The Genericide Effect: The Products We Refuse to Buy Generic

You say "Kleenex," but do you really mean tissue?

This week, Anna and Kristy dive into the quirky world of brand names that have become part of our everyday language—even when we’re grabbing the off-brand version. From Q-tips to Band-Aids, we spill which products we’ll go generic on... and which ones we’ll never betray. Plus, we unpack the surprisingly tricky side of becoming too famous (lookin’ at you, Yo-Yo 👀). It's a light-hearted episode full of shopping confessions, marketing oddities, and a few strong opinions on floss.

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Transcript

this one I'm not sure about vaseline oh I guess that one works cuz I wouldn't say get me the petroleum jelly yes please no please don't say it don't say that please don't say that it's grosser yeah it's like It's like the word moist it's like But Vaseline Yeah yeah i think has cornered the petroleum jelly market they they dominate

[Music] okay someday I'm going to be big enough that someone else monitors me oh no I forgot my emotional support

the real the real fan of the show this is He needs a face like we should draw in Sharpie we should draw him a face i feel like she is a he or a she um non-binary non-binary okay it identifies as a lint roller oh I wonder if Okay so today we're talking about brand names and I'm wondering if lint roller is a brand name yeah I don't know that's a good question anna's back with me today hi i'm so happy to be here with you i'm happy you're here too you look so cute today thank you so much on the past few podcasts this is what I hate about monitoring myself the past few podcasts I because I don't know what I look like in the thing i just hit record and then I get the footage back and I'm like "Okay I was sitting like a lunatic whole time." You look nice and I'm loving I'm loving the loafers too like you look These were a Paris uh Paris find nice quick quick story on this because I could just go on with stories forever is I went to one shop where this French man was just like very intense looking to make a sale and he was like they are on sale from $99 to like $59 and just like very very pushy salesman and I was just like I don't I don't want them and he was so he went from being like the switch of like very nice to like soon as he realized I wasn't going to spend money he got very mean and so then I went to like two doors down literally same exact shoe exact same brand everything a very nice older man who this was his like this was his shop it had been his shop for 80 years it was very obvious he had the same shoes $20 and I was like "Okay I would way rather give," His name was Jean Paul "i would way rather give you Jean Paul old man my money especially $20 than that mean guy who was being fake nice to me there's nothing I hate more than pushy sales people especially when they're being phony and fake yeah just just terrible i was glad i'm like I I'm not going to spend my money with you simply because you're bullying me yeah exactly especially now it really It's You're accomplishing the opposite of what you want to accomplish when you're acting that way mhm we were just talking before the cameras were on i need to check the time anyway um I didn't turn the light on the top of the stairs okay squirrel brain before the camera started running about how we're going to do an episode coming soon about fashion in the workplace you guys like that idea leave it in the comments anna's coming back anna's coming back for that so um but today we're talking about we had this kind of like random idea about talking about the psychology of um brand names um and loyal brand loyalty and brand dominance and this is something I've thought about for a long time and I think that there were there's times that I haven't realized um and maybe you guys don't realize this either that we call certain brand items names even when they're not for instance band-aid yep q-tip i need a band-aid but you don't actually need the brand of Yeah band-aid but you're calling it a band-aid and like why do we do that that I find that super interesting because it's like you do it without even realizing it it's just like this subconscious unconscious subconscious it's in the conscious it's in the It's in your consciousness somewhere that that's what it's called even though it's not necessarily what it's called right like I was just saying about the lint roller i said "Let's use a Sharpie and put draw a face on it." Like a permanent marker a permanent marker is also a Sharpie right and it's and one of the things when we were researching this is because it's a shortcut right saying a permanent marker we know when you say the word Sharpie we know that what you mean permanent marker but also it signals to us a quality permanent marker yeah that's true i never buy like generic Sharpies i always buy Sharpie Sharpies sharpie Sharpies so it's kind of like Sharpies cornered the market on quality when it comes to permanent markers true very true and so like how did they get to that place how did Saran wrap get to because I never when I'm pulling out my plastic wrap yep i call it saran wrap even if I'm haven't bought Saran wrap yeah and that's actually a good because you were asking me earlier what brands I will never buy the generic of and that's one is like um Saran wrap yeah what's what is it glide or whatever i know what you're talking about is it Glide glade it's not Glade no anyway I never buy like the store brand of plastic wrap because it's terrible it doesn't work it doesn't tear off the thing right it doesn't stick right so that's an excellent example for me of cuz like I'll buy the generic of almost anything but for that I won't because it works the best so to me I associate it with quality for sure so let me go let's go first down um my list of um items that So first of all let's let's let's um uh define what this is called because I didn't I didn't know this word the this phenomenon is called genericide when it's a trademark becomes so common it's no longer legally protected um when a brand name becomes a default word for a product so let's