Store brand and store loyalty: The moderating role of store brand positioning

Despite extensive research, the relationship between store brand loyalty and store loyalty remains uncertain. Recent research suggest a nonmonotonic relationship between store brand loyalty and store loyalty: positive up to a certain store brand loyalty level, after which it becomes negative (inverted U). However, existing arguments suggest this relationship may relate to the competitive positioning of store brands, especially their price?Cquality positioning. The more quality-oriented the store brand positioning, the more favorable the effect of store brand loyalty appears to be on store loyalty. An empirical study, focused on retailers that simultaneously offer several store brands with different price?Cquality positions, corroborates this proposition. The store brand loyalty level at which store brand loyalty induces a negative effect on store loyalty occurs earlier when the store brand positioning stresses price instead of quality.     

The effects of store brand loyalty on store loyalty: evidence from the Spanish market

This article studies the impact of retailers' store brands on store performance. Specifically, we analyze the extent to which store brands contribute to store loyalty. On the one hand, a positive relationship between customers' familiarity with and loyalty to the retailer's own brand and customers' loyalty to the retailer should result from the potential of the store brand to differentiate the retailer. On the other hand, an negative relationship between customers' familiarity with and loyalty to the retailer's own brand and customers' loyalty to the retailer may result from store brands' association with more price-sensitive customers, who have a higher propensity to buy at different stores that offer the best bargain. The empirical analysis, conducted with a sample of customers of leading retailers in the Spanish detergent market, shows no relationship between store brand loyalty and loyalty to the retailer. Although the purchase of store brands relates positively to higher loyalty to the retailer, this relationship deteriorates with the degree of exclusivity of store brands within the customer's shopping basket.     

Retailers’ Price Positioning and the Motivational Profiling of Store‐Brand Shoppers: The Case of Spain

In recent years, retailers have worked to advance store‐brand strategies, leading to greater success and higher congruence with the retailer's positioning. In this new competitive context, this research aims to characterize store‐brand shoppers in terms of motivation and benefits sought, as well as analyze, on the basis of congruence theory, the moderating role of a retailer's price positioning on store‐brand shopper characterizations. The empirical study combines survey and household panel information related to leading retailers in Spain; the findings reveal that store‐brand shoppers are motivated by their price sensitivity, whereas they are less sensitive to service quality and name brands. However, the retailer's price positioning exerts a moderating effect on shopper profiles: In less price‐oriented retail chains, store‐brand purchases seem motivated less by price and more by quality, brand awareness, and brand reputation.     

How Do Price Perceptions of Different Brand Types Affect Shopping Value and Store Loyalty?

This research investigates the relationships among price perceptions for different brand types (national brands, standard store brands, regional store brands, organic store brands), shopping value dimensions (quality, price, social, and emotion value), and store loyalty (retention and word of mouth (WOM)). A comprehensive model depicts determinants of customer store loyalty. Using structural equation modeling, the model test includes 671 consumers intercepted during shopping trips. The data analysis yields several surprising results. In particular, low product price perceptions do not necessarily signal negative store quality evaluations. Shopping value dimensions influence store retention loyalty and WOM behavior differently. Furthermore, different brand types exert distinct effects on the value creation process. Favorable prices for national and standard store brands have comparable positive effects on store price value and emotional value creation; appealing prices of regional store brands instead reduce the emotional value of the store, and low prices for organic store brand products significantly increase social value creation.     

Interplays between manufacturer advertising and retailer store brand introduction: Agency vs. wholesale contracts

In retail supply chains, manufacturers' advertising for national brands and retailers' store brand introduction may relate to each other, and two types of contracts, i.e., agency contract and wholesale contract, are widely used. This paper uses game-theoretic models to investigate the strategic interaction between a manufacturer's advertising strategy and a retailer's store brand introduction strategy. We derive the equilibrium outcomes, including wholesale price, retail price, market demand, retailer's and manufacturer's profits under different contract forms. We find that when the product cost is small relative to the perceived value of the store brand, the introduction of a store brand will benefit the retailer. The retailer is more likely to introduce store brands under the wholesale contract than under the agency contract. In addition, compared with the wholesale contract, the agency contract may increase both the manufacturer's and the retailer's profits and lead to Pareto improvement for them.     

