The fight between store brands and national brands—What's the score?

In the Western world market shares for store brands have increased across all product categories. The competitive position of store brands compared to national brands may depend on the product category and a retail chain's overall brand assortment strategy. In order to investigate these possible chain and category effects we have selected five chains with different store brand strategies and three product categories that differ with respect to the number of strong national brands in a category. The results we report focus on the competitive position of store brands compared to national brands from a consumer point of view. We find that store brands are in a weak competitive position compared to national brands independent of category and retail chain brand assortment strategy.     

On the Extendibility of Brands with Subordinate versus Basic Category Concepts

In this paper, we use a series of experimental studies to show that consumers’ response to the extension of a brand associated with a basic versus a sub-category depends on the closeness of the brand's parent and extension categories. When the two categories are close, consumers respond more favorably to the extension of a brand with a basic category concept, but the pattern reverses when the categories are far apart. However, a brand with a basic category concept can mitigate its disadvantage in a distant category by first launching an intervening line extension. Our results suggest that brands with sub-category concepts are not limited in their ability to extend, and can help retailers meet the twin objectives of leveraging the high growth of specialized categories and rationalizing their brand portfolio. They also suggest that managers should aim to extend brands with sub-category concepts into distant categories where the modifier in the brand concept is relevant rather than into close categories.     

Patterns of consumer response to retail price differentials

Decomposing price elasticity suggests that the major impact of promotions is on brand switching rather than increased consumption. Consumers may also buy smaller quantities of more expensive brands when compared to cheaper ones (inter-brand elasticity). Using panel data for the purchases of 80 consumers buying nine product categories over a 16-week period, we verified that inter-brand elasticities occur, and report the relative importance of intra- and inter-brand elasticities in determining quantity price elasticity per shopping occasion for the product category. Brands were classified by informational (socially mediated) and utilitarian (product-mediated) benefits. Intra-brand elasticity was higher than utilitarian inter-brand elasticity, which was higher than informational inter-brand elasticity.     

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.     

Brand presentation order in voice shopping: Understanding the effects of sequential product presentation

Nearly half of US households own a smart speaker with voice shopping functionality. Voice shopping product presentation is inherently sequential due to the audio delivery of information, which may give retailers the opportunity to influence customer decisions through the order in which brands are presented. This research examines the effect of brand order presentation in voice shopping and its impact on high-equity versus low-equity brands. Moreover, this research considers the moderating effect of product presentation format (simultaneous vs. sequential, audio vs. visual) on the impact of brand presentation order. The results of six experiments with more than 1,000 participants provide evidence that consumers attempt to balance competing concerns about risk in voice shopping with search costs because products are presented sequentially and information is reduced. If high-equity brands are presented first, the choice distribution in voice shopping is unimodal, with a peak at the first-presented products. However, a bimodal choice distribution results if low-equity brands are presented first. Importantly, choice distribution in voice shopping differs markedly from choice distribution when products are presented simultaneously and visually, as in online shopping.     

The role of brand strength,type, image and product-category fit in retail brand collaborations

Retailer brand collaborations are an underexploited way for retailers to expand product lines and target new segments relatively quickly and cheaply, yet little work has explored the area and the influence of important factors in the image inheritance process remains unknown. Using data from two experiments involving 240 subjects, we examine the role of brand type, brand strength and the fit between parent and brand collaboration product categories to show that a new retail product's image inherits more characteristics from a symbolic parent brand (even when the brand is weak) and when there are higher degrees of parent retailer-image fit. However, fit between the new retail collaboration's product category and that of the parent brands is only important for functional brands. The results help retailers decide which partner to choose to maximize image inheritance.     

Advertising Repetition as a Signal of Quality: If It's Advertised So Much,Something Must Be Wrong

Abstract

The author proposes that consumers infer brand quality from the level of advertising repetition for unfamiliar brands. Consumers are posited to associate high product quality with high levels of repetition because they see repetition as costly and think higher costs reflect the manufacturer's commitment to the product. However, at very high levels of repetition, consumers may perceive the expenditures as excessive and begin to doubt the manufacturer's confidence in product quality, which would lead to an inverted-U relationship between advertising repetition and product quality perceptions. The author demonstrates that the relationship between repetition and perceived brand quality is mediated by perceptions of the manufacturer's effort and confidence in quality rather than by irritation or boredom. The hypotheses were tested in an experiment in which the level of repetition and the color of the ad were varied.     

A comparison of brand loyalty between on the go and take-home consumption purchases

This paper compares consumer brand purchase loyalty for food products bought either ‘on the go’ (OTG), or for take-home consumption. The study uses two UK consumer packaged goods datasets. The first dataset comprises consumers' purchasing of brands in three product categories: soft drinks, crisps, and savory snacks for on the go consumption. The second contains consumers' purchasing of the same brands for take-home consumption. Analysis uses the polarization index as a behavioral loyalty measure, estimated from the Beta Binomial – Negative Binomial Distribution. This measure controls for the difference in purchase rate and brand market share across on the go and take-home. The study finds that consumer loyalty to brands is markedly higher in purchasing for on the go consumption than for take-home consumption; and that the effect is even stronger for larger brands in on the go.     

