Private Labels Meeting the Recession and Differentiation Challenges

Abstract

Private labels or stores brands are on escalating journey for growth in last few years in Indian Market. Private labels once a small part of retailers merchandise, is today become a significant factor for most retail operations. The growth of private labels is quite impressive in food and grocery segment, in spite of presence of leading national manufacturers brand in most of the categories. The research in this area has highlighted that it is retail store name, its assurance and service, which are more important to customer rather than, the name of national manufacturer. Though, initially private labels were considered as cheap alternative and therefore visible in copycat and generic categories. But today they are a part of well-defined retail mix strategy, therefore are developed in value innovators and premium category by most retailers for profit maximization and customer loyalty. The purpose of this paper is to investigate, the need, significance and implementation strategy for private labels in Indian grocery retail. The major Indian and International retailer private label strategy will be researched and analyses.