Grocery shopping has become a confusing quandary.
While it's true that much is shared culturally between the US and Australia, much is different. Gone are the familiar, comfortable brands with which I've spent a lifetime doing laundry or munching at breakfast. Now I stand in the detergent aisle disoriented and distracted by the exotic sounding names (Omo sensitive and Cuddly small & mighty).
How does one choose a product when one has zero brand recognition?
As a consumer, my answer so far? A lot of label reading and asking B. However, time constrains both. Oh how I long for the days when years of advertising made it easy for me to choose. When I knew who offered what, I settled on "my brand" and I blissfully lived there.
And don't even get me started on "Tasty cheese". I still don't understand how "Tasty" can be a variety of cheese.
Fortunately, some brands cross the equator and merrily greeted me in the southern hemisphere. Unfortunately, the product in the familiar box isn't necessarily the same. I don't know what sort of deal General Mills made in order to bring Cherrios to Oz, but it was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. A Cherrio should not be covered in a sugary glaze so thick one can hardly bite into them.
As a marketer, it's an interesting study in brand identity and recognition. Although I'm too close to the subject matter to be truly objective about it, when I can pull back a little, I find it fascinating that I relied so much on autopilot when selecting my purchases. It also reinforced for me the notion that marketers need to capture a consumer when they're young. Had I not been faced with the loss of all "my brands", I doubt I would have ever deviated from most of my original choices.
When B first came to the US, he faithfully read the junk mail each day. I thought it odd at the time, but it makes complete sense to me now.