talk about some of these generic side words that um I was able to find and some of them are like "Oh for sure." And some of them are like "Oh really i don't know." So one of them is a Kleenex yep like and and I generally say tissue more than Kleenex but sometimes people say "Can you get me a Kleenex?" Yeah and we know exactly what they mean yep um Q-tips yeah definitely ziplo that can I have a Ziploc bag yeah even if it's not Ziploc brand tupperware tupperware yeah i always say Tupperware i need Tupperware saran wrap windex windex that actually is something that like I don't like buying the generic of Windex i always buy actual Windex yep but you say everyone says Windex not Can you get me the glass cleaner yeah yeah exactly you wouldn't you wouldn't no um it's a shortcut but um Lysol oh I didn't I wouldn't have thought of that one but you wouldn't say "Can you get me the disinfectant disinfectant spray?" The disinfecting wipes get the Lysol wipes um or like Clorox wipes i always say Clorox wipes yes or Clorox wipes yeah this one I'm not sure about vaseline oh Vaseline but I wouldn't say I guess that one works because I wouldn't say get me the petroleum jelly yes please no please don't say it don't say that please don't say that it's grosser yeah it's like It's like the word moist it's like but Vaseline yeah i think has cornered the petroleum jelly market they dominate but I don't think I need to get the brand name of it no definitely not isn't that interesting too but I call it Vaseline yep um Post-it notes post-its post-it notes don't call them sticky notes i go back and forth i go back and forth post-it or sticky notes do you have a post-it note do you have a sticky note i guess I guess maybe that one is a little bit 7525 for me yeah it kind of goes back and forth but but that is a good example yeah um scotch tape definitely i always call it scotch tape because what else would you call it clear tape clear adhesive tape clear adhesive tape i guess just tape but then you have to specify what do you want duct tape yeah duct tape is another good one duct tape or like and I don't think that was on my list no that's a good one yeah cuz that's another one where the brand of duct tape works way better than fake duct tape yes i don't even know yeah f like generic generic duct tape yeah this one's for the older crowd uh Xerox xerox yeah i I don't think I've ever called it a photocopy i I just say a cop like let's make co I need a copy of this i've never say let you know like I need a xerox of this 100 years ago we used to say can you xerox this when my mother was uh working in the office of my dad's uh trucking company i'm sure she probably had a xerox machine and would xerox things but yeah not so much anymore there's more on xerox legal stuff that we're going to talk about later white Out oh I never would have thought of that one i didn't even know that was a brand name i didn't know that was a brand name i like that's not I guess it makes sense because it's not like Elmer it's correction fluid also a Oh that's way worse that's right there with petroleum jelly it gets worse correction fluid no no no no originally it's called liquid paper yes yes okay um this one I don't know binder clip binder clip i don't know what I call a binder clip this is like plastic thing with the metal yep strap things that come back yep yes often called an acho clip i thought they were called an alligator clip is that not what they're called acho clip acho clip acc clip i don't know i I I guess it's a binder clip uh band-aid we talked about chapstick yeah that's a big one i think a lot of people call any type of lip balm chapstick chapstick uh on the fence about this one pampers i feel like I just call them diapers yeah as women who don't have kids I think we are not the authorities on Yeah this subject we'll have to ask Deb or I mean I I raised a lot of babies but I feel like I always just called them diapers not not a pamper but anyway thermos Thermos yes I do always call it a thermos regardless of any kind of vacuum insulated bottle is a thermos even if it's not a thermos epipen i guess any kind of epinephrine pen you would call an EpiPen even if it's not EpiPen brand interesting yeah I wouldn't have thought of that one either cuz Yeah that's something that I'm sure there's tons of different generic versions but you call it that you'd call it an EpiPen it is an EpiPen yeah coke now this is interesting because this is something especially culturally people will say "I want to get a Coke." Even if they just want a Sprite so this I really wanted to ask you about because when I was talking about this with Aaron yesterday he's like "Who calls Sprite Coke?" I'm like "I don't know apparently someone in Christiey's life will call a Sprite a Coke." It's a It's a southern thing I think i mean I've I've heard people use Coke for like any type of dark cola like I want a Coke they didn't have Coke i got you this but like it's to you turn your mic just a little bit so I want to make sure it stays in front of your face there you go better y okay so anyway I'm curious the story do you have like a story behind It's not people calling all types of sodas coke no it's not and I'm I am from the north um it's it's what I've learned is it's a southern thing or it can be a southern correct us in the comments if especially if you're from the south that people will refer to can I have a Coke when they just mean that they want a soda or a pop yeah yeah huh interesting and so Coke the name Coke has just kind of capitalized on soda yeah in my It's not a It's not a It's not a New England thing for sure yeah yeah and And I was raised in South Carolina and then Florida and I don't remember every anyone ever saying like Coke for every type of soda m but I definitely remember as a kid people saying I want a Coke when they want like it's Pepsi but okay whatever dark dark cola whatever was Coke like cuz we had like RC cola and yes all these other tab do you remember Tab Tab all these other like generic brands of cola that were not Coca-Cola but we would just call it Coke yeah well it's cornered the market on the dark sodas anyway yes yes

