Understanding the Interplay Between Consumers’ Preference for Ethical Attributes, Choice of Brand, and Quality Shopping Frequency

Retail owned private label brands (PLBs) have in recent years gained an increased interest in food retailing at the expense of national brands (NBs). PLBs are consumer products that are distributed exclusively by a retailer and carry the retailer’s name, whereas NBs are brands of consumer products that are owned and marketed by manufacturers. This research sheds light on the moderating influence of consumers’ quality shopping frequency (QSF) (i.e., the frequency with which consumers patronage low vs. high quality stores) on the interplay between ethical attributes preference, economic value preference, and NB vs. PLB buying propensity. Based on a survey with representativeness of the studied marketplace we found that QSF positively moderated the relationship between ethical attributes preference and PLB and NB buying propensity. This indicates that high quality retailers benefit to a greater extent from targeting consumers with high ethical attributes preferences. For consumers with high QSF, we found that the indirect effect of ethical attributes preference on PLB buying propensity through value preference was negative, whereas no significant effect was detected for NB buying propensity. Hence, high quality store managers focusing on attracting consumers with high levels of ethical preferences may consider reducing the proportion of low cost PLBs in the stores.