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Firstly, we would like to express our gratitude to our supervisor Mr Magnus Linderstrm who has beenconstantly giving us helpful advices and orientation during our thesis process.
Secondly, we would like to thank ICA Skrapan Manager and ICA Private Label Manager for their sincereparticipations in the interviews; and thank for our 226 respondents who spent their time fill out thesurveys.
Finally, we are thankful to our families and friends for their sincere supports during this period. We alsowould like to thank our opponents and group mates for all the constructive criticism andrecommendations that helped us to develop and improve our research.`
Table of content1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Background ................................................................................................................................ 1
3. Methodology ......................................................................................................................................................... 21 3.1 Choice of the topic ................................................................................................................... 21
5. Conclusions............................................................................................................................................................ 63 5.1 Conclusion of the study .......................................................................................................... 63
6. Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................................... 66 Reference from interviews ................................................................................................................ 71
1. Introduction This section comprises a brief description of consumer behaviour, private label, research topic area, ICA super market. Then it continues with problem definition, purpose of the study, strategic question, target groups and delimitations.
1.1. Background 1.1.1. Consumer behaviour Nowadays companies are more concerned on individual consumer behavior. It helps them to yield information about how the consumers think, feel and choose their products. Every individual is consumer. Consumer behavior is the study of the processes involved when individual or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of the product, service, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires ( Michael R.Solomon, 1998, p. 31). The expand view of consumer embrace much more than the study of why and what consumer buy, but also focuses on how marketer influence consumers and how consumers use the products and services.
Customers are in a tough spot. Individuals have exposed to different window of information and varieties of products; many great deal of choices and options available in the market place impulse their purchase decision. However the interpretation and decision making is different among individuals and also influenced by internal consumer behavior (perception, altitude, and motivation) and external factors (family roles, peer influence and group influence).
Supermarket is one of an interesting area for the study where features of consumer behavior can easily be seen. Focusing on food products, which are needed by the consumers in daily basis, give the impression that the consumers have little thought in purchasing than other product like cloths, mobile phones and cars. Nevertheless, consumers are exposed to variety of food product types which is diversified in price, quality, packages and size. While a person does his shopping on a typical Sunday morning, he enters the local super market with a basket on hands, scans for a cereal box, he grabs one, checks out the box carefully, puts it back to the shelf; eventually, he/she picks up the other box lies next to it; it takes him two seconds... So, what persuade shoppers on randomly or intentionally selecting food products? What decide them to buy or not to buy? The study of consumer behavior will help to explain such type of buying behavior. Furthermore consumer and buyer behavior is in fact an ongoing process,
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not merely indicates the interaction between consumers and producers at the time of purchase but it includes various stages in the consumption process: pre purchase issue, purchase issues and post purchase issues. (Solomon, 2013, p. 32)
There are two perspectives on consumer research should be discussed, which are two type of approaches: Positivist approach and Interpretivist approach. Whilst positive approach( sometimes called modernism) emphasizes that human reason is supreme and there is a single, objective truth that science can discover; in interpretivism approach( or so-called postmodernism) , the interpretivist emphasizes the important of symbolic, subjective experience and the idea that meaning is in the mind of the person- in other word individuals construct their own meanings base on individuals own unique and shared cultural experiences, therefore there is no right or wrong answers. More importantly, research relationship in interpretivist approach focuses on interactive, cooperative with researcher being part of phenomenon under study. (Solomon, 2013)
Having own brands means that we can sell equivalent products for a lower price and still have a better margin. In addition we have control over our products. We decide on their content and it is we who handle their marketing, not the manufacturers (Dagens Industri 97-05-17).
The concept of national brands, private labels and or store brand is on the rise among retailers. And they are like never before constantly fighting in the fierce battles in the hope of gaining and keeping their market shares. This encourages retailers to take actions in attempts to minimize cannibalization, to develop their own competitive advantages. They strive, by practical practices, building different image and customer perceptions of the brand, pricing, or launching their own brands as the fact is, PLBs can be far more profitable than selling nationally advertised brand:
Retailers have now recognized that a supermarket need not be just a place to buy a selection of brands. Instead the shop itself, its locations, its atmosphere, the service it offers, the range of goods and prices, can become the brand and retailers can begin to extract the benefits which investment in branding can
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bring. The value which the store name acquires can be transferred to a range of goods which themselves reinforce the image of the store Terry Lehay (1992) cited by (Hkansson).
It is of importance to mention that there are several alternative words for private labels like own brand or Distributor Own Brands (DOB),retailer brands, wholesaler brands. While those words are in use to refer to the fact that the products are branded in the same way as that of the manufacturers, the word private label seems to be good choice of word, indicates the aspiring creation rather than merely placing the name on the products to obtain consumer recognition. Store brands are also known as own brand, house brand or private label brands (Collins-Dodd, C.,& Lindley,T., 2003) . In this thesis, the term PLBs is chosen intentionally, implying one specific retailers private label brand.
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While retailers launch higher valued add products on 3rd and 4th generations for the purposes of enhancing their image and competing with brand leaders, the 1st and 2nd generations, lower price product, are still remaining in their brand portfolios(* see Appendix-1, PLBs) .Food retailers want to cover other segments and compete with other retailers who provide cheaper alternatives.
ICA supermarket chains back to the time before 2011 was distributors of first generation private label named Euro shopper. However, the brand available in 16 countries did not receive much positive perception from Swedish consumers, except its low price, and there is no doubt that suspicious Swedish consumers questioned the origin and quality of these products .That prompted the company take action and developed new brand to replace its distributor products on their shelf space. The emergence of replacement ICA Basics, up till now has been two years. It is realized that, ICA has been taking different approach in developing this sub-brand, which can be seen in their attempts of advertising first time launched the products, and building brand strategies. First generation of PLBs in this case is not merely cheap products unbranded; it is however, considered as an umbrella brand among the retailer brand portfolios.
Several studies carried out such as PLBs in premium PLBs, PLB first generation in association with brand equity through the rebranding process. Nevertheless there is no specific study with respect to first generation PLBs food investigating insightful perceptions and purchase decision of consumers of this PLB in Sweden.
This thesis will aim at investigating the perception and attitude of consumers toward this first generation private label, which was taken over by the well-known national retailer.
Provide contributions to the company to gain better insights into customer mind and possibility to evaluate their PLB; also, the findings help to provide suggestions for product development opportunities.
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The use of online survey enabled the authors to attain larger number of reachable respondents in efficiently in short amount of time. Besides the advantages: quick responses received and convenient, yet online survey results comprise both completed and partial completed responses. For that reason, it was decided by the authors that each questions should treated individually and analysis was based on the total number or responses received on each question. For the purpose of comparison, only completed answers were chosen to be filtered, which assures the comparison is valid and reduces non- response bias.