well I would like some I would like some outside input on that then like are you calling soda coke are you from another area that does that yeah I would I would be curious to know like what states that's common in because or maybe it was just not I had very small circles or maybe this is misinformation i don't know maybe this is just total misinformation fake news fake news

i listened to the Free Dive podcast and I was misinformed about soda don't fact check us in this case I do want you to fact check us okay um popsicle yes for sure always call it a popsicle all frozen juice pops are popsicles frozen juice pops are popsicles yeah it's just all a popsicle even if it comes in that cardboard um toilet paper roll you remember oh my gosh you remember the pushup orange popsicles yeah oh my gosh I want one now i know me too but yeah it's it's basically a toilet paper roll with toilet paper ice cream

i love toilet paper ice cream what are those things only in America would we will we put food inside a toilet paper rolls oh my gosh I loved those yeah me too those are like the best oh they were like Flintstone themed I think oh I need to look now um Oh I Oh I loved the How do I even look this up toilet paper ice cream okay so they were also called push pops push pops that's what it is push pops but I still just called it a popsicle like all types of any frozen treat was a popsicle a push pop is the candy was it not a push pop no remember push pops are like the candy ones that were hard oh yeah i want push pop like ice cream

no not an icy push push-up push up they're push-ups push up they're called push-ups push-ups oh my word yeah and there's a Flintstone one you're right okay yeah that's like in my head I was picturing an orange and they had like a cap on them and you take the cap off yep guys the the product itself was orange colored and flavored and I remember it having Flintstones on it guys these were in the '9s amazing oh my word rugrats oh goodness we need to find those i hope that they exist somewhere somewhere yeah on a nostalgic note side note did you see that um igloo I think this also kind of goes with this conversation because igloo coolers were like Yeah all coolers were an igloo mhm at one point for me anyway but did you see the igloo bringing back like the retro coolers with like the retro colors maybe the like plastic yeah you'd push the button and the top would come down and then you get that satisfying click when you put it back up but they they're coming back with like the 80s themed nostalgic colors and stuff of the igloo coolers very like neon right yeah that's amazing so just to date us a little more all the gins are going to be like "What what's an igloo?" Isn't that like something that people live in um oh what was I going to say oh the the popsicles that I like are the um what are they called they're like the they're in clear bags they freeze pops freeze pops like the And you have to keep pushing them up the ones that cut the side of your mouth yeah they cut you they're really dangerous and they just hurt but you just keep pushing you keep pushing them up and suck them out of the bag it's not a really enjoyable user experience but Oh they're good you know what's funny is I see now on Instagram and other places like TV commercials that they're using that same type of packaging for cat treats have you seen this my cat has My cat has had them yeah i'm like what how did this go from a human thing to a cat thing it's very irritating to feed your cat with them i'll tell you that it looks like it would be super messy it is but it the cats love them nosco create better packaging for cat treats than the squeeze pop things sucky things for for for humans for popsicles and for our cats for treats get on it yeah work on that one get on it please

