Which premium brands do you think should not be premium?

[Cheeseandlobster]

For me it's Morning Fresh. I thought it was shite a decade ago. Bought it again recently and it is still crap. It doesn't lather and my usual Aldi own brand is far superior. How on earth has it survived this long?

@BetterThanKleenex

Lindt chocolate- it just tastes like butter?

It's funny how we all have different opinions. Lindt is the ONLY chocolate I like - it's smooth and silky and tastes delicious! Used to like Hotel Chocolat before they changed the formula but I've always disliked Cadbury, Thorntons, M&S and the horrible cheap chocolate which they use for Quality Street.

Ritter Sport is quite good though!

BMW and Mercedes
BMW has changed track now and is more affordable, I wonder if that's it? A new 7 seater bmw is pretty much the same price as Skodas and loads of other car brands

The Jelly Bean Co
Aldi and Tesco do much nicer

Most expensive kids' sun creams
After trying so many am glad aldi and lidl do the job!!

Regatta
Used to be north face equivalent but is such bad quality now

Miele

I’m another who has left apple. I do agree the products function well but they’re just not worth it. I now have a google phone which is, for me, just as good but half the price.

I do think Heinz beans are premium, again, simply because they price themselves higher than the rest of the bean market. I still buy them but I think I do need to try others now.

Agree with the dyson bashers. We now have a Vax branded op right vacuum cleaner which is much better and 1/4 of the price. Last year I bought a hot/cold fan for nearly £400. It looks nice but doesn’t do a good job at all!

Andrex loo roll, the quality has dived since I was young - I usually buy supermarket own now because it's no different apart from less £££

Thomas Sabbo - My stud earrings are quite expensive but get tarnished after a month! Found much better quality for 10% of the price on Etsy

Charlotte Tilbury - Loved the brand when it was small but now the quality is gone

Molton Brown liquid soap or any expensive liquid soap which has SLS. Cheap ingredients premium prices.

Expensive candles are a waste I buy organic essential oils and use my electric diffuser.

Love Nike trainers they last a long time.
Lindt 90% chocolate is good and reasonably priced.

I think you have it in one @Squiz81. I meant brands other than supermarket own. Not premium but branded

I'm not sure what your actual question is in that case. What non-supermarket brands shouldn't be non-supermarket doesn't make sense.

After you just asking what branded products we don't rate?

@Gwenhwyfar I use MAC Mineralize Skinfinish to set and either Too Faced or Smashbox (the original one) as primer.

My Levi’s jeans were really flimsy and lightweight and ripped right across the arse after 18 months.

@SticksAndStoned

I think you have it in one @Squiz81. I meant brands other than supermarket own. Not premium but branded

I'm not sure what your actual question is in that case. What non-supermarket brands shouldn't be non-supermarket doesn't make sense.

After you just asking what branded products we don't rate?

@SticksAndStoned I must have been on the gin last night. I meant what branded products are inferior to non brands. I have a couple of friends who will only buy brands. And they would go with Morning Fresh say over Tesco own brand even if they heard Tesco was better.

Agree re jaffa cakes.

Also, real jaffa cakes contain milk and other brands generally don't.

I agree with PPs that Pandora's marketing concept and strategy seems gifted which is presumably how they've created a £bn+ brand out of a previously somewhat unbranded charm market. What shall we buy mum for her birthday, Christmas, Mothering Sunday, St Valentine's? Let's go back and get her another charm. She'll like that (I can't think of anything else).

Almost all mass market branded UK high street jewellery appear badly-designed and machine or sweat-shop/slave-made unfortunately.

What brand of wellies would people recommend now that Hunter's quality has crashed?

What vacuum cleaner seems to be reliable, light weight and good quality?

Hoping for 'affordable right to repair' to hopefully make manufacturers raise their game though I expect corporate lobbying will sabotage and delay.

Has Range Rover quality improved with the new batch of hybrids?

All these people dissing Heinz beans, what brands do you recommend instead? I love Heinz beans but I am now wondering if it's because I don't know any better.

Don't worry, OP. By mentioning 'premium', you seem to have made many posters happy with their competitive 'that's not premium' positioning and complaints.

I can't stand Pandora. It was a brilliant idea that personally I dislike intensely. I am so pleased I don't have to pretend to look delighted when I am presented with yet another charm every birthday and Christmas.

It was lovely for teenagers. Once. For about 5 years tops. Now it's just naff.

Hunter wellies, total rip off and barely last a year.

I have a bit of a love hate conflict going on with Dyson. I agree the quality of their regular pull along vaccuum cleaners is patchy and I absolutely HATED the upright Dyson I had once. But their cordless are good. In fact I have just upgraded to their newest tip-top cordless, it cost an arm and a leg but it is truly bloody fabulous and it's the only vacuum I'll ever need for my four bed house. Hoovering the stairs has never been so easy.

Jo Malone
Hush - bring on that batwing sleeved animal print polyester. Yack.
Boden tops- even worse quality than Hush and the bar is lowwwww
Charlotte Tilbury- bit like Malone- posh boxes, shit products

Havianna flip flops. Rip off. Super uncomfortable. £6 Asda flipflops were much more comfy.

Could not disagree more. I bought my first pair of Havs against my better judgement just to see if they lived up to the hype and they TOTALLY do. They don't rub and give you that awful tenderness and pain between the toes that regular flipflops do, they don't constantly come apart at the toe post or snap in half on a day out, like cheap flipflops always seem to, and they last forever. Well worth the considerable expense.

@DansMaPoche

All these people dissing Heinz beans, what brands do you recommend instead? I love Heinz beans but I am now wondering if it's because I don't know any better.

Branston beans all the way.. thicker and so tasty!

I meant what branded products are inferior to non brands

Ah, gotcha.

I've got a contraversial one...

While I like Bailey's, Tesco's Finest salted caramel equivalent is better.

Charlotte Tilbury everything. So overpriced.

Anthropologie! Totally over priced for such poor quality.

Inspired by @Cheeseandlobster I flipped your Idea

I hope you don’t mind!

I hope you don’t mind!

This thread puts me in mind of a former colleague of mine who always prided himself on having better taste than the rest of us and valuing things that most people weren't discerning enough to be able to appreciate.
Years ago , before gin became the fashionable drink that it is now, he started drinking Bombay Sapphire and telling us that it was vastly superior to "common" brands like Gordons which as plebs like the rest of us us would choose.
Fast forward to a business trip to India when in the bar afterwards my colleague was pontificating to all and sundry about the superiority of Bombay Sapphire and how nobody with any taste or knowledge on the subject would drink anything else. Awkward silence ensued as it became apparent that virtually all our hosts had opted for Gordons. I don't know if it's still the case, but at the time there was a heavy import duty on non local alcohol which meant that well known British brands were a lot more expensive than local brands. Thus it was a status symbol to order Gordons etc. Whether there's really any objective difference in quality I have no idea, but I thought this incident demonstrated very nicely how perception varies and whether something is "premium" or not is often driven by fashion.

Is Morning Fresh really classed as premium? I always thought it was a cheaper alternative to Fairy. Dyson is definitely not worth the money