For years, Clark has been preaching about the value of buying store brands instead of name brands. But few people heeded his message -- until last year when the recession made it a necessity for many people.

In a surprising twist, The Financial Times of London reports that it's been mainly wealthy families earning more than $100,000 annually who are "trading down" to store brands.

So the brand names now have to figure out how to recapture the mojo for their product lines. For example, Procter & Gamble has decided to reinvent their presentation with what's called performance-based value messaging.

Their new Bounty campaign is "Clean the mess with less." What they're actually saying is that even though Bounty costs more than the store brand, it's actually cheaper because you need far fewer towels to clean up the same mess.

Clark's take on the issue? Don't fall for the advertising. The reality is that store brands are so much better than they once were. The private labels are no longer shelling out inferior goods. So you can be comfortable with saving the money when you buy generic.

In another retail trend, we're now seeing widespread market segmentation of store brands. You may see up to 3 different versions of a particular generic good -- each with a different price point and different packaging.

One product may be superior to the brand name; another may be equivalent in quality but 30% cheaper; and a third will be low quality for a dirt-cheap price, much like the original "no frills" goods of the late '70s and early '80s.