Customers duped into buying copycat supermarket products

Can you spot the difference between supermarket and branded goods? Research shows many customers can't.

Supermarkets are using copycat packaging to trick customers into buying their own products rather than well-known brands, new research shows.

More than 150 products have been found to be packaged in this way and one in five people have bought a supermarket’s own products by mistake because of this, consumer group Which? has found.

Some shoppers think this kind of tactic is misleading and dishonest but others have ended up choosing the own-brand product deliberately because it was cheaper.

Misleading packaging

Products with similar packaging were found in all the leading supermarket chains including; Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco as well as shops such as Boots and Superdrug.

These products look very similar and 38% of customers said they were annoyed to have bought an own-brand product by mistake while 30% said they felt misled.

But when two brands look the same – many customers thought this was a good thing. In fact 18% said they deliberately chose the cheaper own-brand product because it looked like the more expensive version. Of these customers, 60% bought the product because it was cheaper and 59% bought it to see if it was as good as the more expensive brand.

What the supermarkets say

Unsurprisingly the supermarkets deny any kind of misleading behaviour. They say customers are able to tell the difference between branded and own-label products and weren’t being misled.

Boots also said some colours are synonymous with different ingredients and therefore help customers find the right product. Morrisons, Superdrug and Aldi also said they use colours to identify different groups of similar products.

Cost comparison

In its investigation Which? identified more than 150 supermarket own-brand products which had been packaged to look like more expensive brands.

One example, a 500g pack of Bertolli Olive Oil Spread for example would cost £1.90 at Sainsbury’s but the almost identical supermarket’s own-brand olive spread is £1.50. Another example was a pack of Carte D’Or Vanilla ice cream for £3.49 while the copycat from Tesco came in at £2.

Are branded goods better?

In several Which? tests supermarket products have beaten brands for taste and as incomes are squeezed they’re becoming a popular choice for many families.

There are regular tests conducted at Lovemoney and our sister website Lovefood to test supermarket and branded goods and the results can be surprising.

Recently testers picked out McVities Jaffa Cakes over Aldi’s own version and this year we’ve also tasted Easter Eggs, fish fingers and baked beans.

Is it misleading for a supermarket to package its products to look like more expensive brands? Or is it just a clever marketing tool? Let me know in the comment box below.

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Which?: The four ways supermarkets con shoppers

Morrisons, Tesco, Asda or Sainsbury's: which store has the cheapest value range?