Time constraint also limited the authors utilizing statistical supported analysis tool to analyze the relationships might have between variables such as price-risk perception of PLB; nevertheless the authors made use of built-in analysis tool provided by surveymonkey.com, which being considered a prominent service helping many business enterprises in undertaking market researches nowadays. It allows to provide exact numerical data in every survey questionnaire, facilitates comprehensive visual figures illustrated the amount of answers in each question, each choosing option within each question
Though responses might be limited in numbers due to the time frame restriction, it is believed that the data obtained from the survey with ICA Basic consumers combined with secondary data collection from blogs, forums, and company website; with supports by qualitative data performed through two interviews with ICA managers who shown their interest and willingness to participate in this research, all are rich sources of information; that allowed the authors to make necessary analysis in respect to the purpose study, investigating consumer buying decision and perception to the PLB and examine these consumers mindset .
Lastly, the study only focuses on ICA Basic food product because assortment across different categorizes possess dissimilar attributes.
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This thesis considered various variables referred by the aforementioned researchers and examined possible relations within them in order find out consumer behavior toward the low price PLBs of food retailer.
(perceived value, perceived quality and perceived risk) whereas extrinsic cue are product relatedattributes (brand, perceived price, advertisement and WOM), (Collins-Dodd & Lindley, 2003) , (Siti &Pan) and (Richardson,P.S,Jain,A.K and Dick ,A, 1996). Understanding these variables is important for thisstudy since they have a significant influence on buying behavior.
The aforementioned aspects supporting this study are illustrated in the following figure:
DEMOGRAPHIC Perceived Economic Situation Age
Satisfaction Dissatisfaction
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2.3 Branding This study has adopted the brand concepts and brand-related theories in order to analyze the impacts of brand on consumer attitudes and purchase decisions in relation to PLBs; as the fact is brand is one of essential aspects of extrinsic cues contributes significantly to consumer attitudes and their eventual purchase intention.
In the book Theoretical of branding Kotler specifies that brands add dimension to products and thereby enable differentiation/distinction from other products that are designed to satisfy the same need. Brand attribute comprises functional and emotional association to which assigned by its consumer. For that reason brand attribute can be either negative or positive and can have different degrees of relevance and importance to different customer segments, markets and cultures (Brand glossary ).
There are three brand strategies can be identified: Family brand name (also known as umbrella branding), Individual brand name, and combination brand name (Jobber & Fahy, p. 136). Family brand name indicates the brand name is used for all products, whereas individual brand name does not identify a brand with a particular company. The combination of these two brand building strategy: the family name of the company and individual brand will facilitate capitalizing on the company reputation and allows individual brand name become distinguishable and identifiable (Jobber & Fahy, p. 137)
On the other hand, Perrey & Spillecke(2013) stated that the umbrella brand name is often the retailbrand itself umbrella brand strategy is also used as a PLB name with a supplement or descriptiveattribute that explain the sub-brands; thereby the image and value proposition of the umbrella brand istransferred to PLB products. Umbrella brand strategy is efficient tool because umbrella brand can havecertain impact on product brand and vice versa. For that reason, this strategy is recommended if thecorporation umbrella brand is strong and its position is relevant in the particular chosen PL productsegments (Perrey & Spillecke, Retail Marketing and Branding: A Definitive Guide to Maximizing ROI,2013). Many retailers make use of their retail brands as the umbrella brands labeled for their third andfourth generation of PLBs; and they do not compel themselves to include brand names on all PLBs, butinstead using different brand for their value range. This implementation aims to protect the retail brandfrom any discount association might evoke and effect on the retail- brand (Perrey & Spillecke, RetailMarketing and Branding: A Definitive Guide to Maximizing ROI, 2013)
Considering two concepts: brand extensions and umbrella brand strategy, the writers of this studydefined a PLBs of supermarkets can be considered as a brand extension or a sub-brand under theumbrella brand (master brand- corporate brand).
Brand from the corporation perspectives is of great importance because it plays the integral role inmarketing strategy and is considered as the most valuable tangible assets of the corporation. Brandtherefore is realized to be of top most management priority. On the other hand, to the consumers, abrand manifests its impact as an identifier: it enables them to identify the source of the product (fromwhere and what distributor or producer the product is from) and which in turn assigns legalresponsibility to the product maker. Hence, the brand, in other word provides a promise or bondbetween the buyers and the makers of the products (O'Cass, Aron;Grace, Debra, 2003). Moreover,consumers receive direct benefits from brands, both in term of economic and symbolic value. It isbecause brand signals the quality of product, engender or increase consumer trust, and reduce theirperceived risk as well as time and effort put into switching/searching costs. In the following sections,different dimensions of brand are discussed which are found to be relevant for the study of PLBs:
result, strong brand equity on the particular market is a strategic tool to improve brand image (Kata &Linda, 2012). As aforementioned, a strong brand have advantages when implementing umbrellabranding strategy .The previous study by Aaker(1996) provided the entire approach to measure brandequity. Nevertheless, for the purpose of this research, it is relevant to examine the dimension of brandassociation in detailed. Other components of brand equity except for brand familiarity, will not bementioned in this part, alternatively, dimensions from consumer perspectives such as perceived quality,brand awareness, perceived price, perceived risk will be discussed in the further upcoming sections.
Brand association, part of brand equity can be measured by three perspectives: The brand-as product(value), the brand personality and the brand-as-organization (organizational associations). It is realizedthat understanding the organizational association aspect is relevant for this study. Aaker(1996) in hisstudy identifies that brand-as organization perspective considers the organization as the whole (people,value, and programs) those lie behind the brand. The corporate brand can play an important role and itcan represent something beyond merely being known by its products or services.
Consumers buy products or services that meet their need and demand. Nevertheless, the reputationand positive practices by the producers are also what they concern. This is the reason whyorganizational associations is essential, which include the concern of customers, being innovative,striving for high quality, being successful, being visibility , being oriented toward the community( (Aaker,1996). It was denoted that there are some scales to evaluate this attribute such as The brand is madeby an organization that I (consumer) would trust or An organization associated with this brand hascredibility.
heard about brand X?. (Aaker, 1996)This method reflects the level at which brand is represented inconsumer mind and it is suitable to evaluate consumer recognition of the PLBs in this study.
