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Private brands are currently relatively well accepted by consumers and are generally considered to be of high quality, yet they face various challenges that can threaten their sustainability. This has been confirmed by several authors looking at consumer perceptions of private labels across different countries. The aim of the study was to assess consumers' attitudes and relationships towards private brands and to identify factors that may influence their purchasing decisions. To achieve the objectives, a questionnaire survey was used, where the research sample consisted of 239 people shopping in retail food stores in the Czech Republic, of different gender, age, level of education, and monthly income. It was found that consumers perceive private brands positively in most cases. Using the Friedman test, it was found that consumers care most about low price and quality when buying private brands, while they attach the least importance to the appearance of the packaging. Based on the decision tree, it was revealed that private brands are mostly purchased by women who are employed, students or those on maternity leave, those who have lower incomes and who are under 25 years of age. The results of the logistic regression confirmed that lower price and reasonable quality increase the chance of buying private labels. These findings, such as consumer perception of private brands, and frequency of purchase, are very important to determine appropriate marketing strategy. Based on an effective strategy, retailers can then aim to increase the number of products sold and customer loyalty.

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.

PurposeGrounded in strategic fit theory, this study aims to identify external and internal factors that influence retailers’ strategic choices regarding their own product brands. Furthermore, it seeks to explore the variations between different own product brand strategies in achieving both external and internal strategic fit.Design/methodology/approachThe systematic review method, incorporating a thematic analysis, was adopted, and 318 articles were included for review.FindingsThe factors that influence retailers’ strategic choices regarding their own product brands encompass a range of external macro and industrial environmental factors, along with various internal resource and capability factors. Moreover, the effects of these factors vary across different own product brand strategies.Originality/valueTo our knowledge, this is the first systematic review of research on retailers’ own product brands from a strategic management perspective, offering systematic and structured guidance for retailers.

Purpose In recent years, private brands for e-commerce platforms have experienced rapid growth. However, whether these platforms developing private brands should share their demand information with others and how such information sharing affects the sales format selection of national brand manufacturers have puzzled firm managers in practice. This paper aims to investigate the information-sharing strategy for the e-commerce platform and its influence on the sales format selection in the presence of the private brand. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a game-theoretical model to examine the interaction between the information-sharing strategy and sales format selection in a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and a platform that operates a private brand. Findings The equilibrium results show that when the commission rate is low, the manufacturer favors agency selling, and the platform shares demand information with the manufacturer; when the commission rate is high, the manufacturer prefers reselling, and the platform does not share the information. This preference is affected by information forecasting accuracy; as the information forecasting accuracy increases, the manufacturer prefers to adopt agency selling, and the platform tends to share the information. Interestingly, under agency selling, sharing information with the manufacturer can increase the platform’s profit from selling the private brand and achieve a win-win situation for them. Furthermore, we show that the manufacturer can inspire the platform to share the information with himself by adopting agency selling, whereas the platform sharing the information improves the probability that the manufacturer adopts agency selling. Moreover, the manufacturer may have a first-mover advantage. In particular, the manufacturer moving first increases the likelihood that the manufacturer chooses agency selling and the platform shares the information. Originality/value This paper contributes to sales format literature by exploring the effect of information sharing strategy on sales format selection in the presence of the private brand and can help manufacturers and platforms to make suitable decisions regarding information sharing and sales format selection.

Private-label cigarettes are cigarettes that belong to the retailer itself. Private-label cigarettes from discounters or supermarkets are cheaper than brand-name cigarettes, and their lower price has allowed them to garner an ever-increasing share of the tobacco product market, especially among lower socioeconomic groups. Particulate matter (PM), a considerable component of air pollution, is a substantial health-damaging factor. Smoking is the primary source of PM in smokers’ homes. In a 2.88 m3 measuring chamber, the PM emission fractions PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 from three private-label cigarette brands and three brand-name cigarette brands with identical nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide content were measured and compared to those of a reference cigarette by laser aerosol spectroscopy. All cigarette brands emitted PM in health-threatening quantities. The measurement results ranged from 1394 µg/m3 to 1686 µg/m3 PM10, 1392 µg/m3 to 1682 µg/m3 PM2.5, and 1355 µg/m3 to 1634 µg/m3 PM1, respectively. Only one private-label brand differed significantly (p < 0.001) from the other cigarette brands, which were tested with slightly lower PM levels. All other brands differed only marginally (not significant, p > 0.05) from one another. Significant (p < 0.05) negative correlations between private-label and brand-name cigarettes were found for PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 when accounting for tobacco filling densities, and for PM1 when accounting for filter lengths. The especially health-hazardous fraction PM1 accounted for the largest proportion of PM emissions from the cigarettes tested. The results of this study suggest that- cheaper tobacco products are as harmful as more expensive ones, at least regarding PM emissions. This highlights the importance of anti-smoking campaigns, especially for lower socioeconomic groups, where smoking is more widespread. Governments should reduce the price gap between cheap and more expensive tobacco products by implementing specific tobacco taxes. In such a case, at increasing prices of tobacco products, a downward shift to private-label cigarettes would probably decrease.