Store brand and national brand promotion attitudes antecedents

Retailers compete against national manufacturers by launching store brands. National manufactures regularly use brand promotions to fight store brands back. The purpose of this article is to find out whether attitudes toward national brand promotions and store brands have similar or different conceptual antecedents. The study presents and tests a model of the effects of shoppers´ characteristics (price and non-price-related) on attitudes toward store brand and national brand promotions. The results support that constructs relating to price impact both store brand attitude and national brand promotion attitude, but the strength of some of these relationships differ. Other shopper characteristics like brand loyalty and store loyalty, have similar negative and positive effects, respectively. These slight differences suggest that promotions of national brands might be a good tool for fighting back store brands, but manufacturers need to design and target these promotions carefully in order to avoid head-to-head competition.     

Effect of Store Brand Introduction on Channel Price Leadership: An Empirical Investigation

In this study, we conduct an empirical investigation of the impact of store brand introductions on the price leadership relations in a distribution channel between a retailer and national brand manufacturers. We analyze a multi-product category retail database from a major grocery chain, which captures both a period before and a period after the introduction of a store brand in each product category. By applying the time series approach to this data set, we show that store brand introductions frequently lead to price leadership changes, generally in a more favorable direction for the retailer than for the national brand manufacturer, evidenced by either the decay of the manufacturers’ price leadership or the rise of the retailer’s price leadership. However, such a change is not universal but tends to be concentrated among a certain quality tier of national brands, which is not always the low-tier, but sometimes the top-tier despite the low-price low-quality position of the store brand. The patterns detected in the data suggest that these changes are likely to reflect the retailer’s strategic effort to reshape the price leadership environment in a product category aided by the enhanced bargaining power and managerial sophistication that accompanied the store brand introductions.     

The Retailer's Perspective on the Link Between Logistical Resources and Perceived Customer Loyalty to Manufacturer Brands

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between logistics and brand‐related resources, and assess their impact on the retailer's perceptions of customer loyalty to manufacturer brands. On the basis of theoretical underpinnings of the resource‐based view, this study explores the relationships among four main variables: (1) variety of collaborative logistics technologies shared between retailers and manufacturers, (2) manufacturer's logistics operations quality provided to retailers, (3) retailer's brand differentiation orientation, and (4) retailer's perceptions of customers loyalty to manufacturer brands. An online survey was conducted on 313 senior marketing and supply chain managers from retailer firms. The results of the structural equation analysis support a mediated relationship between logistical resources and perceived loyalty to manufacturer brands. The retailers believe that shared logistics technologies enable manufacturers and retailers to offer higher levels of availability and visibility of preferred brands to their end‐user customers. In turn, the end‐users become more confident with their decisions to repurchase the same brand offerings.     

Store Brand Quality and Retailer’s Product Line Design

This study analyzes a retailer’s store brand quality decision in vertically differentiated product categories. We analyze a game theoretic model composed of one or two national brand manufacturers and a retailer, who strategically chooses the quality level(s) of its store brand(s) relative to the well-established national brand position(s) to maximize its category profit. Our analysis reveals that the nature of a retailer’s store brand quality positioning is quite different from the manufacturer’s national brand positioning decision, and that the best position for a store brand is not “as close to a national brand as possible” as previous studies suggest. Instead, the optimal quality position of each store brand is remarkably sensitive to the distribution of consumers’ willingness-to-pay. In particular, the relative proportions of quality sensitive consumers and price sensitive consumers determine the balance of three key strategic forces — the market expansion force, the retail margin force, and the consumer profitability force, leading to different optimal product line designs for store brands across different category environments. Interestingly, against multiple incumbent national brands, the retailer’s optimal product line design includes a store brand positioned at the highest quality level in the category only if most consumers are moderately quality conscious. We also analyze the implications of national brands’ brand equity for retailers’ store brand strategy.     

