How has a product whose pink color, strange consistency and enviable molecular stability -- which made it fodder for countless jokes and even a Monty Python-inspired musical -- remained relevant as a foodstuff people actually serve to their kids? It's not necessarily the economy, stupid -- a fact that has a lot to do with the role of branding during tough economic times, when, conventional wisdom has it, consumers retreat to less-costly items.It's a trend explained by the concept of "inferior goods," an economics term that less describes the makeup of a product than its place in consumer-demand theory. They're basically goods or services for which demand increases as income decreases and vice versa. They're staples that are somewhat dispensable in good times but more desirable in bad ones. Commonly cited examples include ramen noodles, bus transit, lipstick (as the New York Times recently postulated) and, often, Spam.
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