Why Private Label Grocery Brands Have Not Succeeded in Asia

Abstract

Lower disposable income among Asian grocery shoppers, heavily discounted private label grocery brands, relative to national brands, and a favorable retail distribution structure would seem to predispose the former to success. But this has not been the case. To learn why private label grocery brands have not succeeded in Asia, two identical shopper surveys were conducted in Wichita, Kansas (United States) and Prakanong-Bangna, Bangkok (Thailand) to examine possible factors relating to retail grocery shopping differences. The authors found that poor market knowledge, and the tendency of Thai consumers to infer product quality by using extrinsic cues such as high price were salient. Additionally, Thai choices were influenced more by social factors than Americans, making them less prone to bargain hunting. The paper concludes with the discussion of managerial implications and offers recommendations to retail chain owners operating in the region.     

Retail Integration Strategies in the EU: Scandinavian Grocery Retailing

Until recently, restructuring activity in the EU retail industry has primarily been domestically oriented and focused upon growth opportunities in the retailers' home market. Alongside the on-going harmonization and integration of European markets, grocery retailers have become increasingly interested in cross-border integration activity. Although a salient feature of Scandinavian grocery retailing, this (r)evolution of the industry has attracted only minor attention in academic literature. This paper examines the motives and strategies underlying the intensified integration activity of Scandinavian grocery retailers in general and their integration across national as well as industry boundaries, in particular. The analysis of recent integration events displays a fairly balanced distribution between proactive and reactive motives, albeit the former motive tends to dominate in the case of grocery retailers' integration activity across industry borderlines. Above all, the proactive motive has been apparent in many of the recent partnerships established laterally between Scandinavian grocery retailers and other companies.     

The Outlook for European Grocery Retailing: Competition and Format Development

This article analyses retail trends in the main European countries, and particularly format evolution and competition amongst retailing firms. On the basis of the existence of European retailing landscapes that are sometimes similar without ever being identical, the article analyses the impact of the main factors of change on different national markets. Whilst retail internationalisation and new entrants, commercial policy, legislative environments, technological innovations, consumers and buying behaviour will have a convergence effect on different countries' retail structures, substantial differences will still exist. European retailing in the coming years will probably be characterized by increasingly less marked differences between countries than one finds today, but market segmentation, variety and differentiation of retailing formats and brand names will be stronger within each country.     

The Impact and Determinants of Nine-Ending Pricing in Grocery Retailing

Research into nine-ending pricing indicates a clear effect on sales but strong variance, suggesting that their effects are context dependent. This research relates nine-ending effects to a broad set of determinants and investigates the influence of brand, category, store, and store area clientele characteristics. The numerous empirically supported hypotheses indicate that the framework built on level and image effects is well adapted for explaining the effectiveness of nine-endings. They validate that a wide and indiscriminate practice of nine-ending pricing is not effective. The findings show that the impact of nine-endings can lead to sales losses (e.g., premium brands); however, a nine-ending price is more effective for increasing sales of small brands (e.g., low market-share, low price, and new items) that belong to weaker categories (e.g., low price, low budget-share). The effect erodes as the store's nine-ending pricing practices intensify. For category sales, a simulation reveals the existence of a threshold for which overuse is counterproductive.     

Consequences of personalized product recommendations and price promotions in online grocery shopping

Shopping convenience can be turned into a competitive advantage for online grocery retailers. Consequently, we study how personalized product recommendations (recommendation agents) and price promotions (algorithmic pricing) compensate for the negative impact that consumer's perceived cognitive effort causes on loyalty. By default, the relationship from perceived cognitive efforts to attitudinal and behavioral loyalty is negative, yet these results demonstrate that personalized price promotions lessen the negative impact, while personalized product recommendations do not have such an influence. The findings contribute to a better understanding of personalized marketing activities in today's data-driven online grocery retailing.     

Building customer loyalty in retailing: not all levers are created equal

This research examines the determinants in building and maintaining customer loyalty in grocery retailing. The first part introduces a distinction between traditional, ‘mass’ levers such as range and price, and relational, ‘targeted’ levers based on individual customer information. The second part focuses on the role ofthese two sets of levers for differentiation, that is, to what extent they are perceived by customers as distinctive to a retailer. For the first time, parallel analysis of retailers and consumers is used to obtain a dual perspective on loyalty drivers. Most supermarket chains in Italy today are found to invest marketing resources in the ‘mass’ levers of range and price. They are also starting to use other levers for differentiation, although effectiveness of their attempts varies a great deal and the perception of diversity by customers varies a lot from one banner to another. We also find that relational levers cannot be separated from traditional levers to sustain loyalty, but they clearly play a secondary role. Investment in targeted marketing is no substitute for that in traditional mass loyalty tools such as range and price.     

