Advances in National Brand and Private Label Marketing

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of different merchandising techniques and in-store promotions in boosting sales of private label grocery products. Private labels differ substantially from (leading) national brands in product positioning and target customer group, and may therefore require a different in-store marketing mix to support their sales. By analyzing the relationship between brand type and the sales impact of different merchandising and promotion tools, we aim to obtain a better insight into which types of in-store stimuli are more appropriate to stimulate private label sales. Results confirm that (1) in-store stimuli have a differential effect on sales of private labels and national brands, and (2) merchandising and promotion tools that trigger a more cognitive and reasoned decision process are more effective in stimulating private label sales.

Over the past few years, a growing body of literature has been discussing the emergence of brand online communities (OBCs) as a way for companies across different sectors to directly interact with consumers and as a marketing tool.

This research aims at understanding why consumers engage in OBCs of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs), which are traditionally considered a low involvement and low risk category of products. A multi-method approach—using nethnography and in-depth interviews—was chosen to collect primary data from German consumers taking part in four selected OBCs.

Findings show that key motivational drivers appear to be brand related, as the emotional engagement triggers not only the initial stimulus to enrol, but also to actively participate, and social drivers, like expected benefits, identified in terms of interaction with the brand and a specific product and in terms of interaction within the community. Findings support existing research on OBCs, suggesting that motivations to participate in FMCG online communities have commonalities with some studies conducted in different contexts.

Some common managerial implications relevant to both FMCGs and Private Labels (PLs) are provided.

Immigrants are an important demographic group who are increasingly targeted as consumers by the wine industry in Australia and other Western markets. These markets are often not homogenous as intra-national diversity has created a complex market place in many Western key markets. In this study, wine brand category choice for Chinese and South Korean consumers living in Australia was probed and contrasted with the choices of Caucasian consumers. Three purchase scenarios, namely self/household-consumption, social entertainment-use and gift giving were presented to 511 consumers through a shopping mall intercept using a paper-based questionnaire. Separate models were developed to distinguish preferences for Australian and French wine. Backward deletion regression analysis was used to arrive at the most parsimonious models. A comparison of three research models, namely a marketing model, a Confucian Consumption Behaviour Component (CCBC) model and a Hybrid Model were tested. We found that the hybrid model (i.e. a combination of marketing variables and CCBC variables) has the highest explanatory power for consumers’ wine brand category choice. Different ethnic groups have different wine brand category choice for different purchase scenarios. Our findings provide theoretical implications for ethic marketing research and brand category choice, and we also offer insights for wine makers to better position their products for all markets characterised by intra-national diversity.

This paper examines consumers’ behavior towards UK private labels (PL) across four categories: soft drinks, chocolate, banking and fuel. The results show that cross-category PL purchasing is stronger between related categories and PLs from the same tiers. However, the relationship is weak to non-existent for unrelated categories (chocolate and banking). These findings provide implications for retailers regarding the stretch ability of PL brand’s strategy across categories and across different PL quality tiers. The findings also provide insights into the potential to cross sell PLs in unrelated categories to current PL buyers.

Feature advertising is perceived to be the most cost-effective way to deliver information that would influence consumers’ store choice. Retailers increasingly use store flyers as a common form of feature advertising. Promotions featured in store flyers represent two sources, manufacturers and retailers, who pursue different objectives—support sales of National Brands (NBs) and increase store traffic and PL sales, respectively. Store flyers design implies a very difficult trade-off between promoting PLs or NBs.

The aim of this study was to examine whether featuring PLs vs. NBs on flyers is equally effective in terms of memory. We found that free recall and recognition—commonly used as proxies of memory—did not differ between PL and NBs. For retailers, this means that despite the different presence in terms of flyer space, featuring PL is as effective as NB in terms of flyer space allocation. We also explored the association between memory and customer characteristics, an area of investigation that has not specifically covered PL feature advertising before. Flyer proneness and loyalty to the retailer were discovered to be significant predictors of—respectively—NBs free recall and PL recognition. These findings support the relevance that customers characteristics play as far as memory for feature advertising is concerned. Retailers and manufacturers are therefore encouraged to segment the audience for flyers and target different segments with versions of the flyer that place different emphasis on NB or PL.

