Generic brands of consumer products (often supermarket goods) are distinguished by the absence of a brand name, instead identified solely by product characteristics and identified by plain, usually black-and-white packaging.
Generally they imitate more expensive branded products, competing on price.
They are similar to "store brand" or "private label" products sold under a brand particular to the merchant, but typically priced lower and perceived as lower quality.
[1] They are generally more popular in recessionary times, when consumers' purchasing power is lower, putting them on the lookout for value-for-money products; they experienced a period of popularity in the United States in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during a period of high price inflation.
A generic brand skin care product may have a consumer unsure about its "health and safety" quotient.