Supermarket Sweep

I was shopping in Waitrose the other day. It's a nice experience shopping in Waitrose, like being invited to a posh party. Anyway, I spotted some coffee cups on the shelves. I need coffee cups. Vicky keeps throwing mine out.


So far, I don’t have a very good record at buying cups. The last time I bought some home they ended up in the bin before they’d even had a chance to look around the kitchen. I think it was something about them being second-hand; or having an ugly pattern; or that coming from a charity shop the previous owner may have died in some horrible coffee-drinking-related accident; or probably all of these.

But despite being burdened by previous form in the coffee cup purchasing stakes I knew I was backing a winner here - an absolute shoe-in. Because these little beauties had the name Cath Kidson stamped on the bottom and that horrible flowery pattern that apparently everyone else except me loves, stamped, well, everywhere else.

They were exclusive to Waitrose and they were a fiver each.

‘Bargain’ I thought to myself, which was an odd thought for me to have, because previously the idea of paying anything more than a couple of quid, even for new coffee cups, seemed to me gross stupidity. But there I was at the counter with as many I could safely dangle on my fingers (I don’t use a trolley at Waitrose, not even a basket, I don’t have that much money), and gratefully emptying the contents of my wallet over the conveyor belt.

Of course, I know that what made these coffee cups a bargain has nothing to do with their ability to hold hot liquid. After all, most coffee cups I know are pretty good at doing that, especially the second-hand ones, which are, by very definition, more experienced.

It was the name on the bottom of each cup.

I was buying the brand. Just to be safe.

And that very afternoon a visitor came to our wonderful riverside offices to chat about digital marketing. We talked about buying products online, and this led us to the relative merits of various laptops which then moved on to home entertainment systems. And we both discovered that all of the products this chap had at his home were by the same manufacturer. And up to that point he hadn’t even realised it himself, insisting that he naturally bought on price. And this was not a cheap brand.

So although the brand itself is probably more synonymous with home entertainment than Cath Kidson is to coffee, I think the principle is the same. Whatever rationale we go through, ultimately our purchase is made with our heart and not our head. We buy what makes us happy. And that is often a brand.

One of my cups broke on the way home, but Vicky, she loved them.

So who’s the mug?