When Should Private Label Brands Endorse Ethical Attributes

This article examines to what extent and under what circumstances product-related ethical attributes (i.e., attributes that reflect concern about social and environmental issues) influence evaluations of retailers’ private label brands (PLBs). Two experiments show that ethical attributes enhance PLB evaluations in the presence of extrinsic cues signaling high quality (i.e., high price). In the context of extrinsic cues signaling low quality (i.e., low price), PLBs do not benefit from offering an ethical attribute. This effect is mediated by consumers’ product quality perceptions. A third experiment replicates the positive effect of ethical attribute presence on PLB evaluations in the context of high retailer reputation, and shows a moderating effect of consumers’ resource synergy beliefs. These findings suggest that PLBs benefit from offering ethical attributes in the context of higher-priced PLBs or higher retailer reputation.

[1]  A. Rao,et al.  The Moderating Effect of Prior Knowledge on Cue Utilization in Product Evaluations , 1988 .

[2]  Sankar Sen,et al.  The effect of evolving resource synergy beliefs on the intentions–behavior discrepancy in ethical consumption , 2013 .

[3]  Inge Geyskens,et al.  What Makes Consumers Willing to Pay a Price Premium for National Brands over Private Labels? , 2010 .

[4]  Indrajit Sinha,et al.  Consumer-level factors moderating the success of private label brands , 2000 .

[5]  Anil Menon,et al.  Cause-Related Marketing: A Coalignment of Marketing Strategy and Corporate Philanthropy , 1988 .

[6]  E. Gijsbrechts,et al.  Proliferating Private-Label Portfolios: How Introducing Economy and Premium Private Labels Influences Brand Choice , 2010 .

[7]  Xueming Luo,et al.  Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Satisfaction, and Market Value , 2006 .

[8]  Barton A. Weitz,et al.  Corporate Hypocrisy: Overcoming the Threat of Inconsistent Corporate Social Responsibility Perceptions , 2009 .

[9]  P. Parker,et al.  Marketing universals: Consumers' use of brand name, price, physical appearance, and retailer , 1994 .

[10]  A. Kaikati,et al.  Doing Poorly by Doing Good: Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Concepts , 2012 .

[11]  J. Steenkamp,et al.  Private Label Strategy: How to Meet the Store Brand Challenge , 2007 .

[12]  Arun K. Jain,et al.  Household store brand proneness: A framework , 1996 .

[13]  Ty Henderson,et al.  Embedded Premium Promotion: Why It Works and How to Make It More Effective , 2007 .

[14]  G. Tellis,et al.  Tackling the Retailer Decision Maze: Which Brands to Discount, How Much, When and Why? , 1995 .

[15]  Paul R. Milgrom,et al.  Price and Advertising Signals of Product Quality , 1986, Journal of Political Economy.

[16]  Jerry C. Olson,et al.  Price, brand name, and product composition characteristics as determinants of perceived quality. , 1971 .

[17]  The Relationship Between National Brand and Private Label Food Products: Prices, Promotions, Recessions, and Recoveries , 2012 .

[18]  Peter A. Dacin,et al.  The Company and the Product: Corporate Associations and Consumer Product Responses , 1997 .

[19]  Anthony D. Miyazaki,et al.  The influence of cause-related marketing on consumer choice: Does one good turn deserve another? , 2000 .

[20]  Subhash Sharma,et al.  Effects of online communication practices on consumer perceptions of performance uncertainty for search and experience goods , 2007 .

[21]  A. Hayes.  Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach , 2013 .

[22]  Bianca Grohmann,et al.  The Ethical Attribute Stigma: Understanding When Ethical Attributes Improve Consumer Responses to Product Evaluations , 2014 .

[23]  Jordan J. Louviere,et al.  Do Social Product Features Have Value to Consumers , 2008 .

[24]  Robert E. Burnkrant.  Cue Utilization in Product Perception , 1978 .

[25]  Chiu-chi Angela Chang,et al.  Double Standard: The Role of Environmental Consciousness in Green Product Usage , 2012 .

[26]  A. Rao,et al.  The Effect of Price, Brand Name, and Store Name on Buyers’ Perceptions of Product Quality: An Integrative Review , 1989 .

[27]  Scot Burton,et al.  A scale for measuring attitude toward private label products and an examination of its psychological and behavioral correlates , 1998 .

[28]  Michael G. Luchs,et al.  The Sustainability Liability: Potential Negative Effects of Ethicality on Product Preference , 2010 .

[29]  June Cotte,et al.  Does it pay to be good , 2009 .

[30]  James J. Kellaris,et al.  The Role of Selective Information Processing in Price-Quality Inference , 2004 .

[31]  Dhruv Grewal,et al.  The Effect of Store Name, Brand Name and Price Discounts on Consumers' Evaluations and Purchase Intentions , 1998 .

[32]  William B. Dodds,et al.  Effects of Price, Brand, and Store Information on Buyers’ Product Evaluations , 1991 .

[33]  S. Shavitt,et al.  The Use of Cues Depends on Goals: Store Reputation Affects Product Judgments When Social Identity Goals Are Salient , 2006 .

[34]  R. Steiner,et al.  The Nature and Benefits of National Brand/Private Label Competition , 2004 .

[35]  Julie R. Irwin,et al.  Ethical Decisions and Response Mode Compatibility: Weighting of Ethical Attributes in Consideration Sets Formed by excluding versus Including Product Alternatives , 2009 .

[36]  Pierre Chandon,et al.  A Benefit Congruency Framework of Sales Promotion Effectiveness , 2000 .

[37]  Guido Berens,et al.  The CSR-Quality Trade-Off: When can Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Ability Compensate Each Other? , 2007 .

[38]  Dhruv Grewal,et al.  The Effect of Multiple Extrinsic Cues on Quality Perceptions: A Matter of Consistency , 2005 .

[39]  Joydeep Srivastava,et al.  Effect of Manufacturer Reputation, Retailer Reputation, and Product Warranty on Consumer Judgments of Product Quality: A Cue Diagnosticity Framework , 2001 .

[40]  Ty Henderson,et al.  Promoting Brands across Categories with a Social Cause: Implementing Effective Embedded Premium Programs , 2010 .

[41]  D. Lichtenstein,et al.  The Relationship between Perceived and Objective Price-Quality , 1989 .

[42]  Jennifer Edson Escalas,et al.  You Are What They Eat: The Influence of Reference Groups on Consumers’ Connections to Brands , 2003 .

[43]  A. Jain,et al.  Extrinsic and Intrinsic Cue Effects on Perceptions of Store Brand Quality , 1994 .

[44]  C. Bhattacharya,et al.  Reaping Relational Rewards from Corporate Social Responsibility: The Role of Competitive Positioning , 2007 .

[45]  S. Burt.  The strategic role of retail brands in British grocery retailing , 2000 .

[46]  Raj Sethuraman,et al.  Measuring National Brands' Equity over Store Brands , 2003 .