Abstract
Premium private labels (PPLs) are applied to products with distinctive features with prices equal, and sometimes even higher, than those of the category leaders. The objective of the retailers is to obtain, in the minds of consumers, the same positioning of national brands. So, PPLs are becoming more and more crucial for competitive advantage and store loyalty. Starting from this evidence, this paper aims to contribute to the advancement of knowledge on the subject, analyzing the impact of consumer trust in retailer, consumer involvement and product value on consumer willingness to buy PPLs. Data for hypotheses testing were collected through a 2 × 2 × 2 experiment between subjects, in which different groups of consumers were randomly exposed to different experimental conditions. Results show that: (a) consumer trust in retailer positively influences consumer’s willingness to buy in case of products with hedonic value; (b) consumer involvement has a significant main effect and there is a significant two-way interactions between trust and involvement; (c) when consumer trust in retailer is low, non-involved consumers show a greater willingness to buy the PPL for products with utilitarian rather than hedonic value.
Highlights
The revenue market share of private label in Italy (20.1%) is still lower than in other European countries, their strategic role for retail companies is increasingly important (Sansone 2016; Fornari 2018). This is clearly highlighted by the growing depth and breadth of private label portfolios (Kumar and Steenkamp 2007; Geyskens et al 2010), within which premium private labels (PPLs) are becoming more and more crucial for competitive advantage and store loyalty
This paper aims to contribute to the advancement of knowledge on the subject, analyzing the impact of consumer trust in retailers, consumer involvement and product value on consumer willingness to buy, variable that has been overlooked in the literature on PPLs
The research hypotheses were tested by means of a multi-factor variance analysis, aimed at assessing the main effect and interactions of each independent variable on the willingness to buy the product of premium private label
Summary
The revenue market share of private label in Italy (20.1%) is still lower than in other European countries (on average 26%, but in several countries it exceeds 40%—Nielsen 2018), their strategic role for retail companies is increasingly important (Sansone 2016; Fornari 2018). In addition to a careful selection of copackers, shelf positioning, packaging design and of the whole retailing mix are oriented to signal product quality (Feetham and Gendall 2013; Nenycz-Thiel and Romaniuk 2016; Abril and Rodriguez Canovas 2016). This is a significant change, considering that, in Italy (Fornari 2007; Ceccacci 2013), private labels have traditionally emphasized their price convenience compared to national brands (Richardson et al.1994; Burt and Davis 1999; Sethuraman 2003)
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