An analysis on consumer's perception of private label brands in grocery and food products - a study in Chennai region

During the last decades, Private labels or store brands have made a dynamic appearance in many product categories such as grocery, food products, toiletries, household chemicals and clothing. Though initially PLB were considered as cheap alternatives and therefore visible in copycat and generic categories, today they are apart of well defined retail mix strategy, are developed in value innovators and premium categories for profit maximization and customer loyalty. This paper investigates the perception of consumers for PLBs because consumers usually have different perceptions for different products, as each product category has certain characteristics which have significant effect on buying variables. The purpose is to analyze unique PLB associations in the mind of consumers so as to gauge the consumer's attitudes, perceived benefits, Trust in own-label products, perceived economic situation and shopping behavior, and thereby add to retail brand equity.