Why Do Local South Korean Market Leaders Supply Retailer Grocery Brands?

This article examines why many of the leading South Korean brand manufacturers produce retailer brand products within their major product categories. The reasons identified include pressure from retailers, protection of other national brand product ranges, maintenance or improvements in working relationships, protection of other distribution channels, savings in marketing budgets, diversification of product lines, and changing competitive structures. Evidence is also provided of the dynamic nature of decision making relating to retail brand supply across the whole portfolio of brands which the manufacturer offers, rather than in respect of individual product brands or markets, the focus of much existing work.     

Consumer–Brand Relationships: A Contrast of Nostalgic and Non‐Nostalgic Brands

This research examined how consumer–brand relationships change when one contrasts brands perceived as nostalgic with brands perceived as non‐nostalgic. Paired comparisons of brands in six product categories revealed that brand attachment, self‐brand connections, and storytelling, as well as, the propensity to offer the brand as a gift and collect brand‐derived products, depend on the nostalgic status of the brand. On a sample of 606 consumers, the results showed that a brand's nostalgic status has a positive effect on attachment, self‐brand connections, and storytelling. These effects had not previously been considered in nostalgia research. Furthermore, the nostalgic status of a brand has positive effects in terms of intention to purchase the brand as a gift and collect brand‐derived products. Moreover, ANOVA results illustrate that consumer relationships with nostalgic brands are systematically stronger than with non‐nostalgic brands. Finally, results indicated that product category moderates all of the dimensions of brand relationships while gender does not.     

An integrated retailer image and brand equity framework: Re-examining,extending, and restructuring retailer brand equity

Retailers are amongst the world's strongest brands, but little is known about retailer brand equity. In spite of their extensive use, we argue that current operational models are too abstract for understanding the uniqueness of the retail industry and too simplistic to understand the interrelationships among the dimensions in the retailer brand equity building process. This study contributes to the existing and largely generic retailer equity frameworks in three ways: first, by incorporating retail specific dimensions from the retailer image literature; second, by re-examining and developing the structures and relationships between the dimensions of retailer equity by testing alternative structures commonly used in the more general brand equity literature; and finally by creating a short and parsimonious scale for assessing retailer brandequity in different contexts. Three alternative models are compared and tested on six brands in both convenience and shopping goods categories, ranging from discount to middle range price levels. The outcome is an operational framework supporting the main building blocks of the conceptual brand resonance model presented in Keller (2001) with seven dimensions structured in a four-step sequence as awareness → pricing policy, customer service, product quality, physical store → retailer trust → retailer loyalty, thereby describing retailer brand equity as a four-step process. The extended, although parsimonious, 17-item retailer equity scale can be used by academics as well as practitioners to examine the underlying values of retailer brands and has the potential to incorporate additional dimensions and attributes to investigate specific retail contexts without creating lengthy questionnaires.     

Does Having an Ethical Brand Matter? The Influence of Consumer Perceived Ethicality on Trust, Affect and Loyalty

The recent rise in ethical consumerism has seen increasing numbers of corporate brands project a socially responsible and ethical image. But does having a corporate brand that is perceived to be ethical have any influence on outcome variables of interest for its product brands? This study analyzes the relationship between perceived ethicality at a corporate level, and brand trust, brand affect and brand loyalty at a product level. A theoretical framework with hypothesized relationships is developed and tested in order to answer the research question. Data have been collected for 45 product categories in the fast moving consumer goods sector using a panel of 4,027 Spanish consumers. The proposed relationships are tested using structural equations modeling. The results suggest there is a positive relationship between perceived ethicality of a brand and both brand trust and brand affect. Brand affect also positively influences brand trust. Further, brand trust and brand affect both show a positive relation with brand loyalty. The managerial and academic implications of the results are discussed.     

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 Brand Awareness-to-Preference Link in Business Markets:

One of the key issues in business-to-business communication-the relationship between brand awareness and brand preference-is investigated by estimating both an S-shaped and a linear model with a database of information on the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Research results confirm the existence of threshold and saturation effects in the brand awareness-preference association. The average threshold level is approximately 10%-implying that a brand must surpass this awareness level before beginning to generate meaningful additions to its share of brand preference. In the semiconductor manufacturing industry the sensitivity of brand preference share to increases in brand awareness level displays increasing returns to scale for most brands across various product categories. This sensitivity tends to be higher when purchasing process is short, price is an important buying-decision criterion, annual purchase volume is large, product technology is stable, and number of competing brands is small.     

