CONSUMER PERCEPTION OF IN-HOUSE

BRANDS AND LOCAL BRANDS

By Kriti Sharma, Kshitij Malhotra, Saloni Rastogi, Abinsh Pani, Shweta Kumari, Sarthak Nagar,
Madhvi Mehra, Sahil Sakuja, Saatvik Kaushik

Abstract

India is a very brand conscious market; therefore it is important for any company entering
the market to understand the motivations of the customers towards a particular brand.
However, it is not just the brand that motivates a purchase decision but other factors like
price, advertisements, consumer perception and accessibility. The study aims at analysing the
role of factors like price, accessibility and advertisements in forming the consumer
perception of consumers towards in-house brands.

Introduction

India has been boastfully branded as the ultimate hub for trade that comprises of a plethora of
brands. This study aims at dissecting and scrutinizing the variegated consumer perceptions
held for different in-house brands and local brands in India. The disparity tends to be
stochastically prevalent and has been computed statistically since a considerable amount of
time. The nucleus of a brand, in the contemporary, is vast, so is the holistic perception of
consumers. Mercurial and volatile, the emerging and ever-demanding proclivity of consumers
has been a firm departure from the usual orthodox perception that was affixed in the minds
ages ago. The impetus of this study is to promulgate an explanation of consumer perceptions.

Brands

A brand is something that speaks about a product. It is a concoction of designs, symbols,

words and an interplay of credibility, quality, satisfaction; something that oozes out in
abundance or is confined in the shackles of edgy and wound up parlance bearing fidgety
interests. A brand not only sells, it represents too. It acts as an ensuing and a conclusive
trademark, an identity that shimmers and not just blatantly falters without purpose and with
overwrought disposition. Brand identity is the cornerstone for a quintessential approach and
serious involvement with the product.
In-House Brand vs. Local Brand

In-house brand refers to any brand name used by a retailer for a product or a product line
conceived by the retailer itself. Deemed unpopular in the past, in-house brands are now
emerging and encouraging shifts in the consumption patterns, as well as, perceptions. This is
due to people being inclined towards not on the product, but on the brand itself. In-house
brands are not that robust or widely accepted, but they surely are positioned in the rooms for
improvement; improving quality, exclusivity, trust etc.

Local brand- With less geographical spread, a local brand is customary, usual and
conventional to the ones residing near to its presence. It caters to a diminutive population and
its reach is precarious and in the evolving phase. It may even restrict its established roots to a
particular nation. Some of the local brands like, that have gone international at this date,
Britannia, Amul, Kwality Walls, Haldiram’s, ITC, Kingfisher, Patanjali etc. have introduced
novelties in their own accord and exerted strong influence on consumers with their brand
image, pricing strategies, positioning etc.

Consumer Perception towards Brands

In a country like India, so vast, poised and demanding, brands are solely dependent on
consumer perceptions. They dabble in the opinionated discernment of consumers and their
sustenance. The way a consumer perceives brands is highly fragmented and evaporative.
There is witnessed an immensity of variables that stall the process of perception and/or
vacillate them. For instance; the price levels, price differentiations, accessibility,
advertisements, local cognizance, muddled idea about the locality and region, vagueness of
orientation etc. Challenges, like globalization has pushed and has been pushing consumers to
see local and in-house brands in a limited manner, an approach blinded by foreign brands.
The perception is slipshod and decadent at times. But, on the flipside, many brands have
carved an indelible mark with cunning and desired elements with consummate skills and
repertoire. This study delves further into studying various consumer perceptions and redefine
consumption pattern, consumer involvement, awareness levels etc.

Research Objective
The objective of the research here is to study consumer buying behavior toward In house
brand and to understand the price effect on the buying behavior of consumer. To study the
influence of product services of consumer and to know the influence of product availability
and accessibility on consumer preference is also an important part of the study.

The variables chosen in this research have been picked from study of other researches as well
as newspapers. While looking for literature regarding the consumer perceptions of in-house
brands, five major factors came up as contributors namely, price, accessibility,
advertisements, existing consumer perception and in-house brands. Mostly have been sourced
from studies of Vivekanathan (2010); and Dobson and Chokrobrty (2017).

In this study, the null hypothesis refers to no relation between consumer perception and in-
house brands whereas the alternate hypothesis refers to existence of a relation between
consumer perception and in-house brands.

