Ziggy writes:
Most people don't realize that they spend hundreds or even thousands of
dollars a year buying the heavily advertised (HA) brand products in the
grocery and department stores.

Some people buy name-brand products out of ignorance.

Others buy them because some of them are actually better.

For example, I've yet to find any detergent, name-brand or
otherwise, that works as well as Tide.

Or, to comment on one of your examples...

Why are you paying 4+ dollars for baby shampoo
when you can buy the less advertised brand for half the money?

I've got five kids. I've tried lots of name-brand and
off-brand baby and kid shampoos. The name-brand ones are most
certainly better, if for no other reason than because when
they claim to be "no tears," it's actually true.

If the name brand products are better why would companies be
spending billions of dollars in advertising?

Because they're competing primarily against each other, not
against the off-brands. And because even when they are
objectively better, no one is going to pay their higher prices
unless they *know* they're objectively better.

Sometimes advertising is about fooling the consumer into
spending more than they need to. Sometimes, on the other
hand, advertising is about providing the consumer with true
information that will reasonably influence their purchasing
their decisions.

Advertising alone doesn't make for a sustainable business.
Just look at Zima. It was one of the best advertising
campaigns in history, which got a lot of people to try Zima
exactly once, after which they decided they didn't like it
and went back to whatever beer they were drinking before.

Even over the counter
drugs like aspirin can be bought for half the price of the HA brands.

Off-brand pills are often larger and with thinner or
nonexistent coatings and hence taste worse and are harder to
swallow.

Off-brand liquid medications often taste worse.

There are certainly cases where the off-brand is no different
from the name-brand products, but there are other cases where
there *is* a difference and you get what you pay for.

When you pay the higher price for the HA brands you are paying for the
ridiculous high salaries of the CEO's, private jets, golden parachutes and
for the billions spent on advertising.

When you pay the higher price for a product that is actually
better, you are paying for the fact that it is better.