Are you a sucker for good marketing? Beautiful packaging? Do new or different boxes/bags/tins on the shelf sway you from your regular brand?
I’m torn on this, really. In many ways I like what I like and I know what I like. But I also love beautiful packages: labels, prints, materials.
And I’m frugal. I like ‘cheap’ chips; even if I’m in the mood for pricier brand name ones, I’ll often pass them over and get the generic, less expensive version.
(Though, to be fair it’s a particular generic version, not just any store brand over name brand. I know my salty chips!)
Last year my son and I bought a different brand of basmati rice based on its blue and silver bag.
And my mother gave me some olive oil from a friend whose workplace (in Italy) grows, presses and bottles their own oil in simple green tins. I couldn’t part with the canister for awhile after I’d finished the oil.
Recently I bought a bag of sea salt in pale blue packaging with the image of a worker raking the salt; I’d never seen it before. It is a product of Spain and was on special so I took a chance.
My son – who chose the rice – noticed the sea salt on the counter straight away.
I remember, years ago, buying a different brand of tortilla chips, strictly because of the bag, and when I took them home and admitted as much, my husband couldn’t believe it. “What?! You fell for the marketing and and nice packaging?”
What can I say? It was a beautiful package, containing salty chips.
