Advances in National Brand and Private Label Marketing

Although retail categories are considered to have low consumer involvement, findings asserted that there are different levels of involvement among them that affects private label share in each category. The aim of this research is to explore how consumer involvement influences the market penetration of PLB categories over several years. The research includes a scale of involvement for each category, and of PLB shares from sales of large supermarket chains in Israel between 2015 and 2018. The analysis indicates that the effect of consumer involvement is decreasing over time. However, several sources of involvement including social, quality, and price, still influence the growth of the various categories.

This paper explores why Indian women use skin lightening cosmetics brands to lighten their skin in order to gain social acceptance. Personhood-identity was used to conceptualise this study because it informs understanding of the social acceptance of culturally embedded behaviour like skin lightening. Heideggerian Hermeneutic phenomenology was used to explore this behaviour, involving two rounds of interviews with Indian women who used skin lightening creams. The findings revealed three facets to Indian women’s social acceptance of lighter skin. Namely, validation, confidence, and self-esteem. Participants believed this acceptance perpetuates colourism and gender discrimination and causes mental health problems. Even so, they felt powerless to challenge the dominance of this skin tone. This raises the ethical responsibility of cosmetics brands that perpetuate colour and gender inequality. Such brands need to recognise and enact their social responsibility as powerful change agents against discrimination, and as strong supporters of female empowerment.

The forgotten effects theory has been widely developed by different researchers because of its wide applications and validity for decision-makers in the decision-making process. In this paper we develop the application of this theory in the case of consumer decision-making in search of the best choice based on their characteristics. For this, we located our research in the city of Barcelona (Spain), because it is a cosmopolitan city and a reference at European level. We have carried out a research for which we have had the assistance of four experts in the field. The main advantage of this model is that it allows second-generation effects to be considered in decision-making, which could go unnoticed by the decision-maker at first, thus reducing the uncertainty associated with the process.

While the potential of storytelling to create emotional and memorable connections to a brand has long been realised, today’s omnichannel brands face the challenge of telling their story across a multitude of touchpoints and channels, forming a multi-associative network for customers to navigate and make sense of. With an increasingly blurry boundary between content and commerce, fueled by new technologies and digital channels emerging and evolving rapidly within the current economic climate, the need for theoretical and methodological approaches that span the entirety of touchpoints at marketers’ disposal has grown. By proposing a framework and research agenda of customer touchpoints as narrative fragments, we strive to generate a customer-based understanding of meaning co-creation along the customer journey. This conceptual work represents an endeavour to contribute insights into new and emergent channels. As such, the approach presented herein will contribute to retail– and omnichannel marketing literature as well as retail branding theory and practice.

Online grocery shopping has greatly increased with the pandemic, changing the mix of offline versus online purchases and likely consumer attitudes toward these channels. Managers are unsure about the implications for their portfolio of consumer segments and products, such as national versus private label brands, fair trade products and organic products. This research analyzes both attitudes and purchase behavior to show how consumer characteristics, attitudes and purchases differ between also-online and offline-only grocery shoppers. We found that online-also customers are younger, have smaller households with less children and show lower income than offline-only consumers. While more open to technology and innovation, they are less open toward tasting new things. Due to a lower price consciousness and a higher brand preference, the also-online customers show significant higher shares of national brands, despite their lower incomes. While attitudes are similar, online-also customers show more than double the organic share in their purchases. Finally, both attitudes and purchase shares for fair trade products are higher for also-online than for offline-only customers. Implications abound for grocery managers: the online channel is well suited for national brands, organic and fair trade products. However, they should consider that also-online shoppers tend to be younger with lower incomes, and that their attitudes have not always caught up with their purchase patterns, especially for organic products.

As Private Labels (PLs) become proliferated, retailers are offering multitier PLs and introducing premium PLs (PPLs) that are high in quality and, in some cases, even quality-equivalent to national brands (NBs). PPLs are often supplied by the manufacturers of corresponding NBs (i.e., dual branders), whereas many economy PLs (EPLs) are supplied by dedicated PL manufacturers. We examine an NB manufacturer’s incentive to supply PPL despite its potential of cannibalizing the company’s own NB. Our analysis incorporates the attraction effect of PPL on NB, which stems from consumers exhibiting context-dependent preferences. Such effect makes it profitable for the manufacturer and retailer to supply quality-equivalent PPL.

The aim of this project is to offer a clarifying vision of the current situation of private label management within retail commercial management in four types of product categories and thus be able to offer recommendations, based on actual data, to maximize and make profits from the products that belong to the private label categories.

This paper studies the profitability of a store brand introduction by an e-commerce platform offering competing manufacturers’ products. We develop a game-theoretic model and obtain equilibrium quantity and pricing solutions for the manufacturers and the platform. We compare equilibrium strategies and profits in games where the platform does and does not offer a store brand. Our main findings indicate that the platform benefits from introducing a strong store brand to the detriment of manufacturers.

