Have you ever got your shopping home, to find that a big-name branded product you thought youβd picked up was actually an own-label lookalike? Itβs happened to me, and our new research shows I’m not alone.
Own-label products that look like well-known brands are far from rare. In our investigation into lookalike packaging, we found over 150 products from Aldi, Asda, Boots, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsburyβs, Superdrug and Tesco that we think look all too familiar.
That might be why a fifth of Which? members have bought a βcopycatβ product at least once.
Itβs easy to do, especially if youβre in a rush, as I was when shopping in my local Lidl a few months ago. I grabbed a bottle of what I thought was Sarsonβs Malt Vinegar off the shelf, only to get home and discover it was actually Samson Vinegar, a Lidl own-label product.

Not stopping for long enough to notice the finer details of the bottle, Iβd simply picked up on the fact that the Samson and Sarsonβs labels are the same shade of brown, and have remarkably similar names. Though on reflection, the fact that it cost about 30p for a large bottle probably should have been a clue that I wasnβt buying a well-known brand.
Are lookalikes a good thing?
On the one hand, I felt a bit foolish for having bought the wrong product, and certainly thought it was cheeky of Lidl to sell something so similar to the brand leader. But really, things hadnβt worked out too badly for me β Iβd only spent around 30p on my mistake, and the vinegar turned out to be perfectly adequate. At that price, and without being able to identify much of a difference between the two products, Iβll probably try it again.
When we asked our members what they thought of ‘copycat products’, many recognised that they can be both a good and a bad thing for consumers. One said:
βOwn-brand products should be distinctly marked to display that they are own-brand. To use the same colours, images and shapes as the market leaders do is, to me, confusing the consumer.β
But another said:
βSimilar packaging actually assists me in finding the type of product I am shopping for.β
Many felt that while some own-label products canβt match up to the brands on quality, other own-label products are just as good as the brands, and are often cheaper.
Have you been caught out by lookalike packaging, and how did you feel once you found out? Have you spotted some own-label products that you think go too far in mimicking a leading brand?
What do you think about shops copying branded products?
I think itβs fine β theyβve never confused me (57%, 298 Votes)
I think itβs wrong β they shouldnβt piggy-back on other brands (43%, 227 Votes)
Total Voters: 531
