Brand Analyses of U.S. Global and Local Brands in India: The Case of Levi's

ABSTRACT

This study investigates differences between U.S. global and local brands in the Indian market. Attitudes toward American products and the brand equity of U.S. global and local casual apparel brand in the Indian market are examined. It is postulated that global and local brand influence brand equity, which is composed of brand image, brand awareness, emotional value, perceived quality, brand loyalty, and purchase intention. A total of 411 college students in India participated in the survey. Using repeated measures ANOVA, this study finds that Indian consumers perceive global and local brands differently based on brand equity.     

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.     

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.     

Antecedents of Belief in Global Citizenship: A Two-Country Empirical Investigation

ABSTRACT

This research contributes to the existing literature by investigating the antecedents of belief in global citizenship. Previous literature in global brand management has provided strong evidence of the importance of perceived quality and social prestige of global brands in influencing consumers’ evaluations of global brands. Accordingly, the authors’ model focuses on the perceived quality and social prestige of global brands as antecedents of consumers’ belief in global citizenship. In addition, they examine the direct and indirect effects of consumer ethnocentricity and cultural openness on consumers’ belief in global citizenship. They empirically examine this framework within a rich cross-cultural context using samples from the United States and India (developed and developing countries). The proposed model suggests that perceived quality and social prestige of global brands are mediators of the relationship between ethnocentricity and cultural openness and consumers’ belief in global citizenship. They followed Gerbing and Anderson's two-step approach to develop a measurement model with an acceptable fit to the data and then conducted a structural model to test the hypothesized relationships. The authors conducted χ² difference tests to examine the structure of their hypothesized relationships across the United States and India. The results support partial mediation for perceived quality and social prestige of global brands on the relationship between ethnocentricity and cultural openness and consumers’ belief in global citizenship. Furthermore, they demonstrate some interesting differences in the relationships in the model across the two samples.     

Premium generic brand (PGB) choice vis-à-vis generic and national brands: A scenario comparison for self-use,family consumption and gift giving in a food versus non-food and cross-cultural context

PurposeThe study models factors affecting brand category choice for generic as well as national brands, and next contrasts them to a new brand category: premium generic brands (PGB). PGB are a new occurrence in brand and product management, and consumer reactions to PGB are not yet well understood.Design/methodology/approachThree purchase motivation scenarios were presented to 553 consumers to test for their purchase intentions for self-consumption, family use or gift giving. A quasi-experiment was chosen where respondents were exposed to store-like presentations of actual real life products and asked for their likelihood to choose the national or generic brand over the new PGB. The study applied multivariate testing such as MANOVA.FindingsSeparate models were developed for food and non-food choice through backward deletion regression analyses, and the most parsimonious models revealed strong similarities for self as well as family consumption choices, but distinct drivers for gifts. Value for money, image and satisfaction are key factors in brand choice overall, but for gifts, ‘image’ overpowers all other predictors.Originality/valueThe study identified the Chinese as a distinct consumer segment for brand choice since they are more open to potentially consider PGB as gifts, whereas Caucasians only buy national brands for gift giving.     

An Empirical Investigation of Brand Equity: A Cross-Country Validation Analysis

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to propose and test a model in order to better understand brand equity. The goal of this research is to identify the drivers and determine how they influence brand equity performance in the researched industry in order to develop a more effective brand strategy. Quantitative data collected are used to test a model of brand value in the context of the food industry. The findings of this research provided evidence that the customer-based brand equity model can be applied to the food industry context and be used to guide marketing activities internationally. Brand awareness has a positive influence on brand associations and perceived quality. Brand associations have a positive influence on brand loyalty. Finally, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations all have a positive effect on brand equity. This study contributes to the scarce international brand equity literature by testing the proposed model using data from a sample of consumers in two European countries.     

Country of Production Biases on Consumer Perceptions of Global Brands: Evidence From an Emerging Market

ABSTRACT

Globalization has created significant opportunities of cost reductions for players to take advantage of location specific benefits. Simultaneously, it has presented significant opportunities for countries, such as China, to actively participate in global trade, attract foreign direct investment, and improve the economic wealth of their nations. However, literature cautions marketers about consumers’ biased evaluations of products based on their country of production. Moving production to low-cost countries could potentially harm brand trust, quality evaluations, and purchase intentions due to unfavorable biases for the country of production. The objective of this study is to investigate country of production biases of Turkish consumers for two global brands, Philips and Adidas. Data for the study (N = 1,608) were collected using mall-intercepts from the 17 largest cities of Turkey. Study findings show that brand trust, perceived quality, and purchase intentions declined sharply for both brands when consumers learned that the product was manufactured in China.     