um sorry derailed you no it's okay i feel like I put this list in here twice but it's the same okay so what did we we Okay Jello oh jello that's a good one any flavored gelatin yep uh cool whip cool whip cool whip um yeah i feel like any kind of whipped topping we call Cool Whip yeah we definitely don't call it whipped topping tater tots oh tater tots they're They're all like or or or Ida is who coined that any kind of tater tot is a tater tot yeah i mean what else would you call it it's a potato nugget potato nuggets they're tater tots i know it's just It's a

tot processed cheese spread

that reminds me so like um So like I didn't grow up with cheese with like I know what it is but my mom would never buy that kind of thing your mom loved you she did we didn't grow up with boxed macaroni and cheese or cheese wiz like the first time I ever had box mac and cheese was at a friend's house and her mom made it for dinner and I was like "What is this synthetic neon orange gloriousness that is box mac and cheese?" So it was like at my friend's house I ate terrible like I'd eat craft and sunny D yes and like bagels and then I'd come home and my mom would be healthy anyway what I was thinking of when you said the cheese whiz is um the Parmesan cheese in um the shaky I always call it shaky cheese shaky i call it shaky cheese too yeah but we were watching a cooking show the other night and the chef grabbed that and I'm like why would you grab the shaky cheese like there's real cheese right there shred your own shaky cheese anyone else call it Shaky Cheese yeah is it Shaky Cheese or is it um Craft craft makes that is like the brand is Craft isn't that funny that like we universally call this total side point there's this game that I play and it's called Wingspan wingspan lovers out there but it's a game about birds and so in my family we call it bird game oh bird game and I have learned through the internet I thought that was our cute little inside family thing that we just call it bird game and when it's really called Wingspan the people of the internet all also call it bird game oh wow and I'm like that's so cute that we all separately on the planet are all calling it bird game too and so it's a shaky cheese thing like we're in our separate houses all calling it Shaky Cheese it just naturally comes as shaky cheese and bird game yeah the psychology of that is interesting yeah that's cool so they named it wrong I guess from the start parmesan cheese lame shaky cheese wings wingspan lame it was bird game from the start ask the people what they want they're just going to rename it anyway um Nutella often used to mean any chocolate i was going to say hazmat hazelnut spread can't read today um okay google this is interesting okay because you say you know to Google that but that doesn't always mean on Google yeah it could be any search engine it could be any search engine but yeah that's we never say I'm going to go bing that i don't know who's binging it anyway but I guess if you're still asking Jeeves if he exists um but any search engine Yeah that's so true googling i'm sure this like is an insult to Bill Gates because he invented Internet Explorer but like no one says right i'm going to look that up on Internet Explorer or I'm going to look that up on Edge if you're on Firefox you just say Google it like look it up yep yeah that's absolutely true cornered the market on that they really have uh to Photoshop is to edit an image but you're not necessarily using the Photoshop program mhm you know that that just means to to be editing Photoshop yeah I wouldn't have thought of that one for sure zoom this is a new one uh for any video call like do you want to zoom even if we're not necessarily using Zoom we might be on Meet or Teams or whatever that one's that one's sneaking in there zoom is really using I I can see them dominating that yeah that that would make sense for me it's like we either Zoom or FaceTime facetime is yeah so for me it's like in my head I'm like do you want to Zoom or do you want to FaceTime yeah phone feels like FaceTime zoom feels like computer exactly yeah yeah um iPad meaning any tablet yep i definitely am guilty of that i never say tablet i always call it an iPad when it's not an iPad yeah fitbit you generally uh generically for fitness trackers i feel like that one's a little bit more a a skew for me gopro for any action camera oh yeah that makes sense i feel like I might not use that one as liberally because I wouldn't necessarily assume someone's using a GoPro but I don't know yeah it's it's just not like something that I talk probably because I don't have one i don't think about it yeah um but they've kind of cornered the action camera market uh Legos for building blocks yep you don't need to you don't necessarily care if they're generic you're just like "Those are Legos." Oh Aaron has so many like fake Legos from Wish oh really yes he has the Mandalorian spaceship and do they work as good no that that is the case like they asy No they're not as strong as actual Legos they fall apart super easy but they are significantly cheaper yeah oh I'm sure uh Play-Doh oh yeah wasn't that initially invented for something else it says it's a modeling compound i feel like the I could be making this up in my head but I feel like Play-Doh was originally invented for another purpose and then it became Play-Doh i'll I'll have to research that let's let's look into that um yo-yo which is a brand name but every yo-yo is a yo-yo yeah what else would you call it it doesn't even say finger string

