Understanding brand loyalty of the store brand’s customer base
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to attempt to understand the extent to which price consciousness and quality consciousness influence attitudinal loyalty to store brands (SBs) in different segments of consumers: heavy, medium and light buyers of SBs. SBs are currently consolidated among price-conscious consumers, but less established among the quality-conscious consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
After reviewing the literature and constructing a theoretical model, the authors performed a study on Spanish food products, a sector in which SBs have achieved a significant market share. They collected data through a personal survey and analyzed it using structural equations modeling, and they performed a multigroup analysis of heavy buyers, medium buyers and light buyers of SBs.
Findings
The results obtained alert retailers to the tremendous importance of price vs quality in the formation of SB value and loyalty to SBs among heavy buyers of these brands, show the balance between price and quality as components of SB value and generators of loyalty among medium buyers and recognize the need to strengthen the image of SB quality to reinforce SBs’ value and smart shopping associations to increase light buyers’ loyalty to SBs.
Originality/value
The study contributes new evidence and knowledge on SB loyalty among consumers who show different usage of these brands (heavy, medium and light buyers). It then assesses the short- and long-term value of each segment of customers for the retailer and recommends retail strategies adapted to each segment.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Fundación Ramón Areces (research project: “El capital cliente en mercados minoristas de gran consumo”), Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (research project ref.: ECO2012-31517) and UAM+CSIC (research project ref.: CEMU-2012-34).
Citation
Rubio, N., Oubiña, J. and Gómez-Suárez, M. (2015), "Understanding brand loyalty of the store brand’s customer base", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 24 No. 7, pp. 679-692. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-03-2015-0822
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited