engleski

Insight into perceived private label authenticity

The purpose of the study - Private labels are growing their market presence and becoming more accepted by consumers due to their good quality at a reasonable price. Nevertheless, they are increasingly searchingfor authentic brands and new experiences (Beverland, 2009 in Kadirov, 2015) where private labels are still lagging. The goal of this research is to verify do consumers perceive private labels as authentic brands measured by selected dimensions of private labels authenticity. Authenticity is defined as “the perceived consistency of brand's behaviour that reflects its core values and norms, according to which it is perceived as being true to itself, not undermining its brand essence or substantive nature” (Fritz et al., 2017, p. 327). Current branding literature offers different measurement scales of brand authenticity (e.g. Bruhn et al., 2012 ; Morhart et al., 2015 ; Fritz et al. 2017 ; Carsana and Jolibert, 2018). Dimensions of private label authenticity used in this study were as follows: • The credibility dimension “reflects brands transparency and honesty toward consumer, as well as its willingness and ability to fulfil its claims” (Morhart et al., 2015, p. 202). • The symbolism dimension “stands for the potential of the brand to serve as a resource for identity construction by providing self- referential cues representing values, roles and relationships” (Morhart et al., 2015, p. 203). • Originality reflects how different the brand is from all the other brands and expresses the brand uniqueness (Bruhn et al., 2012). • Brand commercialization reflects the process by which brands subordinate their values and norms to interest of profit maximization (Fritz et al, 2017). • Employee’s passion can be defined as an indicator of perceived enthusiasm and eagerness of employees in the retail chain (Fritz et al, 2017) that owns private label. • Trust in the chain is defined as “the expectation held by the consumer that the service provider is dependable and can be relied on to deliver its promise” (Sirdeschmukh et al., 2002 in Rubio, 2017, p. 359). Research Methodology - The survey method was employed. All items were measured on Liket scale from 1 to 5 (1 meaning stongly disagree and 5 strongly agree). The scales for testing two selected dimensions of perceived brand authenticity, credibility and symbolism were taken from Carsana and Jolibert (2018), for originality, brand commercialization, and employee’s passion from Fritz et al. (2017), for trust in the chain (Rubio et al., 2017). All scales were tested for internal validity, and their respective Cronbach alpha values exceeded 0.7. The research was done on the convenience sample of 282 consumers by using self- administrated questionnaire pertain to two leading private labels on the Croatian market (Spar and K Plus). Descriptive statistics analysis was employed and the differences between the two samples were tested with t-test (using IBM SPPS, version 23). Results - The sample consisted of 282 respondents: 223 (79%) female and 59 (21%) male, dominantly from 18-24 years old. Research results show that the highest mean values are related to brand commercialization dimension of brand authenticity. Respondents think both private labels are primarily focused on profit. The lowest scores were associated with a dimension employee’s passion. Respondents do not agree with the notion that employees like to work for the retailer, and that they are motivated. This goes in line with the results for trust in the chain dimension. This is especially evident for K Plus private label. Finally, when it comes to other dimensions ; originality, symbolism and credibility, respondents are indifferent for both private labels. Private label Spar has all mean values higher than private labels K Plus (except in brand commercialization dimension) and these differences are statistically significant. Key contribution and implications - Although retailers are increasingly investing in the quality of private labels and the presence in different categories, they are neglecting the development of brand identity as a prerequisite of perceived authenticity. This has led to the research finding that private labels are commercial brands interested in making profits. On the other hand, when it comes to dimensions like originality, symbolism and credibility, respondents are not associating them with both private labels. Therefore, retailers should focus more on differentiating private labels from leading national brands and developing their own clear brand identity. However, private label identity would never be completely separated from the identity of the retailer, as their owner. Therefore, retailers should strive to be trustworthy and have motivated and satisfied employees because their passion can translate into favourable private label perception. Employee’s passion in relation to retailer and private labels can reinforce consumer trust and help build authenticity. Giving the rising importance of brand authenticity retailers should take a more holistic approach to private label management.

private labels ; perceived authenticity ; retailers

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