it's a yo-yo i know what else there's nothing else to call that even my list doesn't say it just says originally a brand huh that's super interesting because I I have no idea what else you would call that string disc toy string up and down finger string circle toy yeah it's a yo-yo they're all yo-yos um frisbee oh I saw that one yesterday and then I forgot yeah uhhuh mhm uh hula hoop hula hoop which was a Whamo brand name oh so but every hula hoop's a hula hoop yeah it's a hula hoop but they're not all hula hoop brand names interesting um these ones are vehicles jet ski which is a personal watercraft but that is a brand name from the Kawasaki brand okay yep which I never knew that one i didn't know Jet Ski was a brand i I it didn't occur to me until you just said it but yeah there's like all these other different brands of um cuz isn't Waverunner a brand i just thought that they were all I thought that was the vehicle type the way a car is a car yeah exactly a jet ski is a jet ski form of vehicle not like that it's a Honda or a You know what I mean i thought it was just that's what the vehicle was referred to me too but no it's a brand uh it's a personal watercraft oh personal watercraft personal watercraft um Rollerblade roller Blade didn't know that one either i didn't know that was a brand they're inline skates

okay um as a quad girl I'm very offended i'm like I'm like "No one's calling them inline skates they're calling them rollerblades." Yeah uh segue segue because no one's calling them selfbalancing scooters no definitely not yeah they're segways segue um Crocs interesting fo any kind of foam clog yeah yeah that's cool i never would have thought of that one and I guess that's fair because if I had a an off brand Croc I guess I would still refer to it as a Croc yeah cuz what else are you going to call it a ugly rubber shoe these are my ugly rubber shoes these are my ugly rubber shoes these are my foam clogs these are my rubber shoes with holes in them so they're a safety hazard to wear at the hospital but all nurses wear them at the hospital do you have any Do you have any Crocs i used to i used to have them but I had I didn't like the traditional style of Crocs i I would only buy they had back in the day they had this like Mary Jane shaped one and then I had these ones that were like they were basically like water shoes i should have worn mine today i have Croc sandals which I come from a Croc family a long line of Croc people and I never got it i was always just like but they you know they say when you become a Croc person you never go back and I was just like I'm a little scared to tread into this field but I tried some on at TJ Maxx because they were pink for one thing and they weren't the traditional ugly Croc style they're like two strappy sandals and so I tried them on and I was like I get it mhm i get They were comfy they are comfy yeah once you go croc you never go back and so I do wear them a lot and I've become a little bit of a Jenzie person with wearing socks with sandals with my Crocs and I feel cool and I also don't care i'm just like you do you just be warned a warning once you wear Crocs you'll never go back so um Jacuzzi oh yeah that's a good one i guess I didn't know that was a name what's the hot tub oh hot tub steamy bath jets don't get Oh my god it's like disgusting petri dish bath water mhm you cannot pay me to get in a public jacuzzi oh a public one yeah no nope public pools it's so not only the bacteria but if even if they like overshock it so bad for your skin i know it's so gross all I can think of is like what happens in there well the good thing is it's harder to pee in hot water your body like can't relax enough to pee really interesting so you can pee in cold water easily or even like lukewarm water you can pee but hot water is really hard to pee in interesting all right so things we have to look up after this hot water peeing original use for Play-Doh your body cannot relax to pee in hot water okay I'm going to look this up yeah fact check me on that okay I will or maybe I've just tried and couldn't do it it's all right there's worse things than pee in hot there's worse things like petroleum jelly

