Can copycat private labels improve the consumer’s shopping experience? A fluency explanation

Katie Kelting (), Adam Duhachek () and Kimberly Whitler ()
Additional contact information
Katie Kelting: Saint Louis University
Adam Duhachek: Indiana University
Kimberly Whitler: University of Virginia

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2017, vol. 45, issue 4, No 10, 569-585

Abstract: Abstract A top priority among retailers is enhancing the consumer’s shopping experience. With the number of private label products increasing at the same time retailers are shedding slower moving products, understanding how private labels impact the consumer’s experience at the retail shelf becomes critical. While one might think that private labels, in particular those that look similar to their national brand counterparts (i.e., copycat private labels), may hinder the shopping experience by making it more difficult for consumers to choose a product, we find the exact opposite. Adopting a fluency perspective, we show that when copycat private labels are included in a shelf set, consumers with high knowledge of the category experience greater choice ease, and as a result they subsequently evaluate their chosen product more favorably. Importantly, the choice ease and evaluations of novice consumers are found to be unaffected. Consequently, this research provides insights for retailers and manufacturers on how and why copycat private labels positively impact an important aspect of the consumer’s shopping experience (i.e., choice ease).

Keywords: Fluency; Private labels; National brands; Imitation; Knowledge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11747-017-0520-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:joamsc:v:45:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s11747-017-0520-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... gement/journal/11747

DOI: 10.1007/s11747-017-0520-2

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science is currently edited by John Hulland, Anne Hoekman and Mark Houston

More articles in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().