This research addresses whether product markets with private labels exhibit a more positive relationship between price and quality than those markets where private labels are absent. The products investigated are limited to durable items. Price and quality measures were drawn from independent product tests conducted in the U.S. over a period of 103 months for 14,234 items. Separate price-quality correlations were conducted for each product category. The correlations of those categories containing both national brands and private labels were compared with those categories containing just national brands. Categories with private labels exhibited a higher correlation between price and quality. However, the proportion of private label brands in a category was not significantly related to its price-quality correlation.

The present work investigates the topic of inter-brand competition among Private Labels and Leading National Brands in the new online grocery retail setting. An analysis of peer-to-peer ratings and reviews regarding the two competing brand types has been developed. Findings highlights that: (i) the general online sentiment towards National Brand is significantly more positive than that towards Private Label; (ii) qualitative content analysis on reviews related to strongly positive/strongly negative ratings reveals that e-shoppers’ comments on National Brand focus more on non-price attributes (i.e. product quality and services), while 64% of overall comments on Private Label are price-related. This confirm the conjecture, already proved in the offline grocery retail setting, that store branded products are currently found to be in a weak competitive position compared to Leading National Brand in the emerging online retail setting too.

Brand appropriation through optics wars (hereafter BATOW) is a new market phenomenon. It refers to alt-right groups hijacking a brand to enhance their appearance and establish a group aesthetic to convey their values (e.g., “Proud Boys” appeared in public with Fred Perry’s black and yellow polo shirts during the last US election). BATOW is particularly harmful to hijacked brands because it affects their positioning, image, and equity. However, this market phenomenon has not yet been conceptualized nor investigated in marketing, and empirical research is needed to understand better the damaging effects of BATOW on brand image and target consumers ‘attitudes’ and behaviors. This ongoing research assumes that BATOW elicits righteous anger as a negative moral emotion among brands' target consumers, who develop an altered brand image, negative attitude toward the brand, and corrective actions such as negative word-of-mouth and boycott. Our assumptions are tested through an online questionnaire and ongoing data collection. Results will be presented and discussed at the time of the conference.

Companies nowadays face the challenge of communicating their sustainable initiatives, due to consumer scepticism and poor or even negative commercial impact of initiatives to date. While literature is scanty in analysing the challenge of communicating sustainability, the goal of this paper is to shed light on how brands can take advantage of the ever-increasing consumer focus on sustainability. Methods include 14 in-depth interviews with top management of multinational firms in the Spanish FMCG sector. Results highlight the importance and difficulty of communicating sustainability benefits that are relevant to the consumer. A relevant implication of the study is that Sustainability Communication (SC) must start internally, transforming employees into brand ambassadors. SC addressing consumers needs to be genuine and product-specific. “showing” the sustainable benefits without the sales goal being evident. Brand purpose must be in the DNA of the corporation to be successful.

In today's hyperconnected environments, stakeholders have gained great power in shaping brands. In light of the stakeholder-empowered contexts, managers seem to have to accept ceding control over the brand to stakeholders. The proposed integrative review is aimed to provide a conceptualization of the illusion of brand control, which can be defined as a misconception that managers are the only “master of the game” in brand management. The proposed conceptualization can hopefully be a starting point to guide further research on branding, towards formalizing branding strategies that can be implemented by brand managers in response to gradual stakeholder takeover of the brand. In this regard, the paper will provide managerial implications and suggestions for future research.

After having explained the reference principles in the economic valuation of a brand, we proceed with the identification of the components of the value of a brand and the synthetic analysis of the valuation methods (classified in methods based on differential benefits, on the performance of market and costs.)

The paper concludes with an indication of the most appropriate methodology for evaluating the brand of an insurance company which, as often happens, operates in multi-business contexts.

This long abstract paper presents the study based on a concrete exploration of advanced innovation such as the metaverse needs to be done to revitalize the traditional industries in Thailand; furthermore, the consideration of community development should be followed as well as providing a concrete result based on the roadmap of promoting metaverse marketing and the implement of metaverse technology as a tool to support small local businesses in Thailand.

In recent years we are facing a growing attention paid by governments, organizations and companies on environmental issues. Academics have studied the role of different marketing innovations in leading to positive consequences for the environment. Among the four, innovation in product design and packaging has been regarded by the marketing literature as the starting point for many companies which intend to follow a path towards sustainability in their innovation activities. However, little is known on the specific EBs that could be achieved by the product design and packaging innovation. In this respect, the present study aims to shed light on the environmental contribution driven by innovation in product design and packaging in achieving environmental benefits, through an empirical analysis of the latest available Community Innovation Survey in Portugal related to the period 2012–2014. We run four logistic regression models on manufacturing companies where environmental benefits are a function of innovation in product design and marketing. Results show that the introduction of a product design and packaging marketing innovation yields environmental benefits, specifically, product recycling benefits and extended product life. Companies are called to consider introducing a product design and packaging innovation as it could represent a first meaningful step towards sustainability.

