Brand Loyalty

INGRID THOFT
During a recent visit to my mom's house, I grabbed a pen and added something to the grocery list attached to her fridge.  Perusing the list, I could predict exactly which brands she'd purchase because they mirror those on my own list.  Or vice versa, I suppose.  The laundry detergent I purchase is Tide; the butter is Land 'O Lakes; and the paper towels are Bounty.  Are these the best products in their class?  I wouldn't know, I'm so accustomed to pulling them off the shelf having seem them in my childhood home for so many years.

I did have an epiphany a few years ago when I discovered that I prefer regular spaghetti to thin spaghetti!  It had never occurred to me that there even was a regular thickness spaghetti!  Does that mean I'm ready to switch my Tide for All?  Probably not, but they say awareness is the first step to change.  How about you, Reds?  Do you reach for certain products out of muscle memory?

 

JENN MCKINLAY: There is only one brand that I'm attached to that is non-negotiable for me. Mayonnaise. It has to be Hellman's. There is simply no other acceptable brand. Hub tried to bring home Miracle Whip early in our marriage and I threw it right in the garbage. Hellman's is the best. Period. Go ahead -- come at me!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Oh, Jenn, Miracle Whip is not even real mayonnaise. It's another thing entirely.   Gah. I could never eat that.  Anyway, I'm weird about brand names, too. I've always used Tide--until recently (brand awareness? TV) I tried Persil and Oxiclean, and now I love those. I've used Cascade for years--sometimes I look at other items, but I can never do it. Bounty, yes. Dove soap. Land O Lakes yes. Stonyfield. Saran Wrap. I kind of gravitated to those 1950's looking dish soaps, what're they called?  And the sunflower one smells wonderful. And you know, as much as it could, my mom's grocery cart would've looked just like mine.  I'd love to hear what everyone else says!

RHYS BOWEN: I really wasn't aware what brands my mother used. Food arrived on the table. Clothes came back washed! But I have stuck with Tide, Cascade, Palmolive for years now. One thing I discovered early in marriage was that cheap brands didn't clean as well. Same with toilet paper. It has to be Charmin! But I have switched to local organic milk and yoghurt and don't buy cans of soup any longer ( too much sodium). And my son buys natural cleaners for me every time he comes to my house. ( but I still use Comet and Soft Scrub!)

HALLIE EPHRON: Miracle Whip is to mayonnaise what Dream Whip (Cool Whip) is to cream. Here in New England we have a Cain's mayonnaise. 

I grew up with Lawry's Seasoned Salt and I still use it. Lawry's had a restaurant in LA and that seasoning was what made their roast beef so good. I don't make roast beef, but it's perfect for seasoning a chicken before roasting. Combine salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and of course, sugar, and you get a similar taste... but not. Beyond that we used all kinds of products I wouldn't touch now: Cheez-Its. Wonder Bread. Pancake "syrup." Frozen vegetables. Canned tomato soup.

INGRID: Full disclosure, I still prefer Mrs. Butterworth's to real Vermont maple syrup.  I know, I know.  It's a source of shame, but in my defense...wait, there is no defense.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: You losers can all bite my left toe. Miracle Whip has been clinically proven to be THE BEST and only sad people who have not had the benefit of living in the deep south do not understand the sheer bliss that is a Miracle Whip and fresh tomato sandwich. Mayo is for chicken salad and tuna fish. Miracle Whip is for creating a layer of heaven upon a slice of fluffy bread.
My other must-buy brands: Coke (regular), Arm & Hammer Unscented detergent (for my sensitive-skin offspring). Arm & Hammer Clump 'n Seal Cat Litter. I swear I don't have stock in Arm & Hammer, I just love these products. 

LUCY BURDETTE: I did recently try some earth-kind dishwasher soap and ended up with a load of dirty dishes after the machine ground through its cycle. I decided washing dishes twice wasn't the least bit earth-friendly so I bought some Cascade. sigh. Alpenglow lavender face cream--I bought this in Alaska some years ago and now I MUST have it in stock. Nature's Gate herbal hand lotion. King Arthur flour. Windex. Cottonelle toilet paper. I gave up my mother's Tide and Campbell's soup years ago, but I still feel drawn to their graphics!

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  Miracle Whip will never darken the door at our house. Ditto Cool Whip. And of course the only proper mayonnaise is Hellman's--unless it's homemade. Bounty paper towels. Rhys, I bought Charmin for years until a plumber told us that was what kept clogging up our sewer pipe (It doesn't disintegrate), so now we use Kirkland (Costco) brand and haven't had a stop since. Also Kirkland Eco laundry detergent and Kirkland dishwasher pods and Kirkland tissues. I thought I wasn't very brand loyal until I started noticing things around the house. Dry Idea Unscented Deodorant. Alba Botanica lotion. Pears Soap (I order by the case from Amazon.) And lots of things from Trader Joe's now.

I try to notice what brands I buy in the UK, so that I don't have my characters use something that's not available.

INGRID: Good point, Debs!  I'm sure you would hear about any errors from eagle-eye readers!

What about you?  Do you practice blind brand loyalty?

Our (not) Fantasy Books

INGRID THOFT

"Is there a wannabe book lurking in the back of your brain, something you would write if you didn’t have to consider agents, editors, and fans?  A romance?  Non-fiction?  Cookbook?"

This is a question I always ask my guests on Jungle Red, and it occurred to me that I’ve never asked my fellow Reds!  Although readers generally get to know writers for one kind of book, in my experience, writers noddle around with a variety of books ideas that they'd like to write "someday."  It’s the book they’d write in an ideal world where time and money were copious, and the only reader they'd have to satisfy is themselves.

