It’s been my observation that light bulbs are a low involvement purchase for the average consumer. Habituation cannot be relied upon since the incandescent lamp has largely disappeared, individual SKUs now have short market lifespans, and LED lasts considerably longer. Much like we saw with CFLs as they became popular, the decision seems to merit less than a minute’s worth of time, with purchase price being a significant metric.
Retailers know this so they position house brands on the (proverbial) right with simple, consistent … eh … design language on the packaging that shifts little year to year, easy-to-scan facing, distinguishing primarily on formfactor, wattage, CCT. Occasionally some claims about “light quality” - perhaps even a CCT rating. I’ve noticed that the store brands are faster to explore ‘new’ CCTs than the name brands.
Name brands make some effort at distinction, but they also seem to revamp packaging often, making more elaborate claims as to how spending more gets you more. Occasionally some of the appeals to better TCO beyond the standard Lighting Facts label. Name brand means something to a slice of the market so some will gravitate to GE/Philips/Cree (or what’s left of them) but the decision is a little harder than with the store brands.
But man is upfront cost something I’ve seen much complaining about. A price difference of less than a dollar has seen many a name-brand light left on the shelf in favor of the store brand. And despite CFLs making a wide range of CCTs available and generally described with semistandard DAYLIGHT/BRIGHT WHITE/SOFT WHITE (5000/3000/2700) and occasionally COOL WHITE/TRUE WHITE (4000/3500) it’s still a source of confusion.