The impact of customer awareness of manufacturer name disclosure on retail brand attitudes and loyalty in Korea

This paper explores the impact of exposing the name of the manufacturer on a retail brand product upon national brand loyalty, retail brand loyalty and store loyalty, It does so by exploring customer attitudes towards retail brands in South Korea, where there is a legal requirement for retail brands to portray the manufacturer׳s name. For international retailers entering markets where such disclosure is a legal requirement an understanding of the implications of this for retail brand management is essential. The findings suggest that in the Korean case revealing the name of the manufacturer who supplies the retail brand on the product packaging has a positive influence on attitudes towards retail brands, although it did not mitigate the perceived risks held by customers towards retail brand products in general.     

An Evaluation of Fast Food Restaurant Satisfaction

Abstract

The researchers interviewed 300 customers of a fast food restaurant. The respondents indicated that quality, cleanliness and value are the three most important attributes of a fast food restaurant. The study reported the respondents' ratings of competitive brands. Cross-tabulations of satisfaction rating by various customer traits are provided.     

The role of Swedish retailers in food innovations

Innovations should create value for increasingly individualistic consumers with varying demands and for other stakeholders. Today, retailers have the power in the supply/value chain. This research investigates how Swedish food retailers view innovations, their role and that of customers and suppliers in the development process and how they see future development. The study is based on open-ended interviews. The results show that Swedish retailers regard food product innovations as something to provide to consumers rather than achieve with consumers. Retailers want more collaboration with packaging suppliers to differentiate. Retailers are successful in establishing their own brands, in becoming brands themselves and in competing with producer brands. This follows the UK model and may result in fewer alternatives in stores and fewer product – or new technology-based innovations by Swedish producers. Service innovations can still occur for retailers to retain consumer loyalty. Consumers demand more than new products; they want to be excited by the shopping experience. More innovations will require deeper insight about consumers, efforts from the value chain and from outsiders. Collaboration is needed to establish trust among supply chain actors.     

The Future of Private Labels: Towards a Smart Private Label Strategy

Modern day store brands (SB) or private labels (PL), now also popularly called private brands, are brands generally owned and marketed by retailers. They have been active on the market for about 70 years. Over this time span, these brands have evolved from generic, cheap, low-quality economy or budget private labels to lower-priced-than-national brand but acceptable-quality value or standard private labels. Over time, retailers extended the value proposition to the consumer segment seeking higher quality by offering premium private labels. This strategy, called the tiered-private label, comprises offering economy PL to the price-sensitive but not quality sensitive consumers, standard PL to mainstream consumers seeking acceptable quality at lower prices, and premium PL to the quality-sensitive segment seeking value. Over the last 40 years (1980–2020), these versions of private labels have witnessed substantial growth around the world, though the growth is said to be tapering in recent times.As retailers chart the future strategy for their private labels in 2020 and beyond, a pertinent question they face is: Should they continue to offer value or even tiered PL with the same formula that brought them success in the past, or should they morph and adopt new strategies in keeping with current market trends? We support adopting a new strategy that we call the smart PL strategy. The value PL strategy and its manifestation as the tiered PL strategy cater to different consumer segments but focus primarily on price and quality as attributes of choice. In the current marketplace, consumers care not only about price and quality, but also about sustainability, ethics, social responsibility, image, so forth, perhaps more so than earlier generations. They are also more tech-savvy in using digital tools for search and purchase. Retailers, on their part, are now endowed with rich, extensive data that they can tap into to understand customers’ diverse needs, and they are able to harness technology for developing the right product and communication. Thus, the smart PL strategy is a strategy by which retailers can leverage data and technology to market private labels that meet diverse customer needs and achieve greater retail differentiation, store loyalty, margins, and profits. This thought piece provides a road map for developing such a smart PL strategy and directions for future research.     

Country of Origin Association in Retail and Wholesale Branding

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to consider country of origin in terms of its association with brand heritage and its implications in fashion branding, thus providing a new perspective within the context of retail and wholesale brands. This qualitative study demonstrates how country of origin is widely used as a communicative tool by retail and wholesale brands, associated with brand heritage. However, the way country of origin is manifested and/or associated (e.g., brand name, color, etc.) varies depending on a brand's history, positioning, brand value, and the type of market sector that the retail and wholesale brands are targeting.     

Away from home: How young Chinese consumers travel with global brands?

This interpretive study investigates how a group of young Chinese students consume global brands of American origins, in China and in the UK. More specifically, this research examines how meanings attached to global food brands travel abroad with consumers and investigates the relationship between brand consistency and brand meanings across national boundaries. Findings from a thematic analysis of focus group interviews conducted over a nine-month period, reveal that some brand meanings are context and culture specific (contextual meanings) while other meanings travel with consumers across borders (core meanings). Theoretically, this study shows how global brands provide a platform of structural meanings, ideas and practices that are global and globalising in themselves, allowing a degree of fluidity and adaptation in relation to the local context of consumption.     