Why Nonprofits Are Easier to Endorse on Social Media: The Roles of Warmth and Brand Symbolism

Brands often seek endorsements by consumers on social media (e.g., likes on Facebook). But is this marketing strategy feasible for all brands? To answer this question, this research investigates in seven studies the processes that underlie consumers' intention to endorse brands on social media. We suggest that consumers aim to signal their identity by endorsing brands online. Based on the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework and related research in (social) cognition and consumer behavior, we argue that consumers on social media primarily want to emphasize their warmth rather than their competence. Experimental studies 1, 2, and 3 distinguish between nonprofit and for-profit brands and show that brand warmth (and not competence) mediates the effect of brand type (nonprofit vs. for-profit) on consumers' intentions to endorse brands and branded content on social media. Experiment 4 demonstrates that this process is moderated by brand symbolism (moderated mediation). A high level of brand symbolism increases the positive effect of warmth on consumers' intention to endorse brands online, but only for for-profit brands. The fifth experiment shows that these effects are conditional upon the public vs. private distinction in consumer behavior: consumers prefer to publicly affiliate with nonprofit (vs. for-profit) brands but with regard to private affiliations, there is no difference between both types of brands. In experiment 6, the causal role of warmth (vs. competence) is further examined. Finally, we demonstrate that perceptions of brands' warmth and not competence reduce the efforts that brands need to make to achieve consumers' endorsements on their real brand pages on Facebook.     

Consumer-based brand equity and brand performance

The relation between consumer-based brand equity and brand performance was investigated across 15 product categories in Brazil and the UK. Brand equity was conceptualized as related to the level of social benefit offered by each brand and was measured with a simple questionnaire that asked consumers to rate brands with respect to their familiarity and quality levels. These measures were then related to brand market share and revenue. Results showed that the relation between consumer-based brand equity and brand performance varies across product categories, indicating that products differ with respect to their level of brandability and suggesting ways to measure it.     

Logistics mode strategy of firms selling fresh products on e-commerce platforms with private brand introduction

The popularity of online shopping has enticed many firms selling fresh products to establish third-party stores on e-commerce platforms. For those firms. adopting which logistics mode between platform logistics and third-party logistics (TPL) for their third-party stores is the real decision problem. Moreover, many platforms have introduced their private brands of fresh products to occupy more make share, which will inevitably affect firms' operation strategies. To explore the optimal logistics mode strategy of firms selling fresh products on platforms and the impacts of platform private brand introduction on those firms' operation strategies, four theoretical models are constructed. Main results show that regardless of whether platforms have introduced their private brands of fresh products or not, the optimal logistics mode strategy depends on the sizes of the platform logistics cost and the service level difference between platform logistics and TPL. Furthermore, introducing platform private brands of fresh products will increase firms' willingness to adopt TPL for their third-party stores on platforms. These main results are robust considering the existence of fresh product supplier and different consumer's sensitivity to freshness-keeping efforts.     

Country-of-Origin Effects and Global Brand Trust: A First Look

ABSTRACT

This article reports the results of a global survey that explored the relationship between country of origin and brand trust in 22 product categories. The product categories of interest ranged from high involvement, durable goods (refrigerators, washing machines) to low involvement, fast moving consumer goods (chocolate bars, yogurt, disposable batteries). Respondents included consumers from the United States, Nepal, India, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria. Country-of-origin effects yielded the research's most interesting finding: Global brands might have a regional, or meso level, component which brand trust has uncovered for the first time.     

Value-oriented brand positioning

The objective of brand positioning is to place a brand that is clearly distinguishable from competitors' brands on the market. The principal aim is to ensure that the brand occupies a unique position on the market and that it is endowed with a precisely defined profile with clear-cut contours. The basic idea underlying this analysis is that consumers' perceptions of the various brands can be conceived as a multidimensional space in which individual brands are positioned. A product's positioning is determined from its position on the relevant dimensions of the perceptual space, its position on the various product attribute vectors and its position with respect to other brands. This paper uses correspondence analysis to reconstruct a space, in order to connect the relevant brand attributes with the drivers of behaviour, such as utility components and individual values. An empirical investigation shows the usefulness of this approach for product and advertising policy.     

Brands as substitutes for the need for touch in online shopping

This article addresses the potential of reputable brands to overcome the lack of tangibility that characterizes the process of e-commerce through an experiment-based analysis. In a sequential argument, the authors propose that (1) the brand becomes more important in online than in offline channels, as a consequence of the intangibility or lack of physical contact in online purchasing processes; (2) the limitations associated with the need for touch and the lack of access to the physical product during the buying process does not have equal importance across all product categories and (3) the role of the brand in online channels thus is more relevant if the product category is associated with a higher need for touch. The study based on the experimental design reveals that leading brands enjoy an advanta in consumers' quality assessments, regardless of the objective attributes that characterize the products. This advantage may be greater in online channels, though only for product categories for which the lack of physical contact with the product during the purchase process is an important limitation. In such cases, brand associations can compensate for intangibility during purchase.