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between private label management and the growth stage of the product life cycle concept (PLC), in the context of developing private label market. The study relies on qualitative methodology, i.e. its findings are based on 16 in-depth interviews with experts in the field of private label management. In order to achieve dual perspective experts were representatives from retailer and manufacturer companies. The research findings support the assumption that general principles of the PLC concept are implemented in the private label management. The main contribution stems from the finding that developing market follows the same private label development principles like developed markets in the growth stage of the PLC. The findings can help managers from developing markets to understand how to successfully manage private labels by focusing on their quality and promotion and how to use private labels to achieve higher level of consumers’ satisfaction.

Are national brands more discount elastic and display/feature elastic than store brands? This research tests this traditional view using a dataset comprising of 18 brands from five retail chains, 424 SKUs and 24,260 observations that account for over 90 % of the Carbonated Soft Drinks category sales. Our results indicate that, on aggregate, there are no significant differences in response elasticities between national brands and store brands. However, leading national brands in popular subcategories conform to a large extent to the traditional view of being more promotion elastic than store brands. Implications of these findings for managers and directions for future research are discussed.

Assortment is one of the most important tools for retailers differentiating themselves from competitors, attracting customers into the store and increasing their sales. This paper analyzes the relationship between assortment size—in terms of number of Stock Keeping Units—and category sales level, differentiating between National brands (NBs) and Private Labels (PLs). In order to do this, a panel database containing information about weekly assortment size and volume sales between 2009 and 2014 for all supermarkets operating in Spain is used. Our results confirm a positive and significant relationship between both aspects; nevertheless, the intensity of such result depends on the type of brand (NB vs. PL) but also on the frequency and penetration of the category under study.

A retailer’s brand name is more than just a name or a symbol, it is a tool used to differentiate one retailer from another and advance store positioning. This study examines the effect of retailers’ private label brand (PLB) negative publicity on PLB image, and retailers’ store image as a result of this publicity. Empirical testing was conducted to check this effect in two situations: a private label as a family brand extension of the retailer’s name and a brand name that is independent from the retailer’s name. Findings show that negative publicity mainly has an influence on the PLB's image dimensions, but not on overall store image. PLB name type was found to be insignificant in most cases.

This paper focuses on private labels and manufacturers’ brands; its specific goal is to answer the question whether they are the same in terms of their brand extension effectiveness. The paper reports the results of three experimental studies which analyze the impact of category fit and brand knowledge on brand extension of private label vs. national brands. The results seem to support the view that private labels differ from national brands; contrary to what stated by the branding literature both category fit and brand knowledge, have no significant effect on their extension evaluations.

Over the past few years, private labels have gained larger share of grocery sales in the food retail sector. However, retail stores follow differing strategies in packaging and naming their private label brands. This study examines the effects of extrinsic cues (packaging and naming strategies) on determining consumers’ perception of private labels’ product quality and purchase intention in an experiment using a sample of 357 management students. Using observation method, the category of rice was selected for this study. Hypotheses are derived from previous literature positing the effects of these two extrinsic cues on perceived quality and purchase intentions. MANOVA results indicate that similarity in private label packaging with national brand has a significant effect on perceived quality and purchase intention. However, the effect of naming strategies is not statistically significant on perceived quality and purchase intention. The interaction effect of packaging and naming strategies, in turn, positively influences perceived quality.

In recent years a number of Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) models and measurement scales have been introduced in the branding literature. However, examinations of brand equity in Private Labels (PL) are rather limited. This study aims to compare the validity of the two prominent CBBE models those introduced by Yoo and Donthu (2001) and Nam, Ekinci, and Whyatt (2011). In order to test the models and make this comparison, the study collected data from 236 respondents who rated private labels in Spain. A list of 30 different fashion and sportswear PL was introduced to respondents. These brands do not make any reference to the retail store in which they are sold. Research findings suggest that the extended CBBE model introduced by Nam et al. (2011) and Ciftci, Ekinci, and Whyatt (2014) is more reliable and valid than Yoo and Donthu’s model for assessing PL. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.

This study focuses on retail brand extension from the consumer perspective when non-traditional products—in this case over-the-counter pharmaceuticals—are offered with the private label brand. A model in which attitude towards the extension (ATE) mediates the impact of some antecedents—national brand preference (NBP), trust towards the retailer (T), fit (FIT), private label knowledge (PLK) and consumer innovativeness (INN)—impacting the intention to purchase the extended PL brand (INTB) is proposed and tested. Direct effects regarding NBP and FIT are tested too. 500 questionnaires were collected from a sample of retail customers. Structural equation modeling serves to test the hypotheses. The model shows a good fit and the hypotheses are supported—except for INN.

