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 CATHERINE GETCHES Brand boggledWHATEVER HAPPENED to the generic aisle? It's not that I'm pining for plastic bags of puffed rice cereal, paper towels, or cotton swabs, but lately I wish choices at the grocery store were a little more black and white. When I was growing up most consumer decisions pitted brand against brand (or nonbrand). You drank But these days, even if you want to practice brand loyalty, it's harder than ever. There are more and more specialized products lining store shelves -- green tea infused, calcium enriched, Mega and Mini varieties, Diet with this or that, and Atkins friendly. It's as if marketers want to make us feel like our shopping experience is as customized as our Sure, one New Coke flopped in the '80s, but today there's Coke with Lemon, with Lime, with Splenda, Coke II or CO2, Vanilla Coke, not to mention the diet and caffeine varieties. Once you decide between Minute Maid or Tropicana orange juice, brace yourself for permutations of pulp, vitamins, and styles for your heart, your kids, or your home. Chewing gum is probably the worst offender. At the National Confectioners Association trade show, more than 80 new gums were introduced as gum sales reached $3.3 billion last year. But if you're simply looking to buy the original flavor of, say, Trident, good luck. And yes, Viagra gum is on the way. But what's next? Product personalization. I half-expect my face to appear on boxes of pasta or cans of tuna I might like. Cadbury Adams, the maker of M&Ms, has tapped into the trend. Sure, plain chocolate M&Ms are tasty. But now consumers can customize candies with personalized messages, colors, and even packaging. The inundation of pseudo-personalized product lines comes at a strange time. Now that there are virtual googols of information at our fingertips to help us navigate, it's as if we need a search engine on our grocery cart. Madison Avenue calls it brand or line extension -- an apt name since it has extended our shopping experience. According to an economic theory called the ''The Long Tail," we have shifted from mass markets to niche markets thanks to the Internet. Popularized most recently by Chris Anderson of Wired magazine, The Long Tail refers to the huge demand for a deep catalog of alternatives. Unlimited selection is the new blockbuster. This explains the overwhelming success of According to Anderson (his book on the subject is due out soon), ''The Long Tail is about the economics of abundance -- what happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture start to disappear and everything becomes available to everyone." People have been branding themselves and then extending their brand for years. Martha Kostrya changed her name, started a magazine called Martha Stewart Living, and spawned books, television shows, newspaper columns, and home products. But these days when extending your brand isn't enough, why not just extend your name? P. Diddy is changing his again -- Sean Combs, then Puffy Combs, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, and now just Diddy. And then there's Donald Trump, who doesn't just have a real estate company and a TV show, he has a magazine, a cologne, Trump University, and a blog. Now that life has gone convenience store -- you can get everything everywhere -- I guess it will be easier for everyone to be indecisive. And if there are too many choices at bigger stores I can stick to smaller ones. You can practically subsist at Catherine Getches is a freelance writer. |
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