Consumer response to private label brands’ negative publicity: a relational effect on retailer’s store image
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effect of private label brand (PLB) products’ negative publicity (NP) events on PLB general image and retailer’s store image, because of the suggested interdependency between retailer’s store image and PLB image.
Design/methodology/approach
Three empirical studies were conducted to test the NP effect – Studies 1 and 2, respectively; and test the occurrence of moderate and extreme NP events regarding the functional PLB product category. Study 3 replicates prior studies conducted on the hedonic product category. In these studies, participants were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The studies use factor analysis methods following t-tests and paths analyses, using structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings
Findings show that both moderate and extreme NP have an influence on the PLB’s image dimensions. These effects “spilled over” to the entire range of PLB products, regardless of the category of the damaged product. Regarding retailer’s store image, the effect of NP was retained in the product-related image context and did not exceed that of the store-related image. However, in relation to functional products, when NP is very extreme, the effect on PLB image exceeds that of retailer’s store image.
Practical implications
Retailers should invest more efforts in their PLB product selection, quality maintenance and supervision to eliminate potential damage from events related to their PLB products.
Originality/value
The originality of this study is in the association of two streams of research: NP effects and the relationship between PLB image and retailer’s store image.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the editors, Cleopatra Veloutsou and Francisco Guzman, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.
Citation
Gendel-Guterman, H. and Levy, S. (2017), "Consumer response to private label brands’ negative publicity: a relational effect on retailer’s store image", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 204-222. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-05-2015-0880
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited