消费者对自有品牌产品的认识

这篇研究方案的主题是“消费者对自有品牌的家居产品的看法：以希腊市场为例”。自有品牌蓬勃发展的一个主要因素是零售业在许多西方国家的迅速增加。在过去的25年里，自有品牌家居产品的发展是这样一个过程：从以私人标签用较低的价格为消费者提供一个较低质量的产品，到以零售品牌为消费者提供真正的优质产品。这过程明确反映了在零售环境中所应用的一个营销方法。在较小的欧洲国家，三个最大的连锁店已占超过家居产品总销售额的60%，而这个比例在欧洲一些大国家如英国、法国和德国就占40%左右。只有在美国、日本和欧洲南部占的比例低于20%(Heijbroek et al., 1995)。此外，除了希腊以外的市场，对已经进行了关于这个主题的研究的市场资源是有限的。
 

文献综述
 

商店品牌、公司品牌、无商标的品牌、签名品牌、独家品牌和自有品牌产品的销售通常是没有制造商的以至于都用产品名称或私人标签命名(Dong, 2005)。
 

The topic of this research proposal is “Consumers' perceptions of private label household products: An example of the Greek market”. A major factor in the booming of private labels is the rapidly increasing concentration in the retail sector that can be observed in many Western countries. The evolution of own label household products ranges over the past 25 years, from private labels offering the consumer a lower quality product alternative for a lower price, into retail brands offering a true quality brand alternative, reflects the application of a clear marketing approach in the retail environment. In smaller European countries, the three largest chains already account for more than 60% of total household sales, while this percentage is around 40% for larger European countries such as Great Britain, France and Germany. Only in the US, Japan and Southern Europe is this concentration below 20% (Heijbroek et al., 1995). Moreover the studies that have been conducted regarding this subject are limited and they are all referring to markets other than the Greek one.
 

文献综述———LITERATURE REVIEW
 

Typically referred to as store brands, house brands, no-name generics, signature brands or exclusive brands, private label products are sold by non-manufacturers that own the name of the product or private label (Dong, 2005).
 

Own label products are defined as consumer products produced by, or on behalf of, retailers and sold under the retailers’ own name or trade mark through their own outlets. Most own labels are not actually produced by the retailer. Manufacturers may elect to produce own-label products for retailers in order to achieve scale economies in production and distribution, utilization of excess capacity, sales increase without marketing cost, as well as price discrimination because of image differentiation between branded and private-label products (Baltas, 1997).#p#分页标题#e#
 

Although the take-off stage for own label penetration in markets is generally identified with the post-1970 era, own labels in the UK date back to the late nineteenth century and the growth of the cooperative movement. By the 1950s own label products were important elements of some retailers’ merchandising policies in the UK (Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s) but the abolition of resale price maintenance in 1963 in the UK assisted the launch of own label development on a large scale by many UK retailers (Fernie and Pierrel, 1996).
 

Laaksonen (1994) has identified four generations of own label development. It should be noted that each generation should not be seen in isolation in that retailers have not necessarily evolved their own label development from the first to the fourth stage. For example, in the UK the second generation brands were in existence prior to the launch of generics in the 1970s. In France, with little own label development at that time, Carrefour was the first to introduce the concept of generic products with the launch of their produit libres (“free products”) in Intermarche who adopted a policy similar to that of Asda in the UK in their commitment to selling manufacturers’ brands at the lowest price (Laaksonen, 1994).
 

The evolution of own label household products ranges over the past 25 years, from private labels offering the consumer a lower quality product alternative for a lower price, into retail brands offering a true quality brand alternative, reflects the application of a clear marketing approach in the retail environment. Recent developments, which have seen the major retail chains extend their brand names into product and service markets beyond the core product offer, provide further confirmation of the central role that retail brands now play in the food market (Burt, 2000).
 

However, it was very difficult for the consumers to adopt own label households as these products were cheap and of low quality in the past. Simple improvements in the manufacturing process of own labels led to increasing consumer acceptance of private label brands. European retailers understood this and have been successful in increasing store brand market share through dramatic improvements in package design, labelling, advertising, and branding strategies (Richardson et al., 1996).
 

Although the predominant public opinion seems to be that the growth of private labels has had a pro-competitive effect, there are rather few theoretical as well as empirical studies actually investigating the competitive effect from private label introduction. According to existing theory, private labels have an ambiguous effect on prices on national brands. On the one hand, it is argued that the introduction of a private label may lead to lower retail prices of the competing national brands. The argument is simply that the introduction of a private label would lead to intense price rivalry between the national brand and the private label. On the other hand, private label introduction may result in higher retail prices on the national brands. The national brand producer may then give up fighting for the price sensitive consumers and instead concentrate on consumers with low demand elasticity, and then at a higher price than before entry of a private label. Another reason to expect a price increase on national labels following private labels introduction is that the national brand producer may initially have met the challenge of private labels by offering the retailer an exclusivity contract. In this contract the retailer is offered a low wholesale price contingent on that no private label is introduced in the relevant product category. However, if the retailer at some point in time refuses such a contract, and introduces a private label, the response from the national brand may be to increase his price (Gabrielsen et al., 2001).#p#分页标题#e#
 

The total turnover of private label sales in Europe was estimated at $280 billion in 2001. In 1998, European private label sales grew by 5.9 percent, compared to 4.6 percent in 1995. In Europe, store brands have been so successful they’ve often eroded the market shares of well-known brands. With a turn-over of $232.4 billion and more than 83 percent of all private label sales in Europe for 1998, the European Nations is a force to be reckoned with in terms of private label. The leaders of own label food market in Europe is the UK. This fact can be easily concluded from the existence of supermarket powerhouse such as Tesco and Sainsbury, which are heavily invested in private label use. Both the high level of competition among its retail chains and the deep penetration of private label retailers such as Marks & Spencer have accelerated the growth of private label household products in the UK (FAS, 2001).
 

The information on the development of the own label products in Greece is much more limited. The penetration of own labels in this country is much lower than in other markets, while there is not a great deal of robust evidence about their development. It has been suggested that their number and variety increases and was expected to increase even more in the future, since larger retailers are entering the Greek market. These predictions were proven to be correct. The own label brands are now available in a wide range of product categories, from washing-up liquid and shampoo to pet food, while the fresh food and vegetables still have the best potential in the Greek market (Veloutsou et al., 2004). Own-label products in retail chains are gaining market shares rapidly at the expense of well known, manufacture products, as the former are sold at a considerable discount (CIHEAM, 2005).
 

To manage retail brands successfully, managers have to understand customer needs and desires. Customer perceptions have to be studied because perception is basic to other activities. Improved understanding of customer perceptions is also important because it has been shown that managers view their own retail image differently from that of their customers (Uusitalo, 2001).
 

Wilkie (1994) describes consumer perception as a process consisting of three stages: sensing, selecting, and interpreting (Wilkie, 1994).
 

Consumers begin to perceive an external stimulus as it comes into contact with one of the sensory receptors-eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or skin. Perception of external stimuli influences consumers’ behaviour even without their cognisant knowledge that it is doing so. Marketers and retailers understand this, and they create products and stores specifically designed to affect their behaviour (EBF, 2006).
 

For people to function in this packed environment, they choose to make out certain stimuli while ignoring others. This process is called selectivity. Selectivity lets individuals focus their attention on the things that provide meaning for interpreting their environment or on the things that are relevant to them, while not wasting their restricted information-processing resources on unrelated items (EBF, 2006).#p#分页标题#e#
 

研究的目的———PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
 

There are many complexities in analysing consumers’ perceptions of own label foods. Most of the research that has been conducted attempt to measure consumers perceptions of the product’s physical, functional and physiological characteristics and the relationships between them, and are mainly concerned with the purchasing of national rather than own label brands.

Only a small number of studies is concerned with own label foods and these examine not the consumer’s point of view but from the point of view of the competition between manufacturers and retailers.
 

Taking into consideration the above this study will attempt to:
 

Determine consumers’ perceptions of the characteristics of own label foods and their relative importance in the choice between national brands and own-labels

Identify consumers’ perceptions of the price-quality relationship between national brands and own-labels.
 

研究设计：方法论———RESEARCH DESIGN: METHODOLOGY

 

1调查的类型———1 TYPE OF INVESTIGATION
 

The specific study is classified as descriptive. The consumers perceptions of own label households will be examined in the Greek market which is chosen as an example. A descriptive study is conducted in order to determine and be able to explain the features of the variables of importance in a situation (Sekaran, 2003). In addition a questionnaire is used containing predetermined and structured questions.
 

2抽样设计———2 SAMPLING DESIGN
 

The data will be collected in the capital of Greece. The reasons that Athens is selected for the study are:
 

Athens’ population is the half of Greece’s population
 

Athens’ way of life is the typical for a citizen of a large Greek city
 

Citizens of Athens are more open and used to surveys like the present one, therefore the results of the study can be more accurate
 

The big supermarket chains that have a variety of own label foods are gathered in the area of Athens (many of these products are not available in other parts of Greece).
 

The places for the data collection will be outside central supermarkets. The survey will be conducted over a period of two months because there are time limitations. For all of the above reasons and the fact that not all residents will have the same chance to be selected the non-probability sampling will be used. In order to ensure that certain groups of the population are equally represented in the study the quota sampling method will be used. Although the quota sampling will be used as Sekaran (2003, p.278) states …since this is a non-probability sampling plan the results are not generalizable to the population.#p#分页标题#e#
 

3数据收集方法———3 DATA COLLECTION METHOD
 

The method for data collection will be comprised from self-administered questionnaires. Theses questionnaires will have predetermined questions, planned in such a way, so it would be easy for the researcher to come up with quick and accurate results concerning the consumers’ perceptions of own label households. Sekaran (2003, p.236) argues that when a survey is conducted in a local area a good way to collect data is to personally administer the questionnaires (Sekaran, 2003). The reason for choosing questionnaires is speed and low cost (Sekaran, 2003). These questionnaires will be distributed outside central supermarkets in Athens.
 

4本研究的贡献———4 CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY
 

This research project tries to describe and identify consumers' perceptions of private label household products. It also focuses on the Greek market and the. However the study can also help the private label industries to have a better understanding in how people choose their households so as to provide them products that fit their preferences. In addition the study may help the industries to evolve their products. This evolution can have a great impact on the quality of the household products and on the production of private label households having a great quality over value.