Re: Philly Cream Cheese
I used to buy this stuff exclusively, until I looked closely at the label, only to find out it was made in St Louis or some such place. I felt deceived. Now I don’t buy it anymore. 
Cigarettes - American Spirits Lights
—ducks and runs—
Wrigley Field
Flavored Water Beverage: Clearly Canadian
Cheap Soda: RC Cola
Guitar Strings/Picks: D’Addario
Vanilla Ice Cream: Hood
Salad Dressing: Ken’s
I’m brand loyal to a large degree, but not necessarily out of devotion to particular products. In the last ten years I’ve purchased eight Gateway computers, but the last one I bought was not a Gateway (they couldn’t provide what I wanted). My current car is the same make as the previous, as the next one will probably be.
But my brand loyalty stems largely from the fact that I hate to shop! Once I’ve found a solution to a need, I’ll stick with it. When “my” brand of shampoo disappeared from the store shelves, it was a drag. I had to get some shampoo, but I ponder the subject of shampoo so rarely I have no reference criteria with which to evaluate the options. I finally grabbed a bottle of something, partly because it was cheap and, probably, partly because it was a brand I recognized as being around for a while (although, just now, I had to go to the bathroom and look to be able to relate that it is Revlon Flex). It worked, so I’ll just buy that until the brand disappears.
As I couldn’t, off the top of my head, name most of my regular brands, I’ve probably been fooled a time or two by those marketing tricksters who redesign their package to look like that of a hot seller. Omigosh! I’ve probably trundled merrily off to the office completely unaware that I was in fact not adorned with the very best deodorant, rather wearing just an inferior product that shilled itself in “best” drag.
Oh I almost forgot.
BIG RED CINAMMON GUM!!! Actually, I think it’s just the cinammon part I like. I have cinammon air-freshener, cinammon brown Pop-Tarts, fresh cinammon sticks, and about every other thing you could think of. I’m tellin y’all, I think it’s addictive.
And Tres Flores brillantine (sp?) hair ,uh, stuff.
I guess my ultimate contribution to this thread runs along the lines of, “Is there a difference?”
I’m usually a big Kroger/Meijer brand kind of guy. However, there are a few items I won’t budge on. (Oddly, I don’t hold any particular brand loyalty to anyone else, I just find the store brands to be markedly inferior.)
–Paper towels. I’ve never used a quality store-brand paper towel.
–Plastic wrap. If you’re talking sandwich bags or tinfoil, you can buy the store-brand stuff. Cheap plastic wrap, however, is no bargain.
–Peanut butter. Oddly enough, this came from a Pepsi Challenge-like test at Kroger, pitting their PB against Jif. I had always bought Kroger brand before, but having the two side by side just showed me how much the Kroger brand sucked by comparison. I made a big deal of this to the woman giving the test; I don’t think that’s the response they were hoping for.
The only other thing I have any particular brand loyalty to is Bicycle playing cards. (Yes, it matters–I buy 3-4 decks a month.) Bee cards are actually far superior in quality, but certain things about them make them poor for the magician, and they can be hard to find. Bicycles are the best balance of quality, usability, familiarity, availability, and price, so that’s what I use.
Dr. J
Ruffles potato chips
Bullseye Barbeque sauce
Maxell CD-R’s
Pert plus shampoo
Zildjian cymbals
Gillette Mach 3 razors
Durex condoms
Goodyear automobile tires
Timex watches
On a lot of other things I’m flexible, but on these I am adamant.
I’d like to say that you are the ONLY person that I’ve ever heard of with a toothpaste brand loyalty, and I’ve asked MANY people this question.
Can’t live without:
Colgate toothpaste (Crest…UCK!!)
Legg’s Pantyhose
Pringle’s Potato Crisps
Velveeta and Rotel dip (some people actually use Cheez Whiz and picante sauce and claim it’s just as good–feh!!)
Reynolds Wrap Aluminum foil
Maybelline Great Lash Mascara (Very Black)
I definitely concur about Kraft Mac and Cheese…it is truly the cheesiest.
For the most part, the branding racket is just that. A racket. Not always, of course, but increasingly what you’re buying is a generic product in a heavily advertised label. Examples: Anhauser-Busch makes Bud, Natural, and Busch brands and their respective light beers. It advertises Bud heavily and it costs twice as much for the same beer. Trust me, I worked in a brewery, and I know about these things.
Have you checked out a box of Wheaties or Cheerios lately? They’re generic. Not made by General Mills anymore; merely “distributed”, i.e., marketed by, General Mills Sales Inc. Yup, and they tastes the same as the Safeway brand, but cost twice as much. All that advertising on Saturday morning kids’ shows has to be recouped.How about Hormel Chili? Bingo. “Distributed by”, not “made by”.
Of course, these products are no different than when they were made by these companies. They are made by the same processes and food scientists. I have also worked in the food industry. I know. Which only proves what bullshit branding and advertising are.
Now, this doesn’t mean that all branding is bullshit. I usually go with Consumer Reports. They usually have The Straight Dope on whatever they test. Kinda cute how I ended that if I do say so myself.
mints: peppermint altoids. (I’m so picky about this.)
root beer: IBC
gum: big red
Not the only one I’ve heard of. My father was reading the Sunday paper last week, and he said, “Look, Crest toothpaste and Colgate toothbrushes are on sale! That’s just what we use.” So I guess Mom and Dad were going to stock up. I never remember any other brand of toothpaste but Crest growing up, but the toothbrushes were Oral-B. Something must have changed that somewhere. In fact, when I was really little, they always bought the same color toothbrushes. Mom’s was red, and Dad’s was blue. They hadn’t settled on a permanent color for me yet (or maybe with children’s toothbrushes, you had to take what you could get. It’s kind of that way today.) Then their dentist started giving away toothbrushes with checkups, and that messed the whole system up, because he’d just give them any old color.
I use Aquafresh Whitening toothpaste right now. Someone had once told me some wives’ tale about how putting Pepsodent toothpaste on your pimples would make them go away, so I bought a tube. Of course, when the pimple trick didn’t work, I had to use the rest of the tube on my teeth. Yecch! I hated that stuff. And my teeth didn’t even feel as clean.