Osborne Pike

Shelf Life

16th February 2012
Brand Stories From Worldwide Supermarkets

Grains of truth?

Posted February 16, 2012
Sacks

With well over 20 brands available in this store, Saudi rice consumers (penetration: close to 100%) are not short of choices.

Whilst these real sacks might stand out as incredibly natural and authentic on a European shelf, here they blur into one and feel quite cheap and generic.

More premium offers use elaborate print techniques to paint a picture of elegance, taste and (mainly Indian) tradition. Large size and clear separation of the rice grains is a recognised signal of quality, so photography tends to be something of an arms race: ‘my grains are bigger than your grains’.

Takeout: A truly mass (and massive) market with all kinds of packaging strategies on display: product superiority, meal appeal, authentic origin, as well as ‘just happy to be on the shelf’. Daawat’s design is tasteful enough to decorate a bedroom with, and ticks all my boxes.

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