Individual develop meaning and association with some grocery products because of the utility andtrust/emotional satisfaction certain pack type evoke. Brands help individuals to perceive the productsdifferently (Fill, 2002). Brand familiarity is extent of information available about the brand that makes aconsumer confident to buy the product. The more familiar the consumers are with the brand the lessperceived risk. (Baltas, 1997)
Likewise brand purchasing decisions have positive influence on customers confidence (Erdem1998).Brand familiarity increase brand proneness by decreasing perceived risk or perceived qualityvariation. Consumer those are not familiar with PLB evaluate the product by extrinsic cues, which areprice and packaging style (Richardson, P.S,Jain,A.K and Dick ,A, 1996). There are different levels of brandfamiliarity which were appeared to be relevant for this study and chosen to be presented. They are(Roach K. ):
Brand insistence: the highest level of brand loyalty, no other brands can be alternatives for loyal, favorite brand Brand preference: when consumer has favorite brand but will occasionally accept substitutes Brand recognition: when consumer remembers a brand name but know nothing else about the product Brand rejection: when consumers recognize a brand, or even familiar with, but refuse to buy it
It is no doubt that high level of familiarity is desirable and beneficial because it facilitates purchasedecision process and increase consumers confidence and trust .Brand familiarity reflects the extent thatconsumers direct or indirect experience with a brand. (Alba and Huchinson,1987;Kend and Allen 1994)cited by (Campbell & Keller, 2003). It was also stated brand familiarity enable to capture consumersbrand knowledge, brand association that existed in consumers memory. Products advertised might befamiliar with certain consumers but to many others, those product might be unfamiliar either becausethey are new to the market place or because consumers have not yet been expose to the brand(Steward,1992) cited by (Campbell & Keller, 2003).
WOM is may be positive (PWOM), encouraging brand choice or negative(NWOM), discouraging brandchoice (Robert East,Kathy Hammond,Wendy Lomax, 2008). WOM however, is not a marketingcommunication tool to be manipulated by marketers like advertising and sale promotions. Yet, it is animportant tool to affect some consumer responses (Sundaram, acrwebsite.org). It is believed that
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besides advertising, WOM can affect brand familiarity of PLBs .The findings by Sundaram also showed that the impact of word-of-mouth (WOM) on brand evaluations (purchase intentions and brand attitudes) is moderated by brand familiarity. The sources of WOM can be friends/families or social media, press
Undoubtedly, advertising and WOM (friends/family, social media, press) can improve or influence familiarity; nevertheless, the most influential source is consumers direct experience that overtime will accumulate into individuals own perception about the brand.
2.4 Perceptions Perception is a process of how individual see and make sense of their environment. It is about the selection, organization and interpretation of stimuli by individual (Fill, 2002). Outside stimuli is selected, sorted and interpreted into a coherent picture of the world around us. If two individual expose the same stimuli and same condition, their response will be different depending on the way they interpret and perceive the stimuli. This is because the way we select , sort and interpret stimuli is grounded and governed by our needs, expectation, value, which are quite unique to each individual (Schiffman, Kanuk, Hansen, 2012).
Kotler defines perception as the process by which people select, organize and interpret information form a meaningful picture of the world. Thereby whenever a consumer buys a product it is depend on the perception they have on that particular product.
In the following sections perceived price, perceived quality and perceived value will be discussed.
According to Hoch & Banerji (1993) economic recession have impact on PLB buying behavior when income decreases consumers become price consciousness and shift their preferences to private label brands rather than choosing national brands .Consumers who prefer to buy more PLBs than national brand are price conscious. Zeithaml (1998) also mentioned PLB buyers are price seekers-those who look for low price, as a result, for some consumers having inexpensive product means achieving high value.
On the contrary, some consumers might associate low price with low quality. Those consumers whothink price is an indicator of quality and companies might reduce the quality of the product to minimizethe cost. Thus, to them the higher price is a signal of a better quality (Bao.Y,Y and sheng ,S , 2011) .Moreover consumers relate price and quality with self-esteems. The increase in quality content and thehigher price has a positive relation with our self-esteems. If the economic situation is good for all,majority want to eat high quality food (forum, 2011).
Zeithaml (1988) expresses price-quality relationship in association of 5 factors. First factor believed as allthe informations the consumers perceive through advertisements and brand reputation has power onpurchasing decision than price of the product. The second factor explains consumers who are not awareabout price they do not use price as a quality reference. Third factors, consumers who have lessknowledge about the quality of the product use extrinsic cue such as price, brand name and package tobuy the product. Fourth factor, some consumers use price as a signal of higher quality but when there isa price variation on the assortment of products for a tiny quality difference the consumers preferproducts with lesser price.
Private label products price, particularly first generation PLBs is relatively lesser than the nationalproducts. Private brand buyers are those who look for low price, therefore they are not stable, theyswitch every time they gate a lower price (Baltas, 1997).According to Schiffman (2013) price perceptionhas strong influence on purchase intention of PLBs .However if the consumer is uncertain about thequality of the product the less effect it has on the buying behavior (Urbany, J. E., Bearden, W. O.,Kaicker, A., Borrero, M. S. D. , 1997).
Richard (1996) defined perceived quality in terms of consumer judgment of intrinsic attributes (taste,ingredients, nutrition value and overall quality (Bellizzi et al 1981; cunnungham et al 1992). According toCollins (2003) consumer evaluates the quality in association of extrinsic and intrinsic cue. Intrinsic cue is
the perception of quality through physical characteristic of the product (color, size, flavor or aroma)while extrinsic cues are attributes which have some relations with the product (package, price,advertising and peer pressure). Because extrinsic cues are more familiar with customers, based on thiscues it is easier for them to evaluate the products.
Quality of PLB might be seen in to two dimensions these are the level of quality relative to the nationalbrand and variability. National brands are produced in high technology and sophisticated process whilePLBs are produced in less technology and unsophisticated process this will diffuse the quality variability.(Hoch & Banerji, 1993, p. 99).The variability in product creates perception difference among individuals.According to Richardson (1996) private labels are risker than the national brands because higher productvariability and lower quality makes consumer to be unsatisfied. Thus price- quality became an importantfactor for the success of retailers and PLBs must meet at least the standard of the company ("NSF'sPrivate Label Assurance") . If the PLBs are as good as the national brand perception value is increasedwhile if the PLBs are inferior in quality, value of perception towards the PLBs will be less (Paul s., Trun K.,& Alan, 1996).
According to Richardson (1996), quality perception determines consumer proneness to buy a privatebrand. However, product quality comparison assessment is evaluated by the consumers not by thecompanies. Sometimes consumers give higher value to lower attributes (Richardson,P.S,Jain,A.K andDick ,A, 1996). In addition to that, consumer perception of quality change over time as a result of addedinformation. For that reason, marketers must track perception through product align and promotionstrategies (Zeithaml, 1988, p. 18).
Financial risk: implies the monetary cost that loss from the poor purchase choice, might result from inadequate or unfamiliar brand. (Yusuf, Fatih, & Hayrettin, 2013). Functional risk: Implies uncertainty that the products will not meet the customers expectation. Physical risk: The consumers concern that the product will harm their physical health. Social risk (psychological risk): Risk that associated with image or status, it takes into account that the degree of society influences on customers purchasing decision. Some researcher mentions that those consumers who buy national brand might feel higher status than PLBs.
L Perceived Price H
Perceived Risk H L
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Perceived value defined in terms of four attributes. That is value is low price, value is whatever I want in the product, value is quality I get from the product and value is what I get when I give. These attributes were summarized and eventually the concept of perceived value is defined as the consumers overall assessment of the utility of the product based on what is given and what is received. However these two factors are different among each individual consumer (Zeithaml, 1988, p. 14).
