Branding your product or service is crucial when it comes to differentiating yourself from the competition. People don’t buy products, they buy brands. Brands have created a shortcut in the consumer buying process. Think about every product that you buy. Do you ever find yourself buying a shirt because of the little logo that’s stitched on? That shirt might be $20 more expensive just because of the brand. Brands create a perception in consumers minds. We are heavily influenced by brands because of the image they portray.
Brandless saw a specific niche they could serve. They decided that if they sell unbranded products, they can be cheaper. Although some people enjoy buying products based on brands, others look for the cheapest option. Brandless sells staple products that everybody needs. Their website includes food, housewares, and health and beauty supplies. They saw an opportunity to make buying household staples easy and sell them all at one price, $3. Some might find this sketchy because prices influence our thinking on the quality of the product. $3 might sound too cheap to be true. Brandless is able to do this because of what they call the “brand tax”.
Brandless is able to lower costs by reducing their range of products. they’ve narrowed their line to around 250 products.This is a brilliant idea because it helps keep them focused on whats selling and not expand beyond their reach. It makes sense that they only need core products because grocery stores and other retailers have thousands of products because of the variety of brands they offer. When you have no brands you only need 1 product for each category which keeps decision making simple. The packing is also all very simple and only includes information instead of flashy images and “branding”.
Very few startups have tried to compete in the traditional grocery store business, but Brandless seems to have an interesting and cool differentiating factor that’ll keep them alive. Although they are brandless they still have to brand themselves to stay alive. Check them out at https://brandless.com/.
The way that Brandless has ironically branded their company is really cool. I like to see companies that don’t try to be too extravagant in what they sell, and this is a prime example of a company that has taken this approach.