Obviously, I love reading and writing mysteries, but I also love the work of Elinor Lipman, Stephen McCauley, Emma Straub, Maria Semple, and Curtis Sittenfeld, to name just a few.  Their books are funny, contemporary fiction that focus on relationships, and families, in particular.  One of these days, I might try my hand at that genre.

Reds?  Tell us about the book brewing in the far reaches of your brain. 

LUCY BURDETTE: Of course, if we told you what we wanted to write, it wouldn’t be secret would it? Ha ha, just kidding. I love Elinor Lipman also, have read all of her novels, starting from the very beginning. I also love the novels of Joshilyn Jackson. And I think I’ve confessed before that if I could write a book like The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, I surely would. As it happens, I am inching along on something that is not a mystery, more women’s fiction. The problem, as always, is that you have a built-in structure for writing a mystery. And so without that, the plotting is not so easy.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Yes, exactly, Lucy! Someone once asked me if I could write a romance without a mystery. I was baffled. "What would the people DO?" I asked.  So I guess that explains why I don't write romance. That said, I know I could do a voicey contemporary fiction, I really do. And I do have a YA plot, but again, a thrillerish thing. I'd adore to do a big family saga, and even have an idea of when it would take place. (In the US, Rhys, in the US :-) ) And I'd love love love to do a narrative non-fiction true crime. LOVE to. But....

JENN McKINLAY: Such a great question! I had a fascinating talk with Liz Berry (the powerhouse beside Steve Berry) in Reno, NV. We talked about how important it is for an author to stick to their brand and how when Steve wanted to write about a whale, she just looked at him and said, "No." LOL. While I get it from a business stand point, it makes the artist in me shrivel up and cry.

So, that being said, I'd love to write a sweeping fantasy saga with a Robin Hoodesque female, who kicks butt and rights wrongs and all that jazz, but it is definitely off brand for me, and I have zero time at the present. That being said, I have a writer friend who wrote "Sunday books" for years. They were her off-brand books that she worked on just on Sundays for fun (writers are weird, I know) and now she's out there publishing those, too. So, never say never.

RHYS BOWEN:  In a way I'm doing this right now. My stand alone novels are moving out beyond the mystery genre. The Tuscan Child was set in two time periods, which was an experiment for me. Next year's book really doesn't have much mystery. It's straight historical. However, I love to read travel books and secretly yearn to be another Bill Bryson.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I would love to write contemporary womens' fiction in the vein of Jennifer Crusie—comedic, but real—with great characters and small towns and loads of plot. I already have ideas—and by ideas, I mean notes, outlines and research—for a science fiction series and an historical fiction series, both genres I LOVE to read. However, everything I think of, even the fun, small town comedy ideas, center around crime. No matter what the genre, My creative imagination runs straight to SOMEONE getting murdered.

The other impediment to branching out (besides Jenn's very wise words about brand) is that I write so slowly, I wouldn't be able to get to any of these until I was 94.

HALLIE EPHRON: Great question. For me it would be a book about food. Eating it. Shopping for it. And of course, cooking. Definitely nonfiction. Something for the person who wants to become a shoot-from-the-hip kind of cook. Easy recipes. Start with what are the basics every larder needs. What basic skills the agile cook needs (chopping, blanching...) Move on to building from basics. So, basic stew... plus. Basic stir-fry...plus. Basic pan roasted... plus. Options that include vegetarian, fish, and meat. Something like Cooking: The Basics Plus.

And can I just say while I love the idea behind meal kits, I'm horrified by the amount of plastic and cardboard it comes wrapped in. The waste weighs more than the food.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hallie, if you write that cookbook, I will buy it!! 

I've toyed with the idea of writing historical fiction (quite a few of my novels have historical story lines woven into the contemporary one, and I love writing the historical bits.) For years, I've said I wanted to write a novel with a Victorian female naturalist as the main character--sort of a cross between Beatrix Potter and Charles Darwin.  But I've never been able to get past the basic concept, because if it wasn't a mystery, what would people DO? 

Besides, knowing me, I'd fall down the research rabbit hole and never come out...

Do you writers out there have a fantasy book of your own?  Or is there a book you'd like to see a Red write?

Name that Brand

INGRID THOFT
Quick!  Do you see it?  Don't worry if you don't.  I didn't either.

Not until it was pointed out to me did I see the "31" in the baskin robbins logo.  Like Op Art, now that I see it, I can't unsee it.

Nowadays, writers are often told they need to develop their "brand," which got me thinking about the brands that litter are visual landscape, brands that are so recognizable we'd know them anywhere.  I wondered about the most recognized brands and the secrets that they hold (like a giant "31"!).

Another logo featuring a symbol that completely escaped my gaze was FedEx.  Did you know there's an arrow in the logo?  I didn't!

The only thing hidden in the current Starbucks logo is the siren's breasts.  If you stroll by the first Starbucks in Pike Place Market in Seattle, the sign shows the original siren.

There are various stories about the logo's evolution from a siren to a crowned princess.  Some claim her hair was rearranged for the sake of modesty.  Others claim it was a copyright issue related to the original woodcut of the siren.  One thing is certain, she seems to have gotten younger over the years!

Did you know that McDonald's golden arches logo was originally modeled after the shape of the restaurants?  And that today, the name "McDonald's" rarely appears in the logo, given how recognizable the golden arches are?

Another logo that requires no words is...wait, I'm not going to tell you because I'm sure you'll know both it and the name it goes by.  Talk about a successful brand:  the logo gets its own name!

Do you have any favorite logos?  Know of any hidden art or meanings?  Tell me I'm not the only one who didn't see the "31"!