There is a relationship between perceived value, price quality and risk. Consumer may use price as an indicator of quality, this create price-quality relationship. If price used in the role price has a positive relation with perceived value and intention (Monika Kukar, Nancy M, & Kent B, 2012, p. 65). And also the difference in price among products creates perceived value (Kanagal). As the price of the product increases (within the price range set by individual consumer), perception of value increases to some extent. On the contrary perception of value will decrease if the price is beyond the price range set by the consumer (William b Dodds, Kent B. Monroe,Dhruv greval, 1991).
Consumers consider the product quality and the price before their final decision of purchasing. If the product is unacceptable to pay for, the perceive value is less (William b Dodds, Kent B. Monroe,Dhruv greval, 1991).As aforementioned, PLBs are lesser in price. For some consumers price is an indicator of quality as the result they might think it is risky to buy PLBs products. This might persuades consumers to give less value for the PLB product whereas they can give higher value for national brands.
Consumers assess the benefits they receive for what they sacrifices in order to get satisfaction (Slater, pp 162-167).Satisfaction measure value of the product ,some researcher think value is superior to satisfaction and other explain if the consumer are satisfied, they perceive high value.
Satisfaction is important in creating desirable consumer outcomes for manufacturers and retailers. Hence, it is necessary to measure satisfaction. Aaker(1996) pointed out that the way to measure satisfaction is based on the existing customers those who have experienced the product or service within a certain time frame. The focus can be on their perceived experience from the last use or their point of view from the whole experience. Simply, it is about to figure out the post purchase attitudes by
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asking such questions like Are you/or Do you feel satisfy/dissatisfy/or delight with the product you buy during the last use of experience? We believe that this type of question appears to be suitable for the purpose of this study in evaluating the degree of satisfaction post-consumption.
2.6 Attitude Attitude is considered as key concept on consumer behavior that was defined as set of beliefs, experience and feelings forming a predisposition to act in a given direction (Chandon Jean-Louis, 2011) . Attitude in other research is defined as the consumer total evaluation of the product (Rao, 2010) . Fishbein and Ajzen cited by (Chandon Jean-Louis, 2011) denoted that attitude has an influence on purchase intention and consumer behavior because it has basic psychological function.
Consumers those who prone to PLBs are focus on minimizing cost disregards of other factors, being low price are a key factor to perceive a positive attitude towards PLBs. In recent years private labels are growing in the retailing industries and consumers are increasing and start to concern about the quality. For this reason several researcher mentions the balancing of price and quality has a relation for creating
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consumers positive attitude. Furthermore, if satisfaction from the last purchase is derived, consumers will frequently shop the product and become familiar with it. Once familiarity is archived, the perception of risk reduces; consequently, positive attitude towards PLBs is generated. Consumers who have a positive attitude towards the brand have a positive impact on PLBs products. A positive attitude towards the private label leads to purchase intention, that is the more favorable the consumers are towards the brand the more it has impact on purchasing power (Anas Hidayat ,Ayu Hema Ajeng Diwasasri, 2013).Therefore it is important to mention that attitudes are formed not only as a result of prior direct experience with the products, but also attitude are formed and be influenced by extrinsic factors such as WOM or from other sources such as advertising.
Many consumer researchers make use of the model of Multi Attribute Attitude Model by Fishbein; in which three models are included: Attitude toward object model, Attitude toward behavioral model and the theory of Reasoned Action. It is considered necessary to discuss two types of attitudes in this study which are attitude toward object model and attitude toward behavioral model:
Attitude toward object model measures consumers attitude toward a service, product, and price or towards an organization such as brand. Attitude toward behavior model, on the other hand, measures the consumers attitude toward behaving in accordance to the object rather than attitude toward the object itself. That is a consumer might have a positive attitude toward the brand but a negative attitude towards purchasing expensive product (Schiffman & Kanuk 2004). Attitude behavior is a function of how strongly individual believes that the action will lead to specific outcome (either favorable or unfavorable) (rainbowlink, 2011).These behaviors are learned and developed through experience (Kumar, 2009). Both attitude towards the object and attitude towards behavior are a predictor of behavioral intention (Zhang).2.7 Intention Purchase intention is a planned behavior that a consumer willing to buy certain product (Ajzen, 1992). There is a relationship between brand image and purchase intention. Advisement is a major factor to increase brand image on consumer, for that reason some companies use different kind of advertisement stimuli to capture purchase intention. Consumers who are influenced by advertisement shift their interests to the other brand which advertises the products (Hashim & Muhammad , 2013). Moreover consumers who purchase the brand frequently resist switching to other brand. Jean-Louse (2011) mentioned that consumers intend to purchase the PLB because they think they have the right price- quality relation. Consumers who are satisfied with the product will have a positive attitude towards the
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brand and later have impact on purchase intention. Because there is a relation between attitude and purchase intention if the consumers have a positive attitude towards the brand it will increase purchase intention and actual purchase (Byoungho & Yong, 2005)
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3. Methodology In this chapter, the methodological research employed for this dissertation is presented and explained in details.
Afterward, the authors went through several literature concerning consumer behaviors .Information was gathered by investigating in depth the study area through books borrowed from Mlardalens University s library and through internet databases. In order to acquire insightful knowledge about this field, discussion was conducted with a former lecturer holding course of consumer behavior. By receiving valuable and helpful recommendation form the lecturer, combine with efforts of reviewing books, articles, electronic sources related to the study subject, the authors confidently came to decide to form research question. Some critical initial concepts were employed to develop the theoretical framework draft, including the concepts of intrinsic cues (perception) and extrinsic cues (Brand), attitude, and intention. Later on, The researchers of this study made a deep investigation about current position of all available information could be found associated with the chosen PLB( such as advertising and WOM ); these factors were added . Lastly, pre study comprised short interviews with five ICA and ICA Basic consumers about the PLB and their opinions post purchase did aspired the authors to include the satisfaction/dissatisfaction aspects into the theoretical framework . At this stage was fully developed after going back and forth the key concepts, and after acquiring suggestions of peer reviews.
