer’s products branded as their own - for example, Heinz baked beans could also make Tesco own brand beans (I’m not saying they do, but it could happen).
I’ve been wondering whether there is a website which suggests cheaper alternatives to popular foods, perhaps with user reviews to tell whether the cheaper version is of a similar quality?
I’ve seen some posts on the MoneySavingExpert forum written by people who have inside knowledge about which company produces which product (e.g. “we produce biscuits for McVities, but also do Tescos own brand”), and I know that MySupermarket.co.uk suggests cheaper alternatives too, but having done some (admittedly limited) research I’m not aware of any other website that does this - perhaps something that could be built in a “wikipedia” like way, with many people contributing?
I quite like the idea of it, what are your thoughts?
photo credit: gierszewski
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