After the outbreak of Coronavirus, social distancing in retail has become a need that could damage the interaction in-store between sales assistant, ambassadors of the brand storytelling, and customers, that should be emotionally engaged in order to experience a positive customer journey. In closing the gap brought by the pandemic, systems of Artificial Intelligence (e.g. robots, smart trolleys etc.) can be of help in keeping active the communication between brands and customers, and at the same time sanitarian safety, while keeping alive the process of value co-creation. Because some research also empirically demonstrated that a socially-oriented corporate identity can out-perform traditional approaches to its extension, in using AI in retail, the assessment methods should be more technology-oriented too: in doing this, neuromarketing can help evaluating the process of emotional engagement between the AI and the customers, with parametric data and scientific precision. Neuromarketing can also assess the biological well-being of a customer when making purchase: in fact, beside the product knowledge through storytelling, retailers know that also environmental comfort can be an important variable of the customers’ purchase decision in the retail ecosystem. In fact, physical well-being (assessed in terms of temperature, heart rate etc.) can be a booster of activity: not only for consumers, but also for employees, that can boost their productivity. Since Transformative Service Research is a research stream aimed at creating uplifting changes and improvements in the well-being of individuals (consumers and employees), communities, and ecosystems, these technologies (AI, neuromarketing, as well as digital technologies like AR and VR) can be inscribed in the frame of the eudaimonic well-being: the present contribution aims at being a review of the state of the art of the above-mentioned topics.

The integration of new technologies into the lives of consumers has caused significant changes in their journey, while directly altering consumers’ moment of truth. This study proposes a theoretical framework depicting recent innovations, the ongoing integration of digital touch-points within the consumer journey, and their overall impact on the first moment of truth (FMOT). The paper also discusses the role of digital social responsibility in the consumer journey, mediating the relationship between the used touch points and customers’ advocacy to the purchased brand. The proposed conceptual model is based on a thorough enquiry of the effects of technology on purchasing decisions and brand advocacy. It incorporates a comprehensive updated consumer journey across four stages, namely: (1) awareness and consideration, (2) engagement and purchase, (3) delivery, and (4) brand advocacy, mediated by digital social responsibility. As such, the paper reflects the ongoing integration of digital touch-points within the consumer journey. As the role of multi-channel marketing in the consumers’ consumption journey and its subsequent impact on the FMOT is still under-researched, the current study enhances the understanding of the new consumer journey allowing marketers to tailor and enhance the user experience at various touch-points.

During the last years, the retail industry has changed enormously due to the ongoing digitalization, accelerated also by the coronavirus disease in 2019. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the emerging trends in grocery retailing in Italy and to investigate the key aspects of a new e-grocer player represented by online grocery delivery service start-ups. An explorative qualitative research design was carried out through semi-structured interviews with marketing managers to identify the main challenges currently faced by grocery retailers, then a case study of a grocery delivery start-up (Gorillas) was carried out to understand its business model and current role within the grocery retail landscape. The preliminary findings highlighted as main trends characterizing grocery retailing: an e-commerce spread, new consumption habits based on digital skills, convenience, and last-minute needs. All these trends are at the basis of the online grocery delivery service that is developing quickly in Europe and also in Italy.

In response to the pandemic, omni-channel retailers had to rethink their service offerings especially when it comes to fulfilling internet orders. With social distancing requirements, retailers need to include contactless options. This study shows that simply adding a contactless option is not sufficient. Retailers who offer a range of options that span contactless shopping, immediate gratification, or convenience appear to perform better in the pandemic market.

Research on CSR has largely focused on the effects of companies’ CSR actions on their performance or business value creation, but obtains contrasting results due to understudied mediating effects, i.e. indirect relationships between CSR and company performance. Consequently, the present study examines the direct, but also indirect, links between a company’s perceived CSR, following a CSR communication, by introducing variables more specifically related to the social value the firm can deliver, upstream of its business value. Using a sample of 414 consumers, results of structural equation modeling show the direct and indirect ways in which a brand’s perceived CSR, following exposure to a CSR communication, can improve its market value in terms of behavioral intentions. It also underscores that the perceived CSR of a brand increases the social value of this brand by encouraging consumers to adopt sustainable behaviors in order to increase their well-being.

This study systematically reviews papers on marketing communication strategies in retail settings extracted from the Web of Science, adopting a combination of bibliometric analyses on 30 years of data: bibliographic coupling, co-citation and cartographic analysis from the visualization and mapping using VOSviewer software. A thematic analysis using Atlas.ti software was also conducted to identify the main themes emerging from the literature related to roles and implications of marketing communication in retail. A total of 186 publications were identified from the period 1994–2021, and by applying threshold criteria for the bibliometric analysis, we identified 54 documents based on their citations and link strengths. The most influential authors, articles, journals, countries and keywords were determined. In addition, content analysis of the publications resulting from the paper analysis was carried out, with the identification of four main clusters that summarize the most important themes addressing the main roles and implications of marketing communications in retail across these themes: (i) sustainability, experiential consumption and consumer trust; (ii) misalignment in the push-pull relationship of marketing and sales and multichannel dynamics across the purchase funnel; (iii) integrated marketing communication as practice and marketing communication forms in value creation and co-creation; and (iv) interactive technologies and marketing appeals in brand considerations. This analysis provided a basis for the organization of marketing communication roles and implications related to retail research and brings practical implications for retail businesses when engaging on integrated marketing communication planning. This paper suggests some new avenues for other integrated marketing communication (IMC) researchers interested in further exploring the link between IMC and retail research.