Factors influencing consumer purchasing behaviour of store brands in South Africa

Abstract

Store brands have been prominent in the United States and Europe for many years. Retailers introduced store brands to achieve greater margin and improve store patronage. The strategy behind the brands has always been to use price as the main differentiator. These products have entered the South African market and the two leading retailers, Pick n Pay and Checkers, have introduced them in a wide array of categories. South African consumers seem to be adopting the new brands as easily as any other brand. There was a need to understand the factors that influenced these consumers to purchase store brands. A questionnaire was designed with the aim of determining consumers‟ demographic profiles and the factors that influence their purchasing behaviour. This questionnaire was targeted at two sets of consumers; 109 consumers who included store brands in their shopping baskets and 100 consumers who only purchased manufacturer brands. This study, using factors identified by Richardson, Jain and Dick (1996) in the United States of America (USA) market, aims to identify whether these factors influence South African consumers in their purchase store brands. The study also attempts to understand the difference in the consumers‟ behaviour when purchasing store brands versus purchasing manufacturer brands. The factors were identified using factor analysis and the difference between the behaviour of manufacturer and store brand consumers was analysed through Normal Distribution Fitting Algorithm. The findings of the research identified that South African consumers are influenced by factors such as brand familiarity, extrinsic cues, perceived quality, perceived risk and perceived value for money. These factors are basically similar to the factors that Richardson et al (1996) founded in their research. However, most of the factors did not have a different influence on the behaviour of consumers who purchased store brands versus consumers who purchased manufacturer brands.