Towards Sustainable Private Labels in an Autonomous Community during COVID-19—Analysis of Consumer Behavior and Perception on the Example of Tenerife

Our study aimed to analyze consumer behavior and perception towards private labels (PLs) in Tenerife as an autonomous community during COVID-19, with special attention given to sustainability aspects. The research was conducted on a sample of 500 adults purchasing PLs using quota selection and the CAWI method. We formulated four research questions related to factors of PL choice, the relationship between frequency of PL purchases, consumers’ age and income, perceived changes in PLs, and evaluation of PL products including sustainability. The latter research question referred to such product characteristics as local and environmentally friendly production, organic production, and production according to traditional technologies using only natural ingredients. For a detailed analysis of consumer behavior, we used Pearson’s chi-square test, the rho-Spearman correlation coefficient, and cluster analysis. The most important factors for purchasing PL products were lower prices compared to leading brands, attachment to a given chain, and the feeling of safety and trust in PL products. The frequency of purchase of PL food products, except for alcohol, significantly negatively correlates with age, which means that the purchase of PLs from the analyzed product categories decreases with age. The increased availability and improved image and quality of PLs were identified as the most important changes in PLs. PL food products were rated by consumers as fresh, minimally processed and with quality certificates. Environmentally friendly production methods, nutritional value, and origin from an area close to home were also indicated.

Strategic Competition Between Private Labels and National Brands in a Vertically Linked Market

Over the past decades, the rapid emergence of private labels (PL) has created stiff competition for many established manufacturers of national brands (NB). Retailers are using PL products as a competitive weapon against NB. The present study develops and tests different theoretical models of competition under different retailer-manufacturer production arrangements for private labels using the Non-Nested Model Comparison (NNMC) approach and their impact on the pricing strategies of PLs and NBs in the Canadian retail market. The theoretical model shows that a retailer earns the highest profit when it behaves as a leader and makes the least profit when it behaves as a follower; a similar relationship holds for the NB manufacturer under different PL production arrangements. The total industry profit is the highest when the retailer and NB manufacturer behaves in a Bertrand Nash manner. Empirical results of the study show no consistent pattern of competitive interaction under various production arrangements of PL products.

A Comparative Study of Marketing Practices of Knitwear Export Units in Punjab and Tamil Nadu

The present study was conducted to compare the marketing strategies of knitwear exporters of Ludhiana (Punjab) and Tirupur (Tamil Nadu). An exploratory study was conducted in which thirty knitwear export units each from Ludhiana and Tirupur were selected, and information was collected using a questionnaire. In Tirupur, only 3 percent of the units had their brand, while in Ludhiana, 60.00 percent of the units had their brand. Out of the knitwear units in Ludhiana, which did not own a brand, 91.67 percent worked with buyer's brand or other private labels, while in Tirupur, 58.63 percent of the units were not interested in owning a brand. The first rank was given to seminars, workshops, and international trade shows, which were used as a source to get information by knitwear export units at both places (Ludhiana and Tirupur). One-third of the units in Ludhiana acquired ISO14000 certification, while in Tirupur, about two-thirds of the units got OekoTex Standard-100. It was also found that 46.67 percent of the units in Ludhiana spent less than 5 lakh rupees, and in Tirupur, 30 percent of the units spent more than 15 lakh as promotional ? budget. Nearly half (53.33 percent) of the units in Ludhiana and 36.67 percent of the knitwear export units in Tirupur spent 3-9 percent of total export sales on marketing research.