Title: Determinants of private label purchase in food category - role of product, consumer and store factors

Authors: S. Jayakrishnan; Rekha D. Chikhalkar; Ranjan Chaudhuri

Addresses: SDMIMD, Mysore, Karnataka – 570011, India ' National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Powai, Mumbai – 400087, India ' National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Powai, Mumbai – 400087, India

Abstract: The Indian retail sector has become competitive with the emergence of organised retail players. Currently retailers are focusing on developing their own brands or private labels to enhance customer loyalty, to add diversity and for better margins. The study primarily looks into understanding the consumer preference for private labels or store brands in food category and to understand the role of consumer, product and store factors in store brand purchase in this category. Consumer responses are collected from the city of Cochin (India) using structured questionnaire. Cochin is one of the emerging non-metro city in India with enormous business potential. Five-point Likert scale is used to measure the factors. The study found that consumer factors like perceived quality, product familiarity, quality indicators and loyalty have a significant role in determining the private label purchase in food category. Quality indicators which include private label brand name, flavour and taste also influence private label purchase.

Keywords: private labels; store brands; prices; perceived quality; store image; value consciousness; product familiarity; food products; India; customer loyalty; product diversity; flavour; taste.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2016.077768

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2016 Vol.9 No.2, pp.93 - 119

Received: 13 Apr 2016
Accepted: 06 May 2016
Published online: 14 Jul 2016 *

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