Consumer attitude towards store brands

The consumption of store brands is increasing in the European Union. In Spa in it represents 12.4% of the total food shopping. In order to understand t his phenomenon better a consumer study was undertaken using 610 consumers f rom all over Catalonia. The consumers filled in a questionnaire made up of 32 questions based on a simplified model of the Theory of Reasoned Action o f Fishbein and Ajzen. The components included in the model were Past Behavi our (2 questions), Attitudes (5 questions), Beliefs (9 questions) and their Evaluations, simplified Neophobia/Neophilia scale (4 questions) and the im portance of the special offers. The salient beliefs were obtained from two previous focus groups: one group of professionals and one group of consumer s. The results obtained showed a good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha coefficient) in all the multi-item components of the model except for the b eliefs. A non-unitary structure of beliefs was detected, although it does n ot represent a serious problem since consumers do not necessarily have to s how consistent beliefs. Most consumers believe that store brands are reliab le, different from the brands of the manufacturer and are good value for mo ney. Their quality perception depends on the store, and in general, when th e price is the same, the brand of the manufacturer is chosen in accordance with its higher quality image. In several components of the model a clear c onsumer segmentation was observed depending on the sex of the consumer. In general, women showed a more positive attitude towards store brands than me n. Beliefs were bad predictors of attitude, probably due to their non-unita ry structure. The most important component in the model predicting behaviou ral intention was attitude, special offers also being a significant factor. Based on the results obtained, it seems that consumers have clear beliefs about store brands, but probably at the supermarket they will behave in way s that do not necessarily correspond with their beliefs. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.