Editorial: Treatier perhaps, but still smaller

The great American satirist and essayist H.L. Mencken famously observed that "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public".

It's tempting to speculate that the notion has got some traction in the marketing department at Tip Top, where it exerts some influence on their attitudes towards New Zealand shoppers.

How else to explain the attempt to sell the idea that making something smaller and charging the same amount of money for it would escape the notice of people trying to balance the household grocery budget?

It emerged this week that the icecream maker has reduced by 20 per cent the size of the tubs of four of its lines. The change is mentioned on its website, though it's swamped by references to an "exciting new range" which is "treatier [sic] than ever" because it has more of the "exciting bits".

This last assertion has independent backing: a television reporter found 64 gumdrops in a 1.6-litre tub compared to the 58 in an old-style 2-litre tub - an increase of 28 per cent when adjusted for volume. But shoppers weren't impressed.

Setting aside the suspect coinage of "treaty" as an adjective, it's a pretty obvious piece of fancy footwork. The company said the move was prompted by market feedback that the four lines in question were "occasional family treats" - which seems to imply that they are doing us a favour by saving us the bother of hauling that hulking great 2-litre tub back to the freezer.

But a little bit more market research might have shown that at least some of us spot a stealthy price rise when we see one.