National Versus Private-Label Brands: Dynamics, Conceptual Framework, And Empirical Perspective

Abstract

Motivated by profits and their growing power in the marketplace, retailers have been expanding their private-label brands to include more categories of consumer products and differentiation on quality to reach different consumer segments. This global phenomenon is adversely impacting the performance of national brands, thus creating a conflict between two powerful parties – manufacturers of national brands and their large retailers who are supposed to be their helping hands in the marketplace.

In this paper, the authors develop a conceptual framework, which captures the complexity and multidimensionality of the situation – the stakeholders involved, the interest and power of each, the relationships among them, various strategies they employ, and the outcomes of the conflict. Several hypotheses were examined and tested through the empirical part of this study; for example, would the powers of these parties determine who is the loser and who is the winner or will the verdict be in the hands of the consumers? The study surveyed 281 consumers to assess their attitudes toward and preferences of store brands versus national brands across product categories and the underlying motivations. The paper concludes with recommendations for retailers and national brand manufacturers to win the hearts of consumers rather than exhaust their resources in the conflict.