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guides research) or the reverse - inductive approach (theory is an outcome of research). This thesis follow deductive process that is existing knowledge and theories will be used to explain certain phenomena .From the theoretical framework the study expect to find out reasonable factors that influence buying behavior of low price PLBs food products. The fact is more than one method employed in the development of measures will result in greater confidence in findings. Webb et al.(1966) cited by (Bryman & Bell, Business Research Method, 2011) ;for that reason both qualitative and quantitative approach will be used to collect the data for this study . Qualitative data is subjective whereas quantitative collection of data through numerical (Bryman & Bell, 2010) .Qualitative data collection help to understand consumer behavior on the other hand quantitative approach help to measure consumer behavior. A combination of these two methods is called Triangulation.3.3 Data collection 3.3.1 Secondary data Secondary data used for this research were collected from various sources including relevant books borrowed from Mlardalens University library, previous researches, Journals, scientific Articles and other sources on internet such as ICA homepage, annual report, forums, and blogs and so on. The data base utilized in this thesis was providing by Mlardalens University database sources, which directed to Google Scholar, ABI INFORMS Glolbal, DiVa, and Uppsatter.se. This helps the researchers to save time and minimize cost (Mark Saunder,philip lewis,Adrian Thornhill, 2009, p. 272) . The information on the company website and webpages in Swedish was translated in to English by the translation tools, and be rephrased by the authors so as to remain the closest meaning of the content from the original language. The key-words have been used on the search engines for data collections are: Private label brand, retailer brand, consumer intention, consumer perception, ICA, brand strategies, brand management...
world(Bogdan and Taylor 1975: 13-14). Therefore, it is suggested that seeing things through thepersons point of view is the way to grasp the meaning of a persons behavior. This approach known asinterpretative methodology will be employed, as additional method to process this thesis sincecollecting consumers stream of thought as well as their opinions. For that reason, the questionnaires onthe survey were designed with additional option in the questionnaires, so that respondents can providecomments/thoughts/or to specify the reasons/explanations.One of the purposes is to examine the consistent of PLBs image with consumers actual perception;nevertheless it is essential to understand marketing and branding strategies from the company sidesince it is supportive source of data for this dissertation. Therefore, qualitative data were collected byperforming semi-structured interviews with ICA Store Managers in Vsters and with ICA Private Label.Semi-structured interview (or opening interview) which refers to the interview includes of preparedquestions but the interviewer is able to modify or change the sequence of questions and it is alsopossible for interviewers to ask further follow up questions in responses. 220.127.116.11 Interview with managersTwo interviews was conducted with Erik Schartau store manager of ICA Skrapan in Vsters , both weretaken place in the working room of store manager in staff area, back side of the supermarket. The firstinterview was on November 22, 2013 for the purpose of getting some general information. At first themanager slightly hesitated to conduct the interview because no booking in advance was done. However,after being given brief explanation and introduction of our study toward ICA private label brand, Mr Erikconsidered the topic was quite interesting and agreed to have a short interview with the authors. Theinterview lasted about 15 minutes and authors were informed to contact Mr Erik again case furtherdiscussion is needed.
The second interview was taken place on December 14, 2013, the interview were conducted at 11:00-11:36.The atmosphere of the interview was friendly and opened. Since the interviewer has designedquestioners related to the theories the interview conducted in a more formal way. The manager wasexplaining each question in details and slowly while the interviewer took brief notes on laptop besidespictures based explanation was also supportive. Mr Erik suggested to provide helpful information andrecommended two telephone numbers so that the interviewer could conduct other interviews withmanagers in Stockholm, who are responsible for marketing areas of ICA. A phone call were made to oneof the manager which provided the interviewer general information about marketing of ICA.
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Afterward, the second respondent referred the interviewer email contact of ICA Private Label Manager. Being aware that it could help to collect relevant essential data from this respondent, the authors sent an email including file explained the purpose of our study and list of questions, due to being afraid of time restraint in the last week of December. Right after the following day, the respondent informed that he would be willing to answer the interview via mobile phone. At the same day, 21st December 2013, the interview was made from 14:00-14:20. The manager was willing to answer all questions in a friendly way and agreed to have the interview recorded.
Pilot study: Pilot study is conducted in order to make sure the survey questions operate well and function as expected (Bryman & Bell, Business Research Method, 2011) .The survey preview link were sent to 10 people in order to avoid mistakes on the questions and to test if the skipped logic worked well .The feedback helped to changes into understandable words in several questions, correct some spelling errors, and also some suggestions to improve the survey. And latter, before releasing the
survey, the researchers tried to test several times in the opening the survey. Some errors were foundand fixed before eventually publishing the survey
Surveymonkey.com is commercial website allow to collect online response. The website is considered tobe superior to other free online survey tool (example: Google survey) and more suitable for the purposeof the survey. Survey monkey Plus subscription lasing in one month was utilized for this thesissurvey. The website enables to design complex question such as matrix, and skip questions. Matrixquestions are those consisted of both rows and columns (example, Q -14 in the survey). Skip logic worksto direct specific audiences to particular questions/or pages that the question designers want to(example, Q-5, Q-7, Q-10 in the survey).The website provides various diverse of questions forms. Inaddition, tutorials, sample survey formats, and guidance given by the website were found to be veryuseful for the author when constructing different types of questionnaires.
The following table shows the questionnaires that are designed from the related theories. In order toanalysis the data with the target respondent survey monkey is used. This site has skip logic which is usedto classify the audience into categories: (Q-1)-(Q-27) designed for those who have shopping experiencewith ICA Basic and (Q-33)&(Q-39) is for those who do not know or stop buying ICA Basic.
The preview link to test the survey is in appendix-3. Viewers can test unlimited times up to the time ofone month. After collecting data some questions have been omitted that is It was realized that due totime constraint and some questions are irrelevant for the studies were omitted in the analysis which are(Q-11), (Q-29 to Q-32) (Q-35 to Q-38).
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Classify audiences 5
Brand familiarity 9
Loyalty 12
Perceived value 17
Perceived risk 19
Satisfaction 22 & 24
Intention 21&27
Table 1- Operationalization3.5 Snow ball Sampling Snowball sample method used for empirical data finding process. This method of sampling the researcher make initial contact with small group of people who are relevant to the research topic and then uses to establish contact with others (Bryman & Bell, 2010, p. 192). For this study, firstly questionnaires were designed on commercial website (surveymonkey.com) , later the survey links were sent out to initial contacts who are specific people live in Vsters; that were carried out through emails and social media Facebook. The initial contacts were asked by to forward the survey links to others, who they think might be relevant for the study, that are those who currently live in Vsters. The researchers
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found this method is the fastest way and less costly to gather answers from relevant respondents. For snowball sampling it is not necessary to know the exact amount of population however the sample can be representative of the population (Bryman & Bell, 2010, p. 193).
Validity concerned with the integrity of the conclusions that are generated from the research. Validity is true measurement in order to approve that a deep study of varies related course should be considered (Bryman & Bell, Business Research Method, 2011). This thesis considered three types of validity.
Measure validity- This criterion usually applied in quantitative research method to determine if the taste seems to measure what is intended to measure .The questions raised during the interviews with manager was managed to be performed objectively, followed structured questions in order to reduce any possible influences might skew the research as well as having impact up on the validity of findings. (Bryman & Bell, Business Research Method, 2011) Content validity- Content validity addresses the match between the research questions and the content or subject area (The College Board, 2014). The thesis has been reviewed by advisors and peer students. This help to improve the research and make some changes before writing the study that is not relevant for the analysis. Construct validity- The construct validity refers to how well the studys results support the theory behind the research and if the theory supported by the findings provides the utmost existing explanation of the results, (Graziano & Raulin 2010). Constructed validity is evaluated by the questioners and the underlying theories (Bryman & Bell, Business Research Method, 2011). The questions designed for the survey are considered carefully so that all questions selected are related to the theory presented.
