Brand price differentials in retail distribution: product quality and service quality |
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Authors: | Juan A Mañez Rafael Moner Colonques Jose J Sempere-Monerris Amparo Urbano |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Applied Economics II (Economic Structure) and ERI-CES, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain;2. Department of Economic Analysis and ERI-CES, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain;3. Department of Economic Analysis and ERI-CES, University of Valencia, Spain and CORE, UCL, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium |
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Abstract: | A theoretical model is proposed to disentangle the contribution of brand quality and retailer service quality in explaining brand price differentials across retailers. Two testable hypotheses emerge: (i) for each brand type, price differences across retailers are independent of brand quality differentials and (ii) at a given retailer, price differences between different brand qualities are independent of service quality differentials. Our empirical analysis, for a sample of the U.K. grocery retailer prices, discloses that retailers that offer higher service quality sell same quality brands at higher prices. In particular, service quality premia amount to 6% for national brands and are in the range of 9–15% for low-quality store brands. Besides, at a given retailer, the price premia paid for the national brand are very large: around 150% between national brands and low-quality store brands, and around 40% between national brands and high-quality store brands. Also, the price differential between the national brand and the low-quality store brand does not increase with service quality. |
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Keywords: | Store brands brand quality service quality |
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