Re-thinking the relationship between store brand attitude and store brand loyalty: a simultaneous approach

Academic attention to the relationship between store brand attitude and store brand loyalty is insufficient. Our paper fills this research gap by proposing and testing a theoretical model that demonstrates a reciprocal and mutually-reinforcing relationship between store brand attitude and store brand loyalty. The literature review identifies independent variables as potential predictors of both characteristics. We apply a two stages least squares model to data that come from a survey of Spanish households. The findings corroborate some of the propositions of the conceptual model: the reciprocal relationship between the two dependent variables; the influence of risk, deal proneness, price and value consciousness and extrinsic and intrinsic cues on store brand attitude; and the influence of exploration, deal proneness, store loyalty, store brand trust and store brand affective commitment on store brand loyalty.     

The Influence of Store Image on Store Loyalty in Hong Kong's Quick Service Restaurant Industry

ABSTRACT

Studies considering links between store image and store loyalty, especially in an Asian context, are sparse. This article explores the relationship between store image and store loyalty in the Hong Kong fast-food industry. A survey of 200 users of fast-food restaurants revealed that functional attributes of store image are more accurate than psychological attributes when predicting the degree of store loyalty. Functional attributes of particular importance are waiting time for a seat, store environment and store location. However, some psychological attributes have an influence on store loyalty. Furthermore, the findings show that the more favorable the store image, the more likely consumers are to consume in a particular restaurant.     

The influence of price and brand loyalty on store brands versus national brands

Abstract

This article investigates how price and brand loyalty of three frequently purchased product categories can influence the purchase decision process of store brands versus national brands. A multinomial logit model was constructed to analyse the data obtained from a consumer panel. The results confirmed that brand loyalty is the main variable which influences the purchase decision process of both national and store brands. The influence of price on the purchase decision process is product specific. There is a clear distinction between the buyer's profile of store brands and national brands. But there is no evidence of any correlation between demographic variables and national brands or store brands.     

Factors that influence manufacturer and store brand behavioral loyalty

This study examines the factors that are linked to consumer goods brands having unusually high or low behavioral loyalty, after controlling for the association between brand size and loyalty that occurs due to the ‘double jeopardy’ effect. Behavioral, or repeat-purchase loyalty is measured as the brand's average share of category requirements (in volume) among its buyers over a 12-month period. We examine a range of factors that theory or past evidence suggests are associated with higher or lower behavioral loyalty, including brand type (store brand/manufacturer brand), price level, promotion intensity, as well as average brand volume per occasion and pack size. Using extensive US panel purchasing data, we find that store brands exhibit relatively higher behavioral loyalty than manufacturer brands. We explain the theory behind this result. We also find that the brand's average pack size and volume bought per occasion has a markedly positive association with behavioral loyalty. Finally, we find that the effect of low price on excess loyalty is moderated via a positive association with average volume purchase per occasion. These findings add to the body of knowledge relating to patterns in behavioral brand loyalty for both manufacturer and store brands, as well as the marketing-mix factors that influence it.     

产品伤害事件对消费者品牌忠诚度的影响机制研究

本文从产品伤害事件的感知损失程度的角度,研究了产品伤害事件的感知损失程度与品牌感知风险、品牌情感、品牌信任、品牌忠诚之间的关系。文章认为,产品伤害事件中的感知损失与感知风险正相关,与品牌情感、品牌信任负相关;感知风险与品牌情感、品牌信任负相关;品牌情感、品牌信任与品牌忠诚正相关。产品伤害事件对品牌忠诚度影响的机制是产品伤害事件以及与该事件相关的各项信息形成消费者的感知损失与感知风险,进而影响品牌情感与品牌信任,最后导致品牌忠诚度的改变。文章提出,在产品伤害事件不幸发生后,最佳的处理方式是尽量通过各种可能的措施使消费者感到本公司值得信赖,相信公司能够在未来避免此类事件再次发生,能够确保消费者的利益,从而减少消费者对该品牌的疑虑,减弱对该品牌的感知风险,只有这样才能尽量维持消费者对该品牌的喜爱与信任,并进而维持对该品牌的忠诚度。     

Creation of consumer loyalty and trust in the retailer through store brands: The moderating effect of choice of store brand name