Reliability refers to the degree to which measure of stability and consistency of a concept. Reliability is particularly at the issue connection with quantitative research (Bryman & Bell, Business Research Method, 2011).
In this research, all questionnaires were checked over again and the survey preview link were sent tofew people in order to test if the questions were easy to understand , and whether the function of thesurvey links worked as expectation.
The use of survey monkey skip logic allowed to guide specific audiences to the particular pages (such asbuyers, non-buyers of ICA Basic, consumer who have brand awareness and who do not). It enabled tosort out the relevant respondents for certain desired destination questions. In addition, the settingswere chosen so as the survey could be done only once in each computer.
Lastly, as it has been presented earlier in previous section, the researchers of this study made use ofsnow ball method to collect responses from relevant respondents who live in Vsters. The unitizationof this method ensured that relevant respondents in specific region were chosen so as to best match thepurpose of this study.
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ICA basic leaf provides highest standard of animal care and quality products .However, the package thickness is not carefully done. The frozen broccoli berries and vegetables provide relatively similar nutrition content than similar product. But, the bean size might be different and might not be perfectly rounded. ICA basic pasta sauce tests fairly good however in order to come up the price some ingredients are cut off. This is fair enough for weekly food.
The development of ICA Basic has replaced Euro shopper products in 2011 for low cost alternatives. Sales trends show that customers interest is high for its private goods .The company has also been providing good prices and also good quality products for the consumers. For that reason, customers can feel confident when purchasing ICA own brand products which the company has controlled the entire manufacturing process and ensures that they are safe and manufactured in a manner consistent with the company values and standards. (ICA Annual Report, 2011)
The question was raised regarding the concerns of interviewer to the extent by which criteria consumerswere segmented. It was realized that location of the store and product line are one of the companystrategy to segment consumers. ICA supermarkets hold diversified food products ranged from the mostexpensive international food (A brand) to ICA brand- the national product and private labels (ICA eco forthose who are conscious about organic food, ICA selection for better package and ICA basic with lessprice). ICA Basic were considered as one of the competitive products being marketed with purpose ofcompeting against other low price PLBs food products such as those hold by Lidl and Ax-food (Eldorado).
The company has different marketing strategies to increase its sale, shelf management model;assortment of food products is one of the supermarket marketing techniques used to influence buyingbehavior of consumers. For that reason the popular brands were placed in the middle of the shelf in theeasy to fetch shelf space to the consumer; the lower price products like ICA Basic, were placed atlower shelf below. It was also mentioned that ICA brands are large in amount on the shelf and lowerprice compare to national brands. Products are placed on the right side of the A-brand, on theassumption that most people are right handed and ease them to pick.
Considering the buying behavior, the store manager noted it depended on the consumers; price is onethe factor affect consumer buying behavior, consumer give priority for lower price products. Thoughprivate label food products are lower in price and their quality evaluate by the company , majority ofcustomers in Sweden prefer eating locally produced food for the reason that the quality increase dueshorter transportation and fewer addictive of the national brand.
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the ICA corporate brand strategies: launched ICA Basic with new criteria .All Euro shopper assortment were went through and changed was make in recipe based on the new flat form.
It was strongly believed by the manager as ICA is one of the most famous brands in Sweden so just putting the ICA Brand on that product the manager believed that it would get much higher awareness. At this time, ICA Basic is very well known now in Sweden and very high recognition among Swedish consumers.
ICA basic is considered where target consumers are those who think price is the most important; the quality requirement must be okay. For that reason certain different target group that are more willing to purchase ICA Basic. However, consumer in general have different ambition in different category You might be a person that buy premium product in one category but preferred lower price to other product categorizes, the manager stressed that.
Regarding quality, the manager gave opinion that consumer trust ICA that the quality is okay along with reasonable price. ICA Basic is went through special testing procedures that means that ICA Basic products have to live up to a certain quality level .There is a set standard for ICA Basic as the example of green bean it might be the same quality of the bean, but when the bean was picked, what differ was the number of broken bean that allowed to be in packets, for instance, for ICA product perhaps it is 10% bean but for ICA Basic it might be accepted at 15% broken. Therefore that is sometimes differs the quality requirement although the taste of the bean might be the same. Sometimes it could be the package; ICA Basic has simple packaging compared to other better well-designed packages (zip able packages). When were asked about the positioning of ICA Basic compare with competitors it was answered by the manager that that ICA Basic is to compete with same products from other competitor with Coop x-tra (by Coop), Eldorado(by Axfood) and similar brand by City Gross. Regarding question about advertising, it was mentioned that using TV advertising for first generation PLBs is quite seldom. However, it was used when the brand when first launched in Swedish market. Beside ICA Basic as a strategy to compete with other competitors, ICA still keeps launching more value-added products in the portfolio.
ICA and were excluded in the analysis. In addition, only the respondents whose age ranged between18-35 were considered for the study; therefore the final number of 184 was taken into account (afteromitting 17 disqualified responses and 26 participants were not in the age restriction criteria). Fromthat, females and males were correspondingly 92 and 92, that obtained by a coincidence after 13 daysthe survey released.
Figure 3- Gender
Figure 4- Age(Q-6) is to identify overall attitude of consumer towards ICA food retailers
Figure 5-Attitude
This question is derived from theory of attitude toward object model presented in the theory; whichstated, attitude towards object model is especially suitable to measure the consumers attitude towardsobject such as an organization or a brand (Fishbein).In this case, the given question aimed to measureconsumers attitude toward the object, which is the brand ICA, specifically ICA food retailers. In total thequestion received 180 answered. It is clearly to be seen that more than a half of respondents heldabsolute positive attitude towards ICA which accounts for 57.41%, along with 21.3% had a relativelypositive attitude, 20.37 % kept their opinion neutral and only 0.93% have negative attitude against ICA.The result indicates approximately two third of all responders had attitude skewed positively towardICA. In fact, ICA is the market leader in the food retail sector with a market share of 36.7%, in theSwedish market at the end of 2012 (hakoninvestnew) .This finding compared with the result obtainedfrom the given survey question, has justified ICA is well-known and has a strong position in the mind ofSwedish consumers (di.se) cited by (Kata,B., & Linda,F., 2012).4.3.1 Brand and related factorsAdvertising, WOM (Q-7, 8)The following questionnaires measure consumer awareness of the brand in accordance to (Aaker, 1996)suggestion; it indicated a way to examine consumer brand awareness at level of recognition by askingHave you heard about brand X? .Thus the authors of this study based upon this suggestion and choseto formulate the question in the similar manner, Have you ever heard or know ICA own brand- ICABasic?