what was the other one that was gross something about a fluid oh oh um liquid fluid liquid fluid um white out but wasn't it something else white fluid no I don't know some kind of creamy fluid

moving on yes okay realtor technically a trademarked term really i did not know that so I guess what is it real estate agent I guess

i would never have thought of that one i Yeah

yep and I have a second list and this repeats some of the ones that we already went through but it has some new ones um Dumpster this is one that you mentioned this was originally a brand name by the Dempster Brothers ah didn't know that um onesie onesie which is trademarked by Gerber yeah I did not know that that was a brand and people do refer to any kind of one piece even now like adult jumpsuits call a onesie i'm like I'm going to wear my onesie today i know i wore I know i wore a full jumper dressy one and a man referred to it as a onesie i'm like

babe no no no thanks so much but no um and I think that was the end of my list yeah so now we're kind of like okay so what what does that mean for marketing um because there's like the psych psychology of the convenience like why do we take how did these brands get to the point of like they got their name to be so like to the top that we now refer to anything that has been like generic under that but everything is saran wrap every plastic wrap as wrap- um and it's because our brain likes shortcuts for one and underneath that I think is the level of like you said like there's quality behind And I think after thinking of like from talking about it yesterday and today I think a lot of these things were the first of their kind that's a good point um so it was like the innovation and novelty of this new thing and this is what it's called and then down the line you know people are copying it right but yeah and so one of the things that um I looked up was the cognitive efficiency of it our brains are constantly looking for shortcuts to conserve energy for instance saying Google it is faster and more universally understood than saying to use a search engine you know like we talked about there's also the element of familiarity and trust when we hear a brand name uh often enough we associate it with quality reliability even if we are not consciously loyal to it so it's like that brand has built it up all the way to this point of like we we are familiar with it and we trust it that makes perfect sense because I feel like during COVID there was this whole uh wave of nostalgic purchases that people were going through like buying things from their childhood i don't know if this happened to you but like I actually bought a children's book that was like one of my favorite kids books yeah and like other things nostalgic things like I found myself buying because I they were talking about during co it's like you have this craving for the the familiar and the comfort of before that you know scary time yep so I wonder if there's something to do with that as well it's like it's a brand that is from your childhood that has nostalgic value to you well even just in general too like we when we're spending money on something we're taking a risk with something new especially like is this going to be a waste of my money especially you know just like grocery prices and we've got to pick out a brand of you know Q-tips and it's like are these going to are these going to be awful floss is one that you mentioned before we started filming yes so and let me tell you something that was a really good example because I recently bought a pack of floss that I hate so I use picks mhm and these ones shred in my teeth like it's like a triple floss lined one and I thought that'll be great no and what a waste of money and I'm trying to use them up because I paid for them right but they suck and they suck and I'm like I this is a great example of like we are in being trying to be intentional with our money and so if I know like that the brand Saran Wrap is universally known and trusted and it's good my brain's like just get the Saran Wrap not the not the generic one because I know it works yeah that's that's where in marketing and as a business that's where you want yourself to be is like the trusted the trusted brand that works that is can be depended on so like find that thing and then market yep so it brought up the question with brand loyalty and brand dominance does using a brand name generically hurt or help that brand so the pros of that was number one free marketing the brand is always on the top of the mind and uh like culturally being the Kleenex of tissues is the mark of the industry leader but the cons of it is the dilution of brand identity for instance if people say popsicle but buy a generic brand the original company sees no benefit um and then it's harder to differentiate so the risk of becoming a commodity instead of a premium product so this is the this is the instance that we started to talk about before so like the the uh Xerox and Thermos and Band-Aids um with Xerox um they had a campaign to and I didn't read much about it but to try to make people start saying photo copy instead of Xerox um because it was affecting them negatively um so it it so then there's like this whole legal side of it the trade trademarking Um because it reaches a point where it's like with with trademarking but we're all saying Kleenex when we mean tissue if a brand becomes generic it can lose its legal protection and it gives the instances of escalator aspirin and cellophane which were once trademarks so pre prevention tactics brand usage guidelines