Within the current economic context, store brands play an important role in differentiation strategies based on assortment and positioning in terms of distributor prices. To begin with, this study identifies three determining aspects of retail loyalty and trust: satisfaction with price levels, the perceived image of the assortment and loyalty to the store brands (SB). Secondly, this study proposes a theoretical relational model among the aforementioned aspects. Finally, this study analyzes the moderating role that the strategy of choosing SB name (umbrella brand label vs. brands different from the label brand) plays in the relationship between loyalty to SB and loyalty to and trust in the retailer. By including this moderating variable, we seek to contribute to current academic research and to provide insights into the importance that SB strategy (label vs. own name) has for the effect of loyalty to SB on the relative results of the retail company. Our research results show that making the umbrella SB name the same as the label brand name increases the positive effect of customer loyalty to SB on loyalty to the retailer, but not the effect of trust on this loyalty compared to chains that use SB names different from those of the label. These results have important implications for management.     

Does store image influence demand for organic store brands?

This research examines the effects of store image on the demand for store brand organic brands. We conduct an empirical study using a unique dataset that combines households' organic product purchases and their ratings of the same stores' images. We find that the type of images consumers develop about a store influences the demand for organic products from that store. In addition, the influence of store image on the demand for store-brand organic products depends on the store brand branding strategy. Although own brands are accepted in stores with quality produce and with quality store brands, they are less likely to be adopted in stores with varied selections. Furthermore, the own-brand strategy (the use of the retailer's own name) is not always an effective branding strategy for organic products, except in some stores.     

Impacts of product,store and retailer perceptions on consumers’ relationship to terroir store brand

This research shows that consumers’ relationship to terroir store brand, measured through attachment and two facets of brand loyalty (attitudinal and behavioral) is respectively influenced by their perceptions of the product, retailer and store. More specifically, the perceived authenticity of the products of the terroir store brand and its perceived value have a positive and significant influence on the attachment and behavioral loyalty of the regular buyers of this store brand and a positive and significant influence on the attachment of its occasional buyers. Trust in the retailer has a positive and significant impact on the behavioral loyalty of the regular buyers of this terroir store brand while perceived image of the store has only a positive and significant impact on the attitudinal loyalty of its occasional buyers.     

Brand Loyalty and Price Promotion Strategies: An Empirical Analysis

Though brand loyalty has been studied extensively in the marketing literature, the relationship between brand loyalty and retail pricing strategies is not well understood. Designing promotion strategies involves two key decisions: the percentage reduction in price from the existing price point (depth), and the frequency with which a product is promoted. These decisions, in turn, are critically dependent upon how many consumers can be convinced to switch to a brand by temporarily reducing its price, and how many are instead brand loyal. Theoretical models of how the strength of brand loyalty influence optimal promotion strategies have been developed, but there are no rigorous tests of their hypotheses that take into account wholesale price variation. We test how brand loyalty impacts promotion strategies for two frequently purchased consumer packaged good categories. Our results confirm that retailers promote strong brands shallower and more frequently compared to brands with weak loyalty. Our results highlight the importance of carefully modeling wholesale prices when testing behavioral models on retail pricing.     

The relationship between store image and store brand equity: A conceptual framework and evidence from hypermarkets

Retailers are making considerable efforts to improve their brand management. The challenge they face, however, is how best to integrate coherently their stores, as brands, and their various distributor brands (store brands, private labels, etc.), in order to increase their brand equity and offer the market differential value that will stimulate customer loyalty. From this perspective, it is crucial for retailers to investigate the relationship between the store and their own brands. This study proposes two theoretical models showing the mechanism whereby store image helps increase the equity of a specific type of distributor brand (the store brand). The approach used in this analysis is based, on the one hand, on defining brand equity through its components, using the model in Aaker (1991), and on the other, on including (social and strategic) corporate dimensions in measuring store image. The empirical research made in the hypermarket sector in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa backs the majority of the proposed hypotheses. The results show that store image can be used by retailers to influence all components of store brand equity, essentially through its commercial and strategic dimension. This research is intended to address the clear lack of research on store brand equity.     