During the past three decades, brands that are managed by distributors have shown a tendency to occupy an increasing market share in many stores. However, in the academy, there is still no consensus on how to designate this phenomenon, as many terms have been used to describe it. The objective of this research is to provide elements that help to determine the most appropriate way to label this phenomenon through the review of more than 320 academic articles published from 1966 to 2013.

The aim of this paper was to explore the spreading of Private Label (PL) food products in Hungary. We examined the aspects and strategy of both the suppliers and retailers, with special regard to the opinion of consumers in Hungary. In order to explore the strategy of Hungarian suppliers and retailers regarding PL products, we carried out in-depth interviews with experts of 5 retailers and 24 supplier companies in 2010 and 76 supplier companies in 2014. The research in 2010 concentrated on only PL producers, the research of 2014 examined the whole Hungarian food industry from many aspects, using a representative sample. According to in-depth interviews and statistical data, the Hungarian consumers more and more accept PL products. The third and fourth generations of PL products provide a very favorable price/value ratio, which is very important for the price sensitive Hungarian consumers. The increasing ratio of PL products urges the suppliers to take part in this business. According to the interviewed Hungarian food processors, the most important advantages of production of PL products are capacity utilization, calculable income and the large production volume. The most significant disadvantages are the low profitability, brand “cannibalization” and replacement of products and suppliers.

The purpose of this paper is to gain insights into the retailer’s and the PLs’ role in the growth of the sustainable Spanish FMCG market; in particular, it will describe the current situation of sustainable third-party granted labels (Organic, Fair Trade, FSC, MSC, Rainforest Alliance, Ecolabel and Leaping Bunny), based on Nielsen retailers’ panel Scan Track (2012–2013, Madrid region). To assess the current role of PLs in the sustainable market, it examines private labels and national brands’ sales (units and €), numerical distribution (percentage of retailers selling the product), prices and sales in promotion (units and €). The findings show that national brands are still leading the sustainable market, but there is room for the development of growing and high‐value niche markets by retailers.

In this study we follow an integrated approach- combining in-store characteristics and economic factors- to assess the role of private labels (PLs) as a driver of store loyalty, across different types of retailers. We apply structural equation modeling to a large survey collected online, with results at aggregate level indicating that PLs loyalty indeed seems to contribute to store loyalty. However, when analysis takes into consideration the different types of supermarket (low-cost, medium-cost, and premium), findings suggest that PLs play a critical role in generating consumers’ loyalty behavior exclusively in medium and premium supermarkets.

This study analyzes how consumers’ general attitude towards distributor brands, the perception held by the individual on the quality differences between distributor and manufacturer brands, as well as the anticipated satisfaction with the product are key variables for explaining the intention to purchase durable goods with distributor brands. As a significant contribution the influence of consumers’ price consciousness as a moderating variable is tested.

The latest trend in the private label world are premium private labels, often more expensive than standard national brands (ter Braak, Geyskens, & Dekimpe, 2014). The question arises, are those who are already buying a lot of private labels a potential target for more expensive private labels? This paper aims to answer this question by examining the relationship between the loyalty to private labels and national brands and the average price paid. We utilized the UK Kantar TNS panel data and looked at purchasing of ten product categories between 2008 and 2012. The findings show that the higher the loyalty to private labels the lower the average price paid for private labels. In contrast, the more loyal consumers are to national brand the higher the average price paid for national brands. The findings provide important implications for retailers wanting to target shoppers with their premium private label offers in different categories.

This paper analyses the role of previous experience and marketing policy in explaining consumer behavior towards Private labels (PLs) in expansion and crisis. In order to do this, several multinomial logit (MNL) models using purchase records from scanner data in two categories (butter and yoghurt) are estimated. Our results highlight that previous experience is relevant in explaining purchasing behaviour for the local origin PL in expansion; however, during crisis period, previous experience seems to be relevant for both standard PL and local origin PL. Retailers, therefore, should no longer manage PLs as a homogeneous range of products. In addition, retailers are advised to carefully monitor the macro-economic situation, as the relationships between PL purchasing behavior and its antecedents strongly differ during expansion and crisis situations

The term “smart shopper” is used to describe a type of shopper the number of whom is on the increase in today’s socioeconomic environment. Given the absence of works which study the similarities and differences between smart shoppers of different countries, the aim of this research is to analyze the effect smart shopping feelings have on attitudes towards store brands and promoted national brands within a multicultural environment. The results show that in the US, the values representing tradition and self-expression are seen to have a greater influence on smart shopping feelings and the attitude towards brands. In Spain smart shopping feelings are influenced by values related with fun, curiosity and creativity.