uh like the band-aid TM ad campaigns reminding the public it's a brand and then monitoring misuse in media and sending cease and desist letters so I I'm I'm like it just feels like it's it gets so muddy it can it can get super muddy and when you were just talking about Band-Aid I was thinking of they re recently um I don't think it's necessarily a rebrand but they expanded their brand to have band-aids in every skin tone yes and I thought what a genius way to make your brand relevant yeah and surpass the generic because that's something that no one else has done to reinvigorate the brand yep and now people are going to be like they're going to want to buy the Band-Aid brand because it matches their skin tone i thought that was brilliant oh wicked so what were we were trying to think of this before we started what are some things that you have to have that are brand names and things that you'll get generic so I think I mentioned Windex was one because fake Windex is it doesn't work um that I have to have i love uh there's a particular brand of coffee that I like uh the Vermont coffee roasters coffee i don't fool with any other coffee it's just the best coffee um how about you um I feel like it's often more of food than products that I feel generally picky about when it comes to brands so for instance I feel like gen like like I'm not a brand snob but there are certain things I feel like just doesn't compare with generic so ketchup and mayonnaise and ranch dressing i'm like mm- can't you can't go generic on those things um and then I feel like cereal i'm not I I'm not a big cereal person anymore unfortunately because I gave up sugar years ago but when I was a big cereal person right cereal I feel like generic cereal is not as good that's true i When you asked me about cereal I was like well I don't eat cereal but when I was a kid I definitely like if my mom brought home the generic brand of my favorite cereal i'd be like "What kind of swill is this?" Exactly what What are you doing to me this is torture like this is not Cinnamon Toast Crunch yeah this is some weird cinnamon rectangle you know like it you you become like loyal to the ones that you like yep i think you made a good point with Saran Wrap is like the the the fake Saran wrap was always like it sticks together it's hard to fuss with like just go with the brand name of that it's worth the extra money you spend i fight with it um with tissues I do tend to go with a brand's name because I feel like the generic ones are scratchy and hurt yeah it's true um things like um oh I was thinking of um the Seltzer water brand that I like i love Spin Drift yep seltzer water and like no other Seltzer water generic can compare it's just the best Seltzer water yeah so it's like a flavor thing it's a flavor thing it's a flavor thing it's like higher quality um I think a lot of personal care items often whether it's skin care or like tampons or like any kind of face wash like I feel like those types of things they often just need that next step of like quality to them um but most other things paper towels I don't care i don't care um like Ziploc bags I don't care no I don't care i'll buy the cheap but things that I feel like are quickly disposable i'm just like I can quickly dispose of them so I don't need it to be longlasting quality true but when it's something that um or like spices even don't care as much unless it's a specific something or other like I will say so one that just popped into my head is Old Bay okay there's no other spice mixture okay that is as good as Old Bay what about your meat like do you have to get like high quality like like like both fresh meat and then also like frozen frozen like chicken nuggets and stuff like that like do you do they have to be I don't We're talking about tater tots that's true do they have to be Orada no no they don't have to be the brand for me i don't know i'm not like as loyal to food brands i think I think just as a byproduct of the the economy that we're in now i'm just like I just I have to buy whatever the cheaper option is y but I'm trying to think of like where I will not compromise

definitely good coffee like I like cheap coffee is just right out you can't buy crappy coffee yeah it's just not good um the flo I got to have glide floss yeah because it's just the best one yeah floss is something that I have found