In recent years, online retailing platforms (ORPs) have increasingly introduced private brand (PB) products as a new profit source, reshaping market dynamics and affecting their commission revenues. This shift creates a strategic trade-off for the platform: maximizing PB product profits while maintaining commission income from national brand (NB) retailers. This paper examines the platform’s pricing and quality strategies for PB products, as well as its incentives to introduce them. We develop a game-theoretic model featuring a platform and a retailer, and derive results through equilibrium analysis and comparative statics. Special attention is given to the platform’s strategy when market power is asymmetric and the PB product is homogeneous. The analysis yields three key findings. Firstly, the platform is always incentivized to introduce a PB product, regardless of its brand value. Even when direct profit is limited, the platform can leverage the PB product to increase competitive pressure on the retailer and boost commission revenue. Secondly, when the PB product has low brand value, the platform adopts a cost-saving strategy with low quality for extremely low brand value, and a function-enhancing strategy with high quality for moderately low brand value. Thirdly, when the PB product has high brand value, the platform consistently prefers a function-enhancing strategy. This study contributes to the literature by systematically characterizing the platform’s strategic trade-offs in introducing PB products, highlighting its varied pricing and quality strategies across categories, and revealing the critical role of brand value in supply chain competition.

In the context of globalized and complex supply chains, supply uncertainty occurs frequently. To reduce dependence on suppliers, retailers often consider holding strategic inventory and introducing private brands. To explore the relationship between private brands and strategic inventory strategies, and to determine the optimal strategic decisions, this paper constructs a two-stage supply chain model. Using game theory methods, we calculate the equilibrium outcomes of the supply chain under two scenarios: one with only national brands and the other with the introduction of private brands. The main findings are as follows. First, we identify the optimal decisions for both suppliers and retailers in each scenario. The influencing factors include perceived quality, inventory costs, and supply stability. Second, we find that there are constraints for retailers to activate strategic inventory, but these constraints are less restrictive when private brands are introduced. Finally, introducing private brands benefits retailers in implementing strategic inventory, although the extent of this impact depends on the conditions under which the strategic stockpile is implemented. These findings fill the gap in the existing literature on the impact of private brand introductions on strategic inventory under supply uncertainty and highlight valuable implications for business decision-makers.

PurposeThere is a range around reference prices, the so-called latitude of price acceptance, where consumers seem insensitive to changes into prices, with these ranges being wider for buyers of private brands. This paper analyses objective price gap between two product alternatives as a main driver of consumer behaviour. Therefore, the authors shed light on whether the price gap conditions consumer-switching behaviour and at what point the price gap triggers a switching pattern.Design/methodology/approachShopping data on two product alternatives of olive oil were obtained from a household scanner panel of Spanish consumers (607 households) with weekly price tracking, and multilevel regression models were performed.FindingsThe results suggest that the price gap has a fundamental effect on the consumers' choice. In this case, up to 1 euro/litre the demand seems almost inelastic; beyond that price gap, the demand for the finer product plummets.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focussed on olive oil products. The research needs to be extended other food products.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the literature by documenting how the price context measured in terms of a price gap is a relevant stimulus in consumer choices, with a focus on the change in price sensitivity between product alternatives when competing brands are not involved but private brands are.

PurposeThis paper aims to study the interplay between a risk-averse national brand manufacturer's (NBM) selling mode decision and a risk-neutral e-platform's private brand (PB) introduction decision.Design/methodology/approachA game theory model is used to solve selling mode decision, that is whether transform the selling mode from the wholesale mode to the marketplace mode, and PB introduction decision, that is, whether introduce the PB.FindingsThe results show that for the NBM, under certain condition, the NBM's selling mode decision is not affected by the e-platform's PB introduction decision. High revenue-sharing rate is conducive only when the difference in consumer preference between the PB and the national brand (NB) is small. The NBM's risk aversion will improve the applicability of the marketplace mode. For the e-platform, high PB preference of consumers and risk-averse behavior of the NBM is not conducive to PB introduction. For the supply chain, scenarios that the NB monopolizes the market under the wholesale mode and PB introduction under the marketplace mode should be prevented. PB introduction under the wholesale mode will become the only equilibrium with the increase of risk aversion of the NBM. Finally, the authors extend the scenario that consumers prefer the PB and the e-platform is risk-averse enterprise and find that PB introduction under the wholesale mode is detrimental to the NBM but beneficial to the supply chain. The impact of consumers' PB preference on the e-platform's PB introduction is opposite to the basic model. The impact of the e-platform's risk aversion on game equilibrium is opposite to that of the NBM's risk aversion.Originality/valueThis paper is first to study selling mode decision and PB introduction decision when considering enterprises' risk-averse attitude.

This paper addresses the cooperative promotion problem by highlighting the retailer’s private brand introduction and strategic behavior. The manufacturer engages in nationwide advertising to maintain the brand image and implements the cooperative promotion program for the retailer’s local promotional activities. The retailer can be myopic or far-sighted and is considering the introduction of a private brand. We formulate the cooperative promotion problem using the differential game approach and investigate the equilibrium control strategies under different scenarios with private brand introduction and strategic behavior. Our findings highlight that the myopic retailer is more inclined to opt for the private brand introduction compared to the far-sighted retailer. Moreover, the introduction of the retailer's private brand can also yield benefits for the manufacturer, provided that the erosive impact of the private brand is negligible. Although the retailer's myopic behavior may potentially compromise the manufacturer's brand image, it can lead to augmented profits for the manufacturer when the adverse impact of promotions remains adequately limited. Furthermore, we extend our model by incorporating the upstream competition. Our results indicate that under manufacturer competition, the retailer tends to be more cautious in opting for the private brand introduction, particularly when the erosive impact is substantial.