Do you ever wonder why some food products have different brand identities across the country? For example, East Coasters know mayonnaise to be Hellmann’s, but on the West Coast, the same brand is called Best Foods. Some people think these brands are different, but actually the variant names use the same logo and similar advertisements. So why does this divergent branding exist? The West Coast mayonnaise company Best Foods bought its East Coast rival Hellmann's in 1932 and kept both names because it didn't want to rename itself with its competitor's identity and both companies had very large market shares in their respective regions. The newly combined company continued to use both names but united the two brands in 1968 by using the characteristic Hellmann's blue ribbon on the Best Foods packaging. In 2000, the British company Unilever purchased the company. Since 2007, both products have featured the same exact logo to make the brands look like sister products. Both have exactly the same commercials but with the names switched. Some people say that Best Foods and Hellmann's use different recipes, which are based on the original recipes, but both products have the same ingredients. So it's up to each person's perception as to which tastes better.
