Private-label grocery shopping attitude and behaviour: A cross-cultural study
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RANDALL SHANNON is an assistant professor of marketing at the College of Management, Mahidol University, in Bangkok, Thailand. He specialises in retail research and has a background in professional marketing research.
RUJIRUTANA MANDHACHITARA is an assistant professor at Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus, New York. She has published six scholarly articles in peer-reviewed marketing journals. Her principal research interests are retailing and consumer behaviour.
Abstract While the marketing phenomenon of the private-label grocery brand has been studied in considerable depth in Western countries, particularly in Britain and major parts of Europe, this has not been the case in developing Far Eastern markets, perhaps in part because the established retail formats have not been conducive to their growth. The recent broad-scale introduction of private-label grocery brands in one of these markets (Thailand), provides an opportunity to question why such brands have experienced an uncertain start in many Eastern countries. This study attempts to understand the attitudinal and behavioural factors associated with private-label grocery shopping through simultaneous surveys conducted among residents of Wichita, Kansas, USA and Prakanong-Bangna in Greater Bangkok, Thailand.
INTRODUCTION
Randall Shannon Assistant Professor, College of Management, Mahidal University, 4th Floor, Tower II West, 18 SCB Park Plaza, Rachadapisek Road, Jatujak, Bangkok, Thailand Tel: ⫹662 937 5655 60 Fax: ⫹662 937 5661 E-mail: [email protected]
An examination of private-label grocery shopping attitudes and behaviour in the USA and Thailand provides an important opportunity for marketing professionals and scholars to assess how cultural differences can impact on the success or otherwise of modern retail trade grocery strategies. In Thailand, while the introduction of private-label grocery brands by retailers has proceeded at a swift pace, consumer adoption of this branding format has been slow. To understand the factors contributing to a low adoption rate of private-label groceries in Thailand, a comparative study with another country with a higher rate of private-label growth was considered
valuable. The USA suggested itself as an appropriate contrasting culture in large part because the private labels’ share of the grocery business, while growing, had not reached the near-saturation point seen in the UK and some other European markets.1
THE MARKETS In the seven years since official tradeliberalisation policy permitted foreign grocery retailing chains to set up business in Thailand, Greater Bangkok (population 10 million), the country’s major city has acquired 75 grocery hypermarkets (of between 100,000 and 250,000 square feet each), 100 supermarkets and 1,750 convenience stores.
䉷 HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 1479-1803 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 12, NO. 6, 461–474 AUGUST 2005
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The overwhelming majority of these retail outlets are operating profitably. These stores are owned and operated as chains principally by
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