11 ms·

I think a more true representation of "brandlessness" is AmazonBasics. It's not exactly correct to think of the lack of a logo being the lack of a brand -- bran

by hbosch 7y ago

I think a more true representation of "brandlessness" is AmazonBasics. It's not exactly correct to think of the lack of a logo being the lack of a brand -- brandlessness is the brand, logo or not. On the other hand, having no phony story about your products ("Handmade by artisans in Nicaragua") or marketing ("Better than 99% of our competitors!") and just existing is how to communicate brandlessness. "Brandless.com" was never what it told you it was... it was a brand with a logo that told you it wasn't, and it stocked mediocre products. Buying from them was supposed to "feel" like "anti-consumerism", and they told people they didn't invest in marketing so they could give customers better deals. Unfortunately, Brandless actually wasn't a radical rethinking of how we market organic kale to the 27 year old tech set.

loeg 7y ago
Another related example is the company "NoAd," a long-running sunscreen company (1962), who don't advertise, but their products do say "NoAd" on them.
- mactrey 7y ago
  Another one: the Japanese brand 無印良品 "mujirushi ryouhin", which essentially means "Quality Goods Without Branding." Of course it's developed a little following behind its "brand" because the goods are mostly high quality, if a little pricey.
nickbauman 7y ago
I think of Amazon Basics a little more like "buying from the company store" in the book The Grapes of Wrath. It's an old retail move: a popular SKU is copied by the store to take more margin from its demand. Your suppliers test product viability for you.
- filoleg 7y ago
  I cannot speak for the entire range of AmazonBasics offerings, but that definitely doesn't seem like the case of just copying. Afaik AmazonBasics monitor arms specifically are just rebadged Ergotech arms that are actually still manufactured by Ergotech. P.S. sidenote, can totally recommend their monitor arms.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- fredophile 7y ago
  I think it's actually worse than that. Buying Amazon Basics is pretty much the only way for you to know that the product you're buying on Amazon came from a reputable seller. The commingling of inventory means almost anything else you buy on Amazon could be a low quality counterfeit that came from a random seller.
hug 7y ago
Having never heard of Brandless, I was hoping they were possibly marketing something I have a fierce desire for, which is consumer products with minimal branding, that are superlatively well made, and priced commensurately. Unfortunately, finding these kinds of products is hard, and i don't quite understand why. About the closest I have found to this ethos in a mass-market kind of way is Muji, but only some of their consumer goods are actually solid and worth purchasing. Anything they sell that is made of plastic is almost certainly not. The next nearest thing to this seems to be certain classes of Etsy stores that take pride in how well they manufacture their products, but unfortunately this approach isn't replicable to any number of things.
- ProfessorLayton 7y ago
  This does exist and is fairly common, at least in retail, otherwise known as "White label products". Costco's Kirkland brand is a fantastic example of this, where they rebrand the same products such as a particular SKU of vodka under their own Kirkland brand. A lot of in-house brands are just white labeled versions of a branded product. The rub is that not all are high-quality brands like Costco's
  - filoleg 7y ago
    Kirkland brand vodka is indeed a gem in the rough. I just wish there was a brand of "white label products", where every single item is consistently good, because the range of quality when it comes to each individual item within a "white label" is still pretty high. Though I realize that at this point, it would become a brand of its own.
    - edoceo 7y ago
      Kirkland has a single malt that is, with surprise, not worse than St George. Not as good as Glen Turret but, you'd have a second dram.
      - filoleg 7y ago
        I was always afraid to buy "white label" alcohol that wasn't super basic stuff like vodka or cheap wine, but with this rec, I will definitely give their single malt a try. Thank you!
taneq 7y ago
> brandlessness is the brand, logo or not So like all of the other "-less" things being pushed recently, it actually means "thing is hidden and we pretend it's not there", not "without the thing".
arcticbull 7y ago
I mean... Canada's had "no name" brand forever [1], since 1978 apparently. It's really not any different. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Name_(brand) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Name_(brand)

by hbosch 7y ago

loeg 7y ago

Another related example is the company "NoAd," a long-running sunscreen company (1962), who don't advertise, but their products do say "NoAd" on them.

mactrey 7y ago
Another one: the Japanese brand 無印良品 "mujirushi ryouhin", which essentially means "Quality Goods Without Branding." Of course it's developed a little following behind its "brand" because the goods are mostly high quality, if a little pricey.

nickbauman 7y ago

I think of Amazon Basics a little more like "buying from the company store" in the book The Grapes of Wrath. It's an old retail move: a popular SKU is copied by the store to take more margin from its demand. Your suppliers test product viability for you.

filoleg 7y ago
I cannot speak for the entire range of AmazonBasics offerings, but that definitely doesn't seem like the case of just copying. Afaik AmazonBasics monitor arms specifically are just rebadged Ergotech arms that are actually still manufactured by Ergotech. P.S. sidenote, can totally recommend their monitor arms.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
fredophile 7y ago
I think it's actually worse than that. Buying Amazon Basics is pretty much the only way for you to know that the product you're buying on Amazon came from a reputable seller. The commingling of inventory means almost anything else you buy on Amazon could be a low quality counterfeit that came from a random seller.

hug 7y ago

Having never heard of Brandless, I was hoping they were possibly marketing something I have a fierce desire for, which is consumer products with minimal branding, that are superlatively well made, and priced commensurately. Unfortunately, finding these kinds of products is hard, and i don't quite understand why. About the closest I have found to this ethos in a mass-market kind of way is Muji, but only some of their consumer goods are actually solid and worth purchasing. Anything they sell that is made of plastic is almost certainly not. The next nearest thing to this seems to be certain classes of Etsy stores that take pride in how well they manufacture their products, but unfortunately this approach isn't replicable to any number of things.

ProfessorLayton 7y ago
This does exist and is fairly common, at least in retail, otherwise known as "White label products". Costco's Kirkland brand is a fantastic example of this, where they rebrand the same products such as a particular SKU of vodka under their own Kirkland brand. A lot of in-house brands are just white labeled versions of a branded product. The rub is that not all are high-quality brands like Costco's
- filoleg 7y ago
  Kirkland brand vodka is indeed a gem in the rough. I just wish there was a brand of "white label products", where every single item is consistently good, because the range of quality when it comes to each individual item within a "white label" is still pretty high. Though I realize that at this point, it would become a brand of its own.
  - edoceo 7y ago
    Kirkland has a single malt that is, with surprise, not worse than St George. Not as good as Glen Turret but, you'd have a second dram.
    - filoleg 7y ago
      I was always afraid to buy "white label" alcohol that wasn't super basic stuff like vodka or cheap wine, but with this rec, I will definitely give their single malt a try. Thank you!

taneq 7y ago

> brandlessness is the brand, logo or not So like all of the other "-less" things being pushed recently, it actually means "thing is hidden and we pretend it's not there", not "without the thing".

arcticbull 7y ago

I mean... Canada's had "no name" brand forever [1], since 1978 apparently. It's really not any different. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Name_(brand) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Name_(brand)