Category and Portfolio Management for International Retailer’s Private Labels (Case of Auchan in Russia)

Abstract

The goal of this work is to combine the theories of private label, brand portfolio, and the practices of product category management in order to come up with the recommendations for the retailers and apply them to Auchan Russia. The tasks of the research are: • analyze private label advantages and key success factors, • analyze store brand portfolio strategies and project category management approaches, • study the portfolio optimization strategies on macro- and microlevels, • conduct the empirical study to identify factors affecting perceived quality of private labels for 3 retailers in high and low involvement categories, • perform portfolio audit and propose improvement recommendations for Auchan. Main results of the research: • retailers have to manage store brands in low and high involvement product categories differently, • low involvement categories should be alienated from master brand through generic and copycat store brands, • private labels in high involvement categories should be endorsed by master brand and retailer’s image, • first purchase experience should be facilitated, since it positively impacts the perceived quality of private labels, • store image management positively influences the perceived quality of store brands.