The Importance Of Private Brands

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When society is over-loaded with the amount of information, branding helps to create clarity in consumers’ minds. According to Kapferer (2008), a brand has two different functions: to distinguish products from each other and to indicate a product’s origin. P. Kotler, G. Armstrong, V. Wong and J. Saunders (2008) defines national brand (also called manufacturer’s brand) as “a brand created and owned by the producer of a product or service”. National brands have been the leaders on the market since the last century, but there is a rapidly growing competition from the private labels. Lincoln and Thomassen (2008) define private labels as retailer brands: “brands which are owned and sold by the retailer as well as distributed by the retailer”. Retailer …show more content…

The private brands have moved from their original status as low-priced, value-for-money, low-quality items into premium and life style arenas. Most of the big retailers have taken a “value for money” orientation in the marketing of their private brands rather than competing with national brands on the basis of quality (Halstead & Ward, 1995). By taking a value for money orientation, retailers hope to instill the purchase of these products not only from those consumers who perceive that store brands are lower priced but of relatively good quality but also from those customers who perceive that private brands are lower priced goods and of relatively poor quality as long as savings associated with the price differential provides adequate compensation for purchase. It seems that private brand marketing appears to be shifting from its usual low-cost strategy to a national brand marketing strategy. A recent study by Dhar & Hoch, 1997; Hoch, 1996 found that quality-oriented strategies are more viable than value-oriented strategies for the success of private brands in the long run. Other Factors Moreover the modern-day retailers are becoming more professional in managing their own brands. In order to capture a greater portion of the private-label market, the retailers are expanding their offerings, improving quality, introducing attractive packaging, expanding their distribution networks as well as customer-oriented sales promotion of their brands (Sullivan, 2005). As the retail market becomes more and more concentrated, the retailers are investing in establishing their own brands that have clearly become a more instrumental priority for today’s retailers. In many instances, private labels have surpassed a national brand’s capacity to deliver on visibility, consumer interest, involvement and appeal. Simultaneously improvements in quality, taste, packaging, etc to some extent have also made the customers attracted to

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