Private labels: The brands of the future

This dissertation consists of three essays that study private labels’ evolution from private labels as brand class to individual private-label brands from three different perspectives. In the second chapter of this dissertation (essay 1), I study the antecedents and performance implications of retailer’s decisions whether to attach their name to a private-label tier or develop a stand-alone brand name. In the third chapter (essay 2), mirroring the contention that it “is easier to build equity in a single brand,” I study retailers’ occasional practice of rebranding private-label tiers from multiple, category-specific private labels to one umbrella brand across product categories and its effects on the brand’s strength, marketing effectiveness as well as the marketing-mix setting (marketing conduct). Finally, in the fourth chapter (essay 3), I document retailers’ increasing practice to launch more and more unique private label SKUs, historically a forte of national brands, and assess to what extent unique new private label SKUs help in growing a category vis-à-vis unique new national brand SKUs.