The Secret Life of Ketchup & Mustard

This essay by Malcolum Gladwell traces the rise of specialty mustards and the complications of marketing fancy ketchups. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is interesting:

The rise of Grey Poupon proved that the American supermarket shopper was willing to pay more--in this case, $3.99 instead of $1.49 for eight ounces--as long as what they were buying carried with it an air of sophistication and complex aromatics. Its success showed, furthermore, that the boundaries of taste and custom were not fixed: that just because mustard had always been yellow didn't mean that consumers would use only yellow mustard. It is because of Grey Poupon that the standard American supermarket today has an entire mustard section. And it is because of Grey Poupon that a man named Jim Wigon decided, four years ago, to enter the ketchup business. Isn't the ketchup business today exactly where mustard was thirty years ago? There is Heinz and, far behind, Hunt's and Del Monte and a handful of private-label brands. Jim Wigon wanted to create the Grey Poupon of ketchup.

So, apparently, foods with high "amplitude" become more "solid" as brands, because its hard to dislodge them from their lofty flavor dominant position. In other words, if its easy for your taste buds to tire of the "sharp" flavors of store-brand cola, but relatively "hard" for you to tire of the "blended" flavors of Coca-Cola, then you're likely to keep switching brands (to try new tastes) until you find Coke, when you're likely to get "stuck" on the high-amplitude flavor of it.

Hmmm. Still; if I could find a jar of World's Best Ketchup, I think I'd like to try it. At least once.

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