零售企业顾客忠诚影响因素分析

文章利用零售业顾客忠诚调查数据,以重购意向、口碑效应、钱包份额和重购频次四个指标为中间变量,对顾客期望差异、顾客满意和顾客忠诚之间的关系进行了实证研究。结果表明,顾客期望差异与顾客忠诚存在显著正相关关系,是顾客忠诚的主要决定因素,零售商应在产品、服务、价格和购物环境等四个方面加以改善,以使顾客获得超过期望的感知绩效,提高顾客忠诚度;顾客满意和顾客忠诚之间存在正相关关系,但并非顾客忠诚的充分条件,零售商应在努力提高顾客满意度的同时,走出“满意制胜”的误区;态度忠诚与行为忠诚之间不存在显著相关关系,零售商应以态度和行为双向顾客忠诚为目标,追求最终的顾客忠诚。     

Satisfaction and image as mediators of store loyalty drivers in grocery retailing

The purpose of this article is to analyze the role of satisfaction and image as mediators of four store loyalty drivers (store location, service quality, assortment, and price) within a comprehensive cause–effect model. The analysis employs a more holistic view of the store loyalty model than is common in a retailing context. It is based on the consistent macro-oriented National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI) approach. This makes it an important cross-over study, both enabling a comparison of results across industries and providing a more solid base for model validation. The data source is a survey among customers of a chain-based Norwegian grocery store which is analyzed by partial least square (PLS) and covariance-based structural equation (LISREL) estimation. A change in customer's perception of store image, where image is measured as a reflective ‘overall’ latent variable, has the expected direct significant effect on loyalty. But in addition, image will also serve as an important mediator between satisfaction and loyalty, and this is a rather uncommon result in a retailing context. Another significant finding is that a customer's perception of store assortment only influences perception of image and ultimately loyalty indirectly via satisfaction, whereas price evaluation and service quality works directly both through image building and satisfaction creation. Satisfaction creation seems to be more important for store loyalty than image building.     

The role of customer loyalty as a brand extension purchase predictor

The paper explores the relationship between customer loyalty to the retail brand and the purchase of non-traditional products and services (NTPS) offered by grocery retailers with their private label (i.e. over-the-counter products, photo printing, mobile communication services and travel booking). Customer loyalty to the retail brand is measured through its behavioral and attitudinal components. A survey was conducted administering a questionnaire to 480 retail customers in two stores belonging to different retail grocers. A binary logistic regression was then applied using the buying of at least one NTPS as the dependent variable (1 = buy; 0 = no buy) and behavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty as independent variables. Results show that attitudinal loyalty plays a significant role as buying predictor, but this depends on the NTPS offered. Theoretical and managerial implications are derived.     

Impact of Wal-Mart on Market Share in a Rural Grocery Market: An Application of the Markov Chain Model

With Americans spending up to 13% of their income on grocery shopping, smart shopping can help a typical family save. Many scholars have studied the effects on market share and profits from changing market share using the Markov model, and also studied the competitive strategies of grocery retailers under these conditions. While the forecast of the steady state is highly useful, examining the transition periods before the steady state is reached is also useful. In these transition periods, a retailer may opt for a new competitive strategy; therefore, the transition periods may provide greater insight into the dynamics of the competitive response. More attention should be paid to the revenues for groceries in transition periods before a steady state is reached—especially in markets dominated by retail giants, such as Wal-Mart. This study attempts to model that phenomenon and to explore appropriate competitive strategies.     

世界零售业与我国零售业的发展趋势

全球经济的加快增长为零售业的发展提供了良好的经济环境和动力,世界人口的增长为零售业的发展提供了广阔的需求和发展空间。中国消费品市场蕴藏着巨大的潜力,零售业在中国市场的发展空间非常广阔。但我国的零售业与外国相比,还存在着明显的差距,应针对我国零售业与我国零售企业竞争的劣势,采取相应措施,使其做大做强。     

Stakeholder Mismanagement in Retailing: A British Perspective

This paper provides three brief cases of retailers who have, through what is interpreted as stakeholder mismanagement, brought major problems to bear upon those companies, and other stakeholder groups. The main cases examined concern a "free flight" promotion run by the Hoover company in the UK in 1992/3, the collapse of the Ratner'sretail jewellery chain, and wage realignments at British Gas in 1994.Synthesising these examples, it is suggested that: (1) All companies are expected to meet ethical norms in dealings with their stakeholders, regardless of whether or not they have specifically set out to cultivate an "ethical" image; (2) Stakeholder groups tend not to stand in isolation, but to interact; moreover, modern technology may well tend to increase that interaction; (3) The fall-out from stakeholder mismanagement is likely to be widespread, highly publicised, long lasting, and difficult to contain; (4) Prospect Theory, derived from economics and psychology, may be applicable in such cases. This broadly asserts that we are far more readily affected by dissatisfaction than satisfaction, and this is especially so if expectations have been raised. However, from an ethical standpoint, there is still virtue in pursuing high standards in dealings with stakeholders.     

