Generic brand

Generic brands of consumer products are distinguished by the absence of a well-known brand name. They may be manufactured by less prominent companies, or sold by supermarkets as their own brand. Generally they imitate more expensive brands, competing on price. Generic brand products are often of equal quality as the branded product, though not necessarily, and many are made on the same production line. However, the quality may change suddenly in either direction with no change in the packaging if the supermarket changes the supplier for the product.

In the past, generic products in the United States had plain white or yellow packaging with simple black lettering, describing what the product was with little other information and no manfacturer's name at all on the front panel. This style can be observed in the 1984 cult film, Repo Man, in which all of the consumable products in the movie have the old-style black and white generic packaging, including beer cans.

Today, such black and white generic packaging is no longer used. Generic products today usually bear the name of the store or supermarket where they are sold, or the name of the distribution company that supplies that store. A variation on generic labeling that is now common in the United States is private labeling: brand names owned by the store that sells the product, that are not the same as the name of the store. For example, supermarket chain Safeway, Inc. sells contract-packed dairy products under the Lucerne brand.

Patents may prohibit generic brand manufacturing. In the specific case of drugs, generic drugs are made chemically indistinguishable from the brand name products, to satisfy regulations. New drugs are nearly always patented and therefore generic versions of drugs may only be made legally in most of the world when the patents expire. As with other generic products generic drugs are much cheaper due to both competition and the fact that research and marketing costs do not need to be factored in.

Sometimes generic brands can be referred to as house brands or home brands, in the United Kingdom they are often referred to as own brands.

See also