Own labels choice criteria and perceived characteristics in Greece and Scotland: factors influencing the willingness to buy
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610420410546943 |
| Published date | 01 June 2004 |
| Date | 01 June 2004 |
| Pages | 228-241 |
| Author | Cleopatra Veloutsou,Evangelos Gioulistanis,Luiz Moutinho |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
Own labels choice
criteria and perceived
characteristics in Greece
and Scotland: factors
influencing the
willingness to buy
Cleopatra Veloutsou
Evangelos Gioulistanis and
Luiz Moutinho
The authors
Cleopatra Veloutsou is a Lecturer in Marketing and
Luiz Moutinho is the Foundation Chair of Marketing and is
Director of the Doctoral Programme at the Department of
Business and Management, University of Glasgow, Glasgow,
Scotland, UK.
Evangelos Gioulistanis is at present with Athens 2004
(The Olympics).
Keywords
Generics, Greece, Scotland
Abstract
The growth of own label brands of productsoffered by supermarket
chains is changing the “rules of the game” when managing fast
moving consumer good products. A lot is written on the
development of these brands and the consumers’ behaviour in
regions where their use is widely spread, but not in other markets.
This paper compared the importance of choice criteria when
purchasing own label and national brands and the perceived
characteristics of the products carrying store and manufacturer
brands in two regions of the European Union where the
development of own label brands is at a different stage, Greece and
Scotland. The results indicate that own label and manufacturer
brands have an overall different positioning; Greeks are less
familiar with own label products and assess them somewhat
differently than the Scots, while several own label related attributes
may be good predictors of the loyalty to the supermarket.
Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is
available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
An executive summary for managers and
executive readers can be found at the end of
this article
Introduction
The term “brand” is perceived to be extremely rich
and meaningful in context, not only from
academia, but also from the business world.
Scholars and practitioners attempt to develop
lucid and specific definitions of the term
emphasising a number of its aspects, such as its
functionality as a legal instrument, a logo, a
company, a shorthand, a risk reducer, an identity
system, an image, a value system, a personality, a
relationship contributor, an added value and an
evolving entity (de Chernatony and Dall’Olmo
Riley, 1998). Retailers can label products just as
manufacturers do. The increase in sales and
market share of products whose names are owned
by retailers rather than by their suppliers has been
one of the most significant phenomena in both
distribution channel theory and practice (Davies,
1998).
Although there is no universally accepted
terminology used for the classification of the
retailers’ brands, it has been suggested that there
are four distinct broad categories of this kind of
brand (Laaksonen, 1994). These are generics,
store brands, non-store brands, and exclusive or
private brands. However, even within each one of
these categories of brands, authors use diverse
names to describe virtually the same phenomenon.
For example, even though the term own label
products/brands is the probably the first and the
most widely used term (Simmons and Meredith,
1984; Davies et al., 1986; Martell, 1986; Uncles
and Ellis, 1989; Buck, 1993; Laaksnonen, 1994;
Omar, 1994; Fernie and Pierell, 1996; Key Note
Market Review, 2001), other expressions are also
used. These include the terms:
.private-label products/brands (McGoldrick,
1984; Hoch and Banerji, 1993; Nandan and
Dickinson, 1994; Halstead and Ward, 1995;
Hoch, 1996; Parker and Kim, 1997; Sinha
and Batra, 1999; Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal,
2000; Ghose and Lowengart, 2001; Dekimpe,
2002; Verhoef et al., 2002; Ward et al., 2002);
.retailer products/brands (Burt and Davis,
1999; Davies, 1998);
.distributors’ brands (de Chernatony and
McDonald, 1998); and
.store brands or labels (Cunningham et al.,
1982; Jain et al., 1996; Baltas, 1997; Baltas
and Doyle, 1997; Dick et al., 1997; Parker and
Kim, 1997; Richardson, 1997; Steenkamp
and Dekimpe, 1997; Miquel et al., 2002).
Journal of Product & Brand Management
Volume 13 · Number 4 · 2004 · pp.228-241
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 1061-0421
DOI 10.1108/10610420410546943
228
To continue reading
Request your trial