It is necessary to compare different impacts that various type of associations might have on brandknowledge of each consumer; therefore multiple answer options were allowed in this question .Theoutcome demonstrates in figures 7 indicates most respondents were familiar with the existence of thebrand .Approximately 94% recognized ICA Basic at the store compared to 19.4% recognized it by TV,16.67% by friends and families, and other sources (social media 9.03%, newspapers 8.33%).Becausebrand familiarity reflects the extent that consumer have direct or indirect experience with the brand(Campbell, Margaret C; Keller, Kevin L, 2003); the result from this questionnaire implies mostconsumers familiar with ICA Basic by direct experiences, TV and other sources only have little influenceson how consumers aware/or familiar with ICA Basic. ICA Basic was introduced on the market in 2011,after two years, it deems to be popular and be recognized by the majority. The authors of this paperhave found out that since 2011, three advertisement videos have been launched through social media(www.youtube.com) and were published on TV commercials, yet only small proportion of respondentshave exposed to that information. Advertising is tactical tool to familiarize consumers with newproducts and create buying incentives; and companies make use of advertisement as a technique toenter other branded products (Parker, 1997) ICA has been keeping investing in advertisement asadvertising is considered a tool strengthen its position and aim to fulfil the mission to be leader retailerfocus on foods (Erik, 2013).WOM factors such as friends/families and social media turned out justslightly influent brand familiarity of consumers.The finding also shows that there were 12.29% people answered No and 6.15% unsure whether theyknow about the brand or not when being asked (Q-7): Have you heard or know about ICA own brand,ICA Basic? These respondents were identified as low brand awareness consumers and unfamiliar withthe PLBs. As skip logic functioned, they were transferred to the other page designed particularly,consisted of (Q-39). This question was adopted by the study of Aaker (1996) in which he suggested that
another tack to examine the recognition is to expose respondents to a set of visual images. Thus, oneimage chosen as a sample of ICA Basic product was presented in this question. Respondents wereasked Have you ever purchased any products with this package design before? .The result came outwas: 18 out of 34 people replied No, signifying they had never had experience or exposure to ICABasic.; evidently means they were completely unaware of the brand ICA Basic, having neither direct norindirect experience with the PLBs; it confirmed the fact that they are unfamiliar and have not yetexposed to the PLB (Campbell, Margaret C; Keller, Kevin L, 2003)
In addition, an interesting finding was that 16 people answered Yes verifying they had bought someproducts like that before. Obliviously those respondents had experiences with ICA Basic products beforebut did not know about the brand itself. The reasons behind that could be their lack of awareness ofwhat brand they buy or another possibility is they find it hard to distinguish amongst different ICA PLBs.
This question was formulated for those who have brand awareness, answering Yes in (Q-7)
It was mentioned above; the study of Aaker (1996) suggested that another tack to examine therecognition is to expose respondents to a set of visual images. Hence, another questionnaire similar to(Q-39) was assigned to examine degree of familiarity of those consumers who already known ICA Basicand aware of the PLB, they were asked Are you familiar with the design package of ICA Basic product.
In this case 84.62% was certain about their familiarity to design package of ICA Basic products incontrast to 4.11% unfamiliar with the packages and 10.27% unsure. The fact is brand awareness to someextent cannot separate from brand familiarity with the brand symbol and visual imaginary. From thisresult, we can see that most shoppers in the sample are highly familiar with how ICA Basic packages looklike. Besides, some interesting finding of previous studies denoted that brand colour is importantconsideration in brand identify system. A study by A, Wada, Masuda.T, Goto, & Tsuzuki( 2013) wheretwo experiment were conducted to examine effects of memory colour induced by familiarity of brandlogo, has provided critical outcome, that there is behavioural evidence of the relationship between thefamiliarity of objects and the memory colour effect and suggest that the memory colour effect increaseswith the familiarity of objects. From that , it can be interpreted the combination of logo design andcolour influences the sense of likability and familiarity; additionally, by intuitive observation, the authorsof this study referred to ICA Basic, which is advantageous as it possess identical red brand logo andpackage designed with two tone colours of red and white . That appears to be easily recognizable andsalient in consumer mind, either buyers or non-buyers.
As mentioned earlier, 146 people answered question associated with brand familiarity but only 118 outof that number which accounts for 80.82% buy to ICA Basic products in contrast to 13.7 % were non-buyers.
ICA is one of the most famous brands in Sweden so just putting the ICA Brand on that product webelieve that we would get much higher awareness. ICA Basic is very well known now in Sweden and veryhigh recognition among Swedish consumers (Heijne, ICA Private Label Manager, 2013) . This belief isverified in this this study because 118 out of 146 respondents in the chosen sample have bought ICABasic products. This question together with the former one demonstrates the fact is ICA Basic is
significantly familiar with Swedish consumers. Furthermore, example of shelf management model givenin the interview with Mr Erik provided the authors the sense that lower price products, like ICA Basic areplaced at lower shelf. This study, nevertheless will not take issue of shelf space into deep consideration,yet the latest two figures attained from the survey results gave the author the opinions that no matterwhere ICA Basic products are placed, most consumers were quite highly aware of their presence, eitherbecause of the attractive colour package or either consumers themselves are attentive as they are ICABasic regular buyers.
Non buyers accounted for 13.7% who might prefer higher package design or higher product quality, andwilling to pay extra for the taste and high quality natural products like ecologic products. Fewrespondents gave additional comment to this issue revealed:I like quality and taste or naturalproducts. In this case it is matter of preferences which might differ from each individual. In addition,some of them might be risk adverse buyers who feel doubtful and questioned the price and quality ofthe products that are non-local origin or the products that they are not use to buy, hence, have noproneness to buy ICA Basic.
There was 5.48% confirmed that they used to buy ICA Basics. It was found necessary to gain deeperinsights into those consumer mind-set thereby, the skipped logic processed them to specificquestions regarding post purchase, 7 people continued with this question
It is seen that high percentage of responses who said do not any longer buy ICA Basic due to thereasons they do not feel satisfied with the product taste (71.43%) followed by 42.86% unsatisfied withproduct package. It is possibly because they would want a little extra for products they buy andmaybe turn their face other higher value added products from ICA or other national brands. A lowerproportion of 28.57% was not satisfied with the price can be explained as they demand more on thecurrent products compared with the actual price they have to pay.
The theory of attitude toward behavioural model is applied to examine the possible outcome which isfavourable or unfavourable. The following figure demonstrates the combination of the response fromthis question (Q-10) and the positive attitude toward the brand ICA in (Q-6) ( those answered positivesomewhat positive)
Positive attitude 67 6 5 78 85.8% 7.6% 6.4%
It is clearly that a part of consumer had positive attitude toward the brand ICA, but might hold negativeattitude towards purchasing low price private labels ICA Basic; that confirms the attitude of behavioralmodel (Schiffman & Kanuk 2004) .7.6% responders held positive attitude towards ICA but do notconsider buying ICA Basic, they were who had unfavorable attitude to purchase and consume the PLB.