Accounting for heterogeneity and dynamics in the loyalty-price sensitivity relationship

Marketers have been interested in the relationship between brand loyalty and price sensitivity for many years and have examined whether loyalty reduces consumer price sensitivity. The results, to date, indicate that loyalty does indeed raise the price that consumers are willing to pay for a brand. Other than this broad finding, however, there has been little research in the literature regarding whether and how this relationship varies across consumers and product categories and, within consumers, over time. This is the issue that we investigate in this paper. Specifically, we examine whether the price sensitivity-loyalty relationship is heterogeneous and dynamic. We propose an approach wherein the price sensitivity parameter of a brand choice model is specified as a function of loyalty with three parameters. The first parameter of this function represents the maximum possible reduction in price sensitivity due to loyalty. The second parameter affects the type and shape of the relationship between price sensitivity and loyalty. In particular, depending on the value of this parameter, the relationship could be non-existent, follow a concave shape, indicating decreasing response to increases in loyalty, or be S-shaped to capture the case of increasing response initially followed by decreasing response subsequently. Finally, the third parameter captures the rate at which price sensitivity falls as loyalty increases.We use the proposed approach to investigate the relationship in four frequently purchased categories. In each category, we select a sample of households and calibrate the model on the choices of all the households in the sample. We next employ an Empirical Bayes approach to obtain household-level estimates of all the parameters. These parameters are then used to assign each household in each category to a no response or concave or S-shaped response groups. Within each of these three groups, we assign each household to one of four different response level and rate segments, that is, high response-high rate, high response-low rate, low response-high rate, and low response-low rate. Each of these segments differs in the response level, that is, the maximum reduction in price sensitivity as loyalty reaches a maximum—and the response rate, that is, how quickly price sensitivity falls with increases in loyalty.Following the assignment of each household to a segment in each category, we pool the households across all four categories and calibrate a membership function. This function explains households’ membership in different segments in terms of product category characteristics, household demographics, the household’s responses to price, display, and feature promotions and the evolution of loyalty of the household.Our findings suggest that the nature of the loyalty-price sensitivity relationship does vary across consumers as well as over time. Specifically, the concave response is more likely than the S-shaped response or the absence of a response. We find that the S-shaped response is not related to responsiveness to in-store promotions. It is, however, associated with a slower growth in loyalty to a brand as it is purchased. The concave response, on the other hand, is associated with responsiveness to feature promotions but is unrelated to how loyalty to brands evolves with their purchases.We also find that demographic characteristics are related to the behavior of the concave and S-shaped responses. Specifically, for the S-shaped response, household demographics are related to both the maximum level of the curve as well as its rate of growth. In particular, the curve grows faster with age and its maximum increases with the weekly working hours of the household. In the case of the concave response, high income and more working hours raise the maximum level that the curve achieves. Its rate of growth, however, is unaffected by demographics.We also provide several managerial implications for loyalty and promotional programs based on our findings. Specifically, our first finding—that the loyalty-price sensitivity relationship is dynamic—suggests that, rather than having promotional programs, where the value of the price promotion is fixed and some consumers are targeted with the promotion while others are not, managers should have an entire schedule of price promotions with each level of promotions targeting consumers at a different loyalty level.Our second finding that the nature of the loyalty-price sensitivity relationship is heterogeneous across consumers suggests that designing loyalty programs on the basis of crude classifications such as loyals and non-loyals is not appropriate. Instead, households that are identified as loyal, need to be further divided based on how the loyalty affects their price sensitivity. Promotional programs should then be based on the specific type of relationship that a household exhibits.The third finding that the reductions in price sensitivity to loyalty can exhibit an S-shaped or a concave pattern also has an interesting managerial implication. Specifically, given the differences between the two patterns in how long it might take a consumer to reach a point where s(he) is willing to purchase a brand due to loyalty rather than due to a price promotion, and hence be a profitable customer, it may be preferable for managers to invest more in consumers who exhibit a concave rather than an S-shaped response.Finally, our result that different categories may exhibit different patterns of the relationship between price sensitivity and loyalty implies that each category needs to be analyzed by itself for what the nature of the loyalty-price sensitivity relationship is likely to be so that the most appropriate program for that category can be developed.