The Small Food Manufacturing Sector in the Irish Grocery Market

Abstract

This paper seeks to explain the continuing reduction in the number of small food manufacturing companies in Ireland by examining food manufacturers' self perceived performance and investment intentions in the context of retailers' supplier selection processes. The paper finds that the greatest and most immediate risk to small suppliers survival is their under—performance in generating retailers' sales andmargins. The paper also identifis a set of inconsistencies in suppliers' investment intentions. It is argued that small manufacturers, while appreciating their relative under—performance in commercial performance, are failing to divert resources into this area. The study also raises concerns about small food manufacturers understanding of their market and the principles that direct their innovation efforts.     

我国便利店的发展趋势分析

加入WTO后,为提高零售业的竞争力,我国连锁商业在业态选择上把便利店当作重点来发展,这样便利店必将成为我国零售业态中最具竞争力的业态之一。在我国便利店发展现状的基础上,分析了我国便利店的发展趋势。     

外商投资我国零售业的动向与思考

未来几年,随着外资进入我国零售业,在企业的设立形式,数量,地域,股权比例等方面的限制陆续取消,我国零售业将会形成外商独资、中外合资等各种经济成份相互竞争的局面。认真解读外商投资零售企业的现状,分析其发展动向,这对保护和发展民族商业、规范我国零售市场具有重要的意义。     

The Impact of Market Orientation on the Internationalization of Retailing Firms: Tesco in Eastern Europe

This paper investigates a Western retailer's market orientation levels in two emerging markets. We examine whether the market orientation-company performance link holds true for retailers in emerging economies, despite environmental differences. By using concepts from key studies we have assimilated a fully representative model - applied through interviews with top management from Tesco and its subsidiaries and affiliates in Hungary and Slovenia. Using this example, we find that the market orientation-business performance link is valid for Western retailers in emerging economies. Here, the retailer applied market orientation predominately through; the use of matching with suppliers of own brand goods; top management emphasis on market orientation and risk taking. Intelligence generation and dissemination was exercised via global processes such as brand review.     

Food Retailing and Supply Chain Linkages in the Russian Federation

Abstract

This paper focuses on the evolution of Russian food retailing and linkages between and among firms in the food supply chain. Intermediation theory is used to develop a conceptual framework. Intermediaries have played an important role throughout the Russian food supply chain fulfilling the function of matching sellers and buyers. Tighter vertical linkages between firms in the Russian food industry are becoming more prevalent, and the roles of intermediaries may be performed by agents acting on behalf of a vertically integrated principal. The food retailing sector in the Russian Federation is evolving to be a source of information from the consumer to upstream firms.     

An Analysis of Assortment Choice in Grocery Retailing

Consumers in grocery retailing commonly buy bundles of products to accommodate current and future consumption. When all products in a particular bundle share common attributes (and are selected from the same product category), the consumer is said to assemble an assortment. This research examines the impact of assortment variety on the assortment choice process. In particular, we test the prediction that consumers demand less variety for higher quality items. To investigate this relationship, we employ a flexible choice model, suitable for the analysis of assortment choice. The model, based upon the assumption that the utility of purchase of one item in an assortment depends upon the set of items already selected, allows for a general utility structure across the assortment items. We apply the model to household assortment choice histories from the yogurt product category. Substantively, we show that yogurt choice is affected by brand quality perceptions (quality-tier competition). Moreover, we show that reaction to reductions in variety (number of yogurt flavors) is mediated by brand quality perceptions. Taken together, these empirical facts paint a picture of a consumer who is willing to trade-off variety against product quality in assortment choice.     

基于商务智能的第三方物流管理研究

随着我国经济发展及对外交流加强,现代物流作为现代经济的重要组成部分得到迅猛发展。我国物流企业已从传统的以存储为主逐渐向配送一体化的现代物流企业发展,出现了第三方物流企业,商务智能作为一项新兴技术已成为物流管理中最有力的工具之一。     

连锁零售业供应链的研究及其在我国的应用

供应链及其管理是当代经济发展中的热点问题。21世纪的市场竞争将会超越企业与企业、产品与产品之间的竞争,取而代之的是供应链与供应链的竞争。随着我国加入WTO过渡期的结束,零售业正面临着残酷的竞争和考验,如果我国零售企业想要在市场上保持竞争优势并提高核心竞争力,就应当不断地探索提升零售业供应链管理水平的途径。