Perception on Private Brands

Perception of Private Label Brand image: A comparison between three different nationality consumer groups.

DIALLO MBAYE-FALL CERGAM, University Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille III (Aix-en-Provence) & University Institute of Technology of Marseille, France. Address: CU Estelan ch.04F Avenue Marechal Leclerc 13621 Aix-en-Provence, FR. Phone: 00 336 30 69 85 87 E-mail: mbayediallo2003@yahoo.fr

ABSTRACT The market share for store brands across different food categories have increased in all Western countries within the last decade. In an increasingly competitive retail market, retailers have turn to focus on their brand image in an attempt to further differentiate themselves from competitors and create a distinctive retail offer, through manipulation of tangible and intangible assets. This article seeks to investigate Private Label Brands (PLB) image perceptions by consumers living in a multi-cultural context. Based on the case of Carrefour, the French leading retailer, two focus groups and a consumer survey including three different nationality consumer groups living in France were used to see how PLB products are perceived. The results of Means and Kruskal-Wallis Test procedures show that there are more similarities than differences in PLB image perceptions between three consumer groups and indicate also that PLBs are increasingly well perceived by consumers. This suggest that PLB are becoming more strategic for retailers in the sense that similarities of PLB image perceptions allow to standardize the retail offer in a multi-cultural context.

KEY WORDS: Private Label Brands, Perception, Brand image, Cross-cultural branding

Introduction
Private Labels Brands (PLBs), also called store brands (SBs), are goods owned and merchandised by retailers. PLBs have long been considered as an important aspect of merchandising practice, both as a strategic tool for retailers and a unique source of competition for manufacturers. The market share for store brands across... [continues]

Read full essay