The Rise of Premium Private Label Brands in Grocery Retailing: Qualitative Insights from Young German Consumers

In the retailing world, private label brands (PLBs) are gaining growing attention. Own brands bring numerous advantages from the perspective of the grocery retailer, as well as from the consumer side. More specifically, premium PLBs are currently rising stars among various types of private labels. Existing literature on the topic focuses mainly on the overall role of PLBs while not distinguishing between their different types. However, for retailers to benefit most from the premium PLBs, it is vital to understand how consumers perceive the premium type within the category of PLBs in general. By conducting 14 in-depth semi-structured interviews with young German consumers, our research seeks to explore their reasons to buy generic PLBs versus premium PLBs. Results show that premium PLBs are perceived differently from general PLBs and bought for contrary reasons. The findings shed light on the importance of differentiating between various types of PLBs. Overall, this study could help marketers to better understand how to successfully expand the assortment of premium PLBs and therefore to profit the most from the use of this particular type of PLBs.