see things like my shampoo like I said personal care items i just feel like they often can't be generic or low quality um there's this uh girl I follow on TikTok her name's Nina Pool and she her whole thing um is she compares ingredients in things everything from like like mo oftentimes it's um it could be makeup it could be skin care it could be just anything she compares brands like high quality stuff to the generic and she compares the list of ingredients and can show you instead of paying $25 for this you can pay like three for this i love a good dupe and and and prove to you that it's the same thing and so go get this one instead and I love it because it's like it's not even just like her opinion it's like I have the facts that this is what's in this and it's the marketing of the packaging yep that's a huge part of marketing is the packaging because when things are appealing to the eye even if it costs more you're going to get the pretty one versus the uglier one true and I'm that way it's sad but true it works on me but yeah it works on me too and makeup is the worst for that because like it will literally be the same ingredients but just in less fancy packaging and you're spending like four times as much and I feel like we're just we psychologically have this feeling of like well if we're paying a lot for something it it must be better it must be very good if we're paying less for something it must not be very good it must be cheap yeah that's an interesting point because that reminds me like the the saying you get what you pay for is not necessarily the case i think back in the day it that was the case you know the the more something cost it meant the better it was and the more durable and the longer lasting but now that's not necessarily the case you know it just depends and I think we have a perception of like we we are kind of bred from a young age to feel like certain brands are um are like we we are sparkly and we have you know car brands for instance like this car brand is like this is luxury yeah and if you have that oney why is it luxury who said I know who said who said that this brand of purses is luxury and like worth $500 yes versus this one that I got at Marshalls like it's kind of it's all in our heads a little bit or like being a teenager i remember being at the mall and being like all the cool girls are getting their clothes from the Hollister Abocrombi and so therefore it's worth the money to buy a $100 sweatshirt here but for what because it has this brand name on it there's nothing actually more valuable about that sweatshirt it's the perception of the people and how they look at it exactly but what is the what is the quality of it mhm it is all about perception and how people feel about this kind of car this kind of purse this kind of sweatshirt because of what the brand has done to elevate it yep and I think a a smart consumer will do research and put value on something that's not a brand name but that is high quality yes like I feel like that's a more of a a smarter um savier consumer is like not so brand focused and like okay what is the quality of this sweatshirt versus the name that's on the sweatshirt agreed so and I think I don't know about you but I kind of feel like um social media marketing has affected that oh for sure because it used to be like you had to go to the store and choose from whatever brands were available at the store and now it's like a new entrepreneurial company can just pop up and be on Instagram and show up on your feed and you're like "Wow what a cool idea what a neat new product." And it doesn't it's not any brand you've ever heard of but you like "Hey that's a cool product." Yeah and I think it used to be different before social media it was like you trusted this one brand and that's what you bought and to to buy something else was like you were taking a risk right right right right yep isn't it interesting how our brains just for example my in-laws like they would only buy tires from Sears okay you know what I mean and like we would search the internet before the internet was like super like back when eBay first started yeah yeah yeah and we'd buy tires off eBay or the internet and his my husband's family was like "How do you know it's not a scam how do you know the brand is good?" And I'm like "It's all the same stuff it's made from the same thing it just doesn't say Firestone on it right?" You know what I mean right it's exactly the same thing yep yep so yeah that's I think that's kind of changed marketing a bit it has definitely changed marketing a bit and and how we shop and how we perceive things and how we value things and um it makes in the marketing world how we market for our clients a little different too strategy-wise I think yep but I think bottom line putting real value on your products is Oh yeah top priority and marketing is important like your branding and your marketing is important regardless so like even if you're not a famous brand the way you market yourself to the public and you brand yourself is extremely important because that's going to catch the consumer's eye you know more than mediocre branding and mediocre marketing it's just the way it is unfortunately but but but not unfortunately but like I was talking about this with Aaron the other day like with this economy how is that going to affect marketing because like companies their budgets are getting tighter and tighter and like with marketing is that going to affect what they're willing to spend on marketing that's a good point or you know are we going to see a decline in you know ad spend or marketing spend because of the way um you know tariffs in the the marketplace is right that feels like a whole other conversation feels like a conversation bill would be good for that's true but yeah so I was just like curious how that is that going to affect marketing spend but the bottom line is how you market yourself and brand yourself as a business and a product it's still very vitally important um regardless of what the e economy is doing yeah but and it feels like it kind of circles back to something that Deb and I talked about we're about to run out of time but Deb and I talked about about um with influencing and how ultimately people will people will find out if there's quality behind your product they'll always find out you can't fake it you can't fake it no you can't yeah so the proof will be in the pudding ultimately true at the end of the day so yeah you got to have a good product to back up the awesome marketing yeah exactly yeah well thank you this was so nice this was fun this ended up being a really good topic for us i think I will never say the word push-up again and think of a bra i'll never say white out again without thinking about gross liquid concealing fluid if you guys have any more of these brands that we missed please drop them in the comments because this has been fun to think of new ones that we just automatically say trip down memory lane too it has yeah so give us a new ones so please come back thank you so much for being here thank you for having me yeah and thank you guys for being here we'll see you next time bye guys