Ample Consumption Period Available Until Use-by Dates: A Potential Marketing Position for Store Brands

SUMMARY

Store brands, when moving upscale, inevitably relinquish their value for money appeal and therefore require some quality dimension to compete. This article is proposing that the promise of “generous” use-by dates as a surrogate for quality could be considered as a positioning plank to promote store brands as alternatives to manufactured brands. Logit analysis is employed to explain shoppers' perceptions and responses to use-by dates, of products that they regularly buy, and of alternative products that they have never bought before if the use-by dates of their regular items are perceived to be too short.     

Achieving and Managing Global Brand Equity: A Critical Analysis

ABSTRACT

According to some experts, brand equity is a company's most important asset. In this article, the authors first study the durability of brand equity in the long run. Then they examine the maintenance of that brand equity. The study analyzes the relative position of the top 50 most important global brands. Rank correlations indicate that, in the short run, the top 50 brands maintain strong equity levels, but in the longer run, this equity dissipates. In order to empower global brands in the long run, the authors put together a general global brand strategy model that would achieve and maintain brand equity. The model has three important components: strategic action, generating brand power, and achieving sustained brand equity. Such a model could balance the success in achieving brand equity globally both in the short and long run.     

The Impact of Power-Distance Belief on Consumers’ Preference for Status Brands

ABSTRACT

We tested the impact of power-distance belief (accepting and expecting power disparity) on consumers’ preference for status brands (brands such as Rolex or Louis Vuitton, which are associated with social status). Our correlational and causal results show that consumers with high power-distance belief tend to have a stronger preference for status brands than those with low power-distance belief. Notably, buying status belief (a belief that buying status brands can enhance one's social status) moderates this effect. Further, this two-way interaction is stronger for people with a relatively lower, rather than higher, self-worth state.     

Building successful brands: The strategic options

The debate on whether to include brands on the balance sheet has created a new interest in branding strategies. Successful brands clearly generate higher returns on sales and on investment. But quality and service, rather than advertising, is the best way of creating such brands. Acquisition strategies frequently produce inconsistent portfolios of brands. The policy towards brand extension is shown to depend upon the similarity of positioning strategies between current and new brands.     

Fast food,ads, and taste in a Russian child’s mind

Research demonstrates that brands can influence children’s food preferences and potentially contribute to unhealthy consumption patterns. This article extends this line of research by investigating the complex and interacting effects of food brand marketing on experienced taste. The empirical field in a remote Russian town enabled the assessment of branding effects when entering a newly established market. Examining the combination of various advertisement features with emotional brand elicitation, we derive hypotheses about the interplay of brands and advertisement components linked to the perceived taste of a fast food meal. In Novosibirsk, Russia, 778 children and adolescents aged 10–18 years were exposed to fast food advertisements with real and imaginary brand logos and varying advertising claims. The advertisements consisted of a warning, an exaggerated credence claim, or both. A subsequently offered fast food meal—a portion of French fries—was experimentally varied and prepared to be either healthier but less tasty and unsalted, or less healthy but tastier and salted. The findings verify strong and positive brand effects on children’s taste satisfaction. Warnings in advertisements “worked” only for novel fast food brands by negatively affecting taste satisfaction, but increased taste satisfaction when applied in advertisements for established brands. Single credence claims did not improve the taste experience, but counteracted the negative effects of warnings for novel brands. Finally, the established brand influenced taste satisfaction positively when the fries were saltier. The findings reveal various opportunities for fast food marketing to artificially create taste satisfaction for potentially unhealthy food. Public health strategies that focus on advertising claim restrictions should be reconsidered in the context of possible evasion strategies of the food industry and counter‐effects of warnings among strong fast food brands.     

Nostalgia and brands: a sweet rather than a bitter cultural evocation of the past

Abstract

This study focuses on the cultural consumer environment of brands considered as nostalgic. The research questions are thus the following: what is the impact of culture on the consumer relationship with brands considered as nostalgic? In which cases are these relationships positive, and in which cases are they negative? To answer these questions, a longitudinal data collection was conducted, consisting of interviewing the same sample of respondents three times, at more or less one-year intervals. The results were analysed taking into account three dimensions of culture: time, place and social aspects. In the time-based approach, brands are associated with traditional celebrations and rites of passage. Thus, they give rise to ‘traditional purchase’ and consumer loyalty. In the place-based approach, brands evoke original authenticity and myths. They offer protection to reduce perceived risks and therefore facilitate consumers’ trust. In the social approach, brands are associated with symbolic icons and attract communities of fans. Finally, this article shows that culture involves sweeter rather than bitter nostalgic brand relationships. This article brings to light four cases when the consumer cultural environment may induce a rejection of the nostalgic brand: (1) the ‘corrupted’ brand; (2) the ‘immoral’ brand; (3) the ‘precarious’ brand; and (4) the ‘stereotypical’ brand. It shows that only one case – the ‘corrupted’ brand – may be particularly prejudicial due to its unwelcome role in History.