Australian Politics Forum - Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel

bogarde73

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Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel
Sep 7^th, 2017 at 1:15pm

http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/aldis-moroccan-argan-oil-hair-pr...

For those of you who don't know, part of Aldi's business model is providing home brands which mimic in many ways the normal brands you see in the other supermarkets, but at a lower price.
So, if you're used to seeing the Weetbix packaging or various biscuits packaged in a certain colour, you might find lookalikes in Aldi that could fool you.
Not that there's anything wrong with the products themselves, well not in my opinion, but I've often wondered how they got away with it.

Well they haven't in this case. A court has found their product wasn't sufficiently differentiated in some respects and didn't live up to its promises.
So they have to change the product composition and the blurb on the packaging.

The interesting thing that came out for me was the reference to the fact that Aldi likes to have "10 points of differentiation" between its product and the original brand.

Will we see more court cases attacking Aldi on these grounds?

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cods Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 88048	Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel Reply #1 - Sep 7^th, 2017 at 1:26pm its been a complaint for a long time if you are in a hurry its so easy to be fooled....and of course as time has gone by they do have a few brands on their shelves....I believe its copyright infringement...dont most of us buy by the look of the packaging...rather than the name on the packet?
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bogarde73 Gold Member Offline Anti-Global & Contra Mundum Posts: 18443 Gender:	Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel Reply #2 - Sep 7^th, 2017 at 1:27pm I guess they have the best lawyers cods to make sure it's not copyright infringement.
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cods Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 88048	Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel Reply #3 - Sep 7^th, 2017 at 1:31pm well it would be so time consuming and costly...perhaps they know that...cunning.. I dont shop there I am patriotic....
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freediver Gold Member Offline www.ozpolitic.com Posts: 49500 At my desk.	Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel Reply #4 - Sep 7^th, 2017 at 1:53pm Quote: So they have to change the product composition and the blurb on the packaging. So they aren't allowed to sell biscuits made of wheat? What about bread with bits of fruit in it?
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buzzanddidj Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 14214 Eganstown, via Daylesford, VIC Gender:	Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel Reply #5 - Sep 7^th, 2017 at 1:53pm
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bogarde73

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Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel
Reply #6 - Sep 7^th, 2017 at 2:21pm

freediver wrote on Sep 7^th, 2017 at 1:53pm:

Quote:

So they have to change the product composition and the blurb on the packaging.

So they aren't allowed to sell biscuits made of wheat? What about bread with bits of fruit in it?

These things are always about degree of difference. So a biscuit maybe a different size, colour, slightly different taste, different composition. And then there's the packaging - shape, size, capacity but most of all visual design.

Easy to find ten points of differentiation if that's the guideline they work on. Maybe that's what the legal precedents are.

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freediver Gold Member Offline www.ozpolitic.com Posts: 49500 At my desk.	Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel Reply #7 - Sep 7^th, 2017 at 9:21pm I don't see why they can't just make the exact same thing and call it Aldi Bix and make the box a different colour. Does Sanitarium have a patent on weet bix or something?
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bogarde73

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Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel
Reply #8 - Sep 8^th, 2017 at 8:02am

I don't know the answer to that question. I guess there must be some kind of protection against outright copying. For instance, you hear of such & such a product being manufactured in Australia by.company X under license from company Y in the US or UK. Why did they need a license?

Certainly outright copying of a product and its packaging must be illegal. It then becomes a question of degree of similarity.

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capitosinora Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 2235 USA Florida Gender:	Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel Reply #9 - Sep 8^th, 2017 at 10:14am ALDI is simply superior.
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AiA Gold Member Offline Posts: 18405 Gender:	Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel Reply #10 - Sep 8^th, 2017 at 10:50am ALDI is an agile company used to brutal competition and so will continue to come out on top.
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Sir lastnail Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 30111 Gender:	Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel Reply #11 - Sep 8^th, 2017 at 12:34pm cods wrote on Sep 7^th, 2017 at 1:31pm: well it would be so time consuming and costly...perhaps they know that...cunning.. I dont shop there I am patriotic.... so you support automated checkouts by shopping at coles and woolies do ya ? Very patriotic aren't you
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red baron Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 10204 Blue Mountains Gender:	Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel Reply #12 - Sep 8^th, 2017 at 3:13pm Hey Bogarde haven't you heard about the manufacturers making the home brands with the identical contents that are in their premium brands ...just with a bland box? Don't tell me its not happening
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Justsayno Senior Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 250 On The Planet Earth Gender:	Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel Reply #13 - Sep 8^th, 2017 at 3:25pm capitosinora wrote on Sep 8^th, 2017 at 10:14am: ALDI is simply superior. I think Hitler said something along those lines.
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bogarde73

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Re: Is this Aldi's Achilles' heel
Reply #14 - Sep 8^th, 2017 at 3:32pm

red baron wrote on Sep 8^th, 2017 at 3:13pm:

Hey Bogarde haven't you heard about the manufacturers making the home brands with the identical contents that are in their premium brands ...just with a bland box?

Don't tell me its not happening

Look, I don't know what the hell is going on anymore. There are so many different products in so many different packages.
Why don't they just package up some Soylent Green for us all?

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