(Q-25) was regarding consumer general opinion about the association between low price food productsand retailers reputation.
In total, 38.32% totally believed that it is trustful to buy low price product from the well-known retailersand 33.64 agreed to the statement to some extent while 24.30% held neutral opinion towards the issueand 3.74 % completely disagree with the statement. It seems to be the retailer reputation or corporatebrand reputation has significant impact on consumer mind-set when they buy food product. In this case,majority consumers tend to hold positive attitude to low price PLBs product, providing that they aremanufactured by well-known retailers. Aaker(1996) in his study identifies that brand-as organizationperspective considers the organization as the whole (people, value, and programs) those lie behind thebrand. The corporate brand can play an important role and it can represent something beyond merelybeing known by its products or services. ICA annual report of sustainable development specified that:The trust of our customers is one of our most important assets (Strmberg, 20 May 2013) . Somerespondents comments in the question have somehow clarified the companys belief:
I assume that it is safe and they probably follow the food regulation of the company. The productsmust be able to qualify some standard of food retailers
Comparing this response with the response regarding consumers attitude towards the organization ICAfrom (Q-6), it can be interpreted that strong organizational associations positively brings about trust toconsumers. The corporate brand itself this case is not merely known as product suppliers but stand assymbolic credence in the majority of consumer mind. Regarding this issues, the latest information wascollected which supports the argument of strong organizational association. It was found out that ICAgrocery store chain has won and be awarded for the sustainable brand according to the SustainableBrand Index 2013 (sb-insight.com). It is Scandinavias largest brand survey about sustainability. Thesurvey was done by interviewing nationwide with 9000 Swedish consumers. The criteria of sustainablebrand by this survey is the brand whose promise is not only about price and quality but also betransparent and responsible regarding the way it create price and quality (ica.se)
The use of umbrella brand is efficient implementation when the brand is strong. Many retailers utilizetheir retail brands as umbrella brand for third and four generations and using different brand for their
value range in the purpose of protecting retail brand from any discount association. Such an example isAlbert Hejin a popular food retailer of Netherland followed this aforementioned strategy who labelledEuro shopper to distinguish it as price entry range and Albert Hejin-branded products that are at higherprice tiers (Perrey & Spillecke, Retail Marketing and Branding: A Definitive Guide to Maximizing ROI,2013).
This practice, nevertheless in the case of ICA, is opposite. ICA has been labelling all ranges of PLBs underits umbrella brand regardless of different types of PLBs; its PLB brand includes: ICA I love Eco, ICA Gottliv, ICA( those are provide high value added generation PLB ) and ICA Basic , providing low point priceproducts (Heijne, ICA Private Label Manager, 2013). Contradict to Albert Hejin practice to protect retailbrand from discount association; ICA in turn hold its belief in the positive consequence can result in,which is by using the tag ICA Basic that named under ICA brand ; and believe it can capture high level ofawareness among consumers and increase their consumers trust (Heijne, ICA Private Label Manager,2013)
Nevertheless, to some extent there still existed a small part of consumers was relatively sceptical, whichaccounted for 3.74%; one of respondents among those gave opinion that: You cannot trust any foodproduct nowadays. They might be those who have high level of risk perception. In the followingquestion is about to investigate in depth this issue.
In order to find out how suspicious consumers are about buying ICA Basic this question was asked (Q-19).How do you hesitate to buy ICA Basic food/beverages product? From the total respondents whoanswered the question 37.74% felt not at all hesitate to buy ICA Basic. From Q-10 it is proved thatconsumers are familiar with ICA Basic , if the consumers are familiar with the brand they perceived lessrisk (Aaker D. , 1996), (Aaker D. a., 2000),(Chaudhuri, 2002). In addition some respondents gavecomments about how they perceived risk while answering the the survey, as following:
This was confirmed by Mr. Erik who explained that food products produced outside Sweden their qualityis evaluated by the company. Furthermore, ICA testing product is guaranteed by ICA .With specialtesting procedures that means ICA Basic products have to live up to a certain quality level (Heijne,2013)
In contrary some respondents gave their thoughts on the survey about the quality of ICA Basic andreasons they hesitate to buy the food product:Because it is cheaper I wonder if the quality of the ingredients used is lesser.Some of their ICA Basic products lack the quality even for their own price range; packaging is somewhata turn off sometimes.Sometimes the low price makes me wonder something must be wrong" .I only buy certain products that I think are okay, like tin corn. I would never buy pasta or potato saladsince I am suspicious towards the ingredients.We assume that consumer answered this question can be regular buyers or just purchase certainproduct categorizes that they think are acceptable. Among them who felt slightly hesitate accounted for37.74% and moderately hesitate 22.64%. Others who are more suspicious about the quality andingredient will hesitate to buy the PLBs more often. The finding shows only minority of them are totallyhesitate (very hesitate 1.89% and none of the respondents have felt extremely hesitate).According to Schiffman (2013) price perception has strong influence on purchase intention of PLBs.However if the consumer is uncertain about the quality of the product the less effect it has on thebuying behavior (Urbany, J. E., Bearden, W. O., Kaicker, A., Borrero, M. S. D. , 1997) because theyperceived risk. Some consumers perceived less risk buying the low price private label because theythink some assortments have similar quality with other brands. These consumers benefit buying trade-off of those assortments.ICA basic food products quality is carefully examined by the company. However the company has beenalso cheated by its supplier providing house meat instead of beef ("Radio sweden", 2013 ) . Thereforethe company conducted DNA analyses of all of ICA private label food product that contain beef in orderto make sure that they do not contain any horse meat .The company has working a lot for not makingthe same mistake and to minimize the risk .However, the company still did not have sufficientmechanism to protect fraud of suppliers. As a plan Per Strmberg CEO, ICA AB mentioned labeling oforigin of food might have positive aspect in minimizing the risk (sustainability, 2013, p. 4).The company strategy concerning quality improvement has impact on consumer perception minimizingthe risk. According to Richardson (1996) private labels are risker than the National brands because
higher product variability and lower quality makes consumer to be unsatisfied. Thus price- qualitybecame an important factor for the success of PLBs, retailers PLBs must meet at least standard of thecompany ("NSF's Private Label Assurance") . If the PLBs are as good as the national brand perceptionvalue is increased while if the PLBs are inferior in quality, value of perception towards the PLBs will beless (Paul s., Trun K., & Alan, 1996).
(Q-16) Buying ICA Basic food products is a good way to save money
The finding from question number 15 showed most consumers perceived ICA Basic is low price incomparison with other brands. Further it is important to find out whether the consumer are benefitedwith price