Literature Review
The following section includes literature review on advertisements, in-house brands, local
brands and consumer perceptions.
Consumer Perception is a tricky business as it can be easily moulded to motivate a particular
preference of a consumer. However, the important question here is not effectiveness of
advertisements but whether all advertisements positively influence the consumer brand
preference? If advertisement is not create any positive change in consumers’ brand
preference, all the resources such as money, time and efforts spent on advertisement will go
in vain. Therefore, it is essential for a marketer to find out the extent to which the
advertisement creates Positive change in preferring the brand of the company
(Vivekananthan, 2010).
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is an approach used by organizations to
Brand and coordinate their communication efforts. The primary idea behind an IMC strategy
is to create a seamless experience for consumers across different aspects of the marketing
mix. The brand's core image and messaging are reinforced as each marketing
Communication channel works together in unity, rather than in isolation. It is therefore
important that companies should not only rely on online marketing but should incorporate it
as a part of IMC strategy so that online marketing can have a wider reach to the customers.
As these tools will help to create credibility and trust about the brand among the consumers
so there will be no question of susceptibility about those brands being endorsed through
online media (Pawar, 2014).
The focus is on the impact of branding on youth in choice of clothing as it is hypothesized
that they are brand conscious. He suggests that brand conscious is the right choice of
clothing, which helps them create an image and identity for themselves. Peer influence plays
a crucial role in their choice of brands as it aids in their socialization process. In addition,
advertising is an important variable in conferring brand values and establishing an image for
the brand. Celebrity endorsements have a huge impact on branded clothing too as they
promote certain attributes like image, quality and status. The researcher recommends that to
retain loyalty of youth, brand managers need to build an emotional attachment to make the
brand special and bring lasting competitive advantage. Additionally, advertising should be
used to not only create awareness but influence brand image and preference. (Fernandez,
2009)
Today's consumer can be characterised as suffering from ‘over choice’ and choice fatigue. As
a consequence, consumers have developed phased decision-making strategies in order to
simplify their decision making. An integral component of these phased decision-making
strategies is the formation of a downsized subset of brands, the consideration set, from which
brand choice is made. Of those brands held within the consideration set, similarities in terms
of brand attributes have prompted brand image as the significant differentiator in facilitating
choice. It is evident that brands must develop an emotional and symbolic attachment with
consumers if they are to succeed in today's highly competitive marketplace. Brand managers
must recognise that it is through the manipulation and moulding of brand image that truly
meaningful differentiation and brand meaning can be achieved (Ballantyne, Waren, Nobbs).
The importance of store brands in fast moving consumer goods marketing has increased
throughout recent years. There are various reasons for this development. Retailers expect
increased store loyalty (Corstjens and Lal, 2000) and to become less dependent on the
national brand manufacturers by using store brands (Mills, 1995; Narasimhan and Wilcox,
1998). Store brands usually lead to higher unit margins and allow the retailer to cover the
“low-price” tier within the range of goods (Pauwels and Srinivasan, 2004). Before a store
brand increases customer loyalty, many steps in the process have to be completed. The
customer must notice the product, develop some kind of interest, try the product the first time,
become satisfied and then develop a preference which creates loyalty to the retailer. During
this process the first trial of a store brand is most critical. Accordingly, from a marketing
perspective, knowledge about
factors influencing the first willingness to buy a new store brand is essential for product
development and positioning.

The following sections include interpretation of statistical data collected via questionnaire
method and conclusions.

Research Methodology

Research design is the overall plan for conducting the research in order to find out the
answers set in the beginning. It attempts to identify the impact of variables on each other and
the research question.

The research conducted is descriptive in nature. The analysis is based on the sample size of
30 respondents chosen through random and convenient sampling methods. Location of data
collection has been centred majorly in Noida as it is a hub of working population and
students, both are very conscious of their purchase patterns and buying decisions which make
them ideal for our research.

The method of collecting data has been questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of
carefully framed question of likert scale which allowed the respondents to rate the relativity
of the questions. It consisted of 20 questions in total with four questions on each variable.
 The variables chosen for the study and on which the questions has been designed are - price,
accessibility, advertisement, in-house brands and consumer perception.

Data Interpretation

TABLE - I
Descriptive Statistics
Std.
Mean Deviation N
MEANINHOUS 3.3533 .79600 30
E
MEANACCESS 3.4467 1.03815 30
MEANCP 3.4778 .84728 30
MEANADS 3.4417 .83996 30
MEANPRICE 3.7778 1.91452 30

For interpreting the data, the questions of each variable, i.e., in-house brands, price, accessibility,
advertisements and consumer perception, were clubbed together to calculate, mean and standard deviation
of the variables. The above table shows the descriptive statistics of this study. In this study, we have taken
in-house brands as dependent variable and price, accessibility, consumer perception and advertisements as
independent variable.

TABLE - II
Correlations
MEANINHOU MEANACCES MEANC MEANAD MEANPRIC
SE S P S E
Pearson MEANINHOUSE 1.000 .697 .699 .671 .249
Correlation MEANACCESS .697 1.000 .436 .794 .243
MEANCP .699 .436 1.000 .517 .146
MEANADS .671 .794 .517 1.000 .231
MEANPRICE .249 .243 .146 .231 1.000
Sig. (1-tailed) MEANINHOUSE . .000 .000 .000 .092
MEANACCESS .000 . .008 .000 .098
MEANCP .000 .008 . .002 .221
MEANADS .000 .000 .002 . .110
MEANPRICE .092 .098 .221 .110 .
N MEANINHOUSE 30 30 30 30 30
MEANACCESS 30 30 30 30 30
MEANCP 30 30 30 30 30
MEANADS 30 30 30 30 30
MEANPRICE 30 30 30 30 30

From the above table we have interpreted the relation between five variables namely, in-
house brands, advertisement, price, accessibility and consumer perceptions according to the
responses of 30 customers.
Through Table I, it can be interpreted that there exists a positive relationship between in-
house brand sand accessibility as they are highly significant i.e., significance level is 0.000.
Similarly, there exists a positive relationship between in-house brands and advertisements as
the significance level is less than 0.01. This indicates highly significance data. This however,
contradicts the study of Vivekanathan (2010)
However, the significance level is .092 correlation test of in-house brands and price variables.
This implies, the relationship in not significant, as a result, we accept the null hypothesis.

Variables B T F R R square

Accessibility .308 2.162 13.625 .828 .686

Cp .436 3.534 13.625 .828 .686

Ads 0.93 .507 13.625 .828 .686

Price .026 .532 13.625 .828 .686

From the above table it can be seen that. the B value for Accessibility is (.308), Beta value is
(0.401) , the t value is (2.162), for consumer perception B value (0.436) , Beta value (0.464)
For Advertisement B value (.093) ,Beta value (.099) for Price B value (.026) Beta value
(.062)
r value is (0.828), R square value is (0.686) indicating the variability of the response data
around the mean and the F value is (13.625). From the table it can be seen that R square value
shows 68.6% of variance .The p value indicates test all intercept and variable are highly
significant at 0.01 level as p value except price.

Conclusion

The objective of the study is to analyse the consumer perception towards in-house brands in
relation to price, accessibility and advertisements.

The result depicts that there exists a positive relation between accessibility and in-house
brands as the significance level is .000. If a significance level is below .05, there is a positive
relation as the correlation is highly significant.

This attests to the findings of previous researchers. Consumers are often attracted to brands
whose outlets are easily accessible. Since the research conducted was limited to area of
Noida which has large concentration of malls and shopping complexes, parking and multiple
modes of transport to reach the outlets are significant factors that affect the store traffic.

Additionally, our tests attested to the results of previous studies by Vivekanathan (2010) and
Pawar (2014). The significance level is .000 i.e., highly significant. Therefore, there exists a
positive relationship between advertisement and in-house brands. The use of integrated
marketing communication to enhance the brand image of any company increases the
consciousness of brand amongst the perception of consumers.

To comprehend the significance of price in affecting the consumer perception towards in-
house brands, an analysis of regression was conducted and the results imply the acceptance of
null hypothesis (no relation between price and in-house brands). As dependent variable in-
house brand showed no change whatsoever in respect to in-house brands, since the
significance level came out to be .092 which is greater than .05.

This research has been conducted based on the sample of 30 respondents in Noida. These
respondents were selected conveniently on the basis of their purchasing behaviour. Since the
research is descriptive research in nature, therefore there are certain limitations to it. Firstly,
the sample is restricted to a particular location. Additionally the sample is restricted to only
30 respondents and hence, generalisation is based on that.

The results reinforce the change in marketing strategies from price as major motivator to
facilities and accessibility as major motivators.

Managerial Implications

Given the current scenario of constantly changing consumer preferences and ‘over choice’,
it’s becoming more important for the brands to analyse and understand the major implicators
that influence the demand for their products amongst the consumers. Such information allows
the marketers to develop a more targeted approach towards their customers.

Even though, India is a price conscious society, the increasing work culture has led to change
in the perception of customers. The new age working population are well funded and hence,
have turned their attention towards additional facilities offered by these brands like easy
accessibility, catchy advertisements and online services.

References

● V. Vivekananthan, 2010, A Study on influence of advertisement in Consumer Brand

Preference
● P. W. Dobson and R. Chakraborty, 2017, How do National Brands and Store Brands Compete?
● http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/brand.html
● J. Beneke, 2010, Consumer Perception of private label brands within the retail grocery sector
of South Africa, African Journal of Business Management, vOL. 4(2), PP. 203-220, February
2010.
● https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/brand
● A. V. Pawar, 2014, Study of the effectiveness of online marketing on integrated marketing
communication
● M. Goyal and J. Sharma, 2014, Effect of Advertisement on the Brand Preference,
International Journal of Research in Advent Technology, Special Issue National Conference.
● H. Fernandez, 2009, A Study of Consumer Perception of Youth towards Branded Fashiion
Apparel