I forgot that's what kicked store brands off in the first place.
> unit cost of marketing. I strongly speculate this is the main reason for Kraft Heinz’s struggles
Accidentally so revealing: Kraft have aimed a bullet carefully and precisely at themselves, Heinz are indistinguishable from Aldi and have nothing unique to offer but expense.
Asda and Tesco own brands were always how not to do it, or almost do it. Corn flakes that had the wrong texture or were somehow too thick or hard, always with the odd burnt one. Beans that had the wrong texture or were again too hard, bread somehow devoid of flavour and texture, biscuits that had as much grit as crunch. They weren't nice, they were for students and other times of being poverty stricken. Sainsbury's managed a bit better.
Own brand beans or sauce were easy and instant to distinguish - the taste was wrong, the texture was wrong, they tasted of cheap cafe and poverty, even as they got the sugar content as equally insane. I simply can't tell the difference between Aldi and Heinz at all, even the beans with sausages. Aldi beans are stupidly cheap - 25p a tin or something, and far cheaper than Tesco, Asda and Heinz up near £1 a tin. The sauce is as cheap. There is simply no point Heinz existing.
Kraft take over Cadbury's and immediately set about ruining it - closing the factory they promised to keep open, within weeks of takeover. Throwing away Green and Black's Fair Trade element. Changing Cadbury's recipe so it has that greasy cheap American choc texture and doesn't taste or feel like chocolate any more. Reducing sizes and proportion of chocolate in choc bars and snacks. Then lying that they did none of these - and being easily proved to be lying each time - usually with viral social media photographs. I think half the UK is boycotting them to one degree or another. The degree of UK resentment they have achieved is comical.
Aldi start to make chocolate that tastes as Cadbury used to. Just about perfectly. For 90p! While Kraft not-Cadbury-any-more charge nearly £2 for comparable size. I mostly prefer Aldi's "posher" choc, but every now and then I need that childhood Cadbury fix. That's now only available from Aldi and not at all from Kraft Mondolez's often Polish made, Cadbury-in-name-only. Go figure.
They don't always manage. They admitted defeat after years trying to match taste and texture of KitKat, their Swiss muesli is an inconsistent poor substitute. They have never done British tea very well. Of the few brands in Aldi and Lidl PG and Yorkshire tea were among the first.
As final example of completely missing the point, Tesco responded to Aldi and Lidl's runaway success in the UK by launching their own discounter "Jack's". Not by suddenly trying to match quality, but by taking a distinct step down from their own-label brands, and so arriving at impossibly cheap and nasty. They were immediately ridiculed by most of the media and panned for awful goods. How could they possibly think this was the Aldi/Lidl USP? They will fail hard.