Investigation of the Perceived Risk of Buying Products under Own Retail Brand

Abstract

The ever increasing interest of researchers and practitioners in the prospects of improving the performance of retail trade due to the increasing use of the capacity of goods under its own brands systematically detects insufficient completeness of reliable knowledge about how risk of purchasing goods under the private label customers is perceived and what factors this risk buyers think are the most significant. To delete this gap seems to be possible only through empirical research. The main objective of the study: to identify the factors that contribute to the differences in the perceived risk of buying products under own brands of retail chains and branded goods of companies-producers. Based on the theoretical analysis, a model is developed, which takes into account both direct and indirect effects of the factors identified on the basis of summarizing the experience of previous studies of similar profile in the perceived risk of buying products under own brands of retail chains and branded goods of companies-producers. For the analysis of the relationships within the developed model we used structural simulation, for the implementation of which the module AMOS SPSS program was applied. An empirical study is based on the results of a survey of 120 respondents conducted in St. Petersburg in four stores of retail chains “Auchan” and “Lenta”. On the basis of the results of the study authors propose recommendations aimed at overcoming (decrease) in the perceived risk of purchasing goods under the own brands of retail chain. Results of the study are addressed to category managers of retail chains and can be used by them in the development and implementation of brand management and marketing strategy of own brands. The originality of the article is defined as the fact that the authors for the first time in Russia conducted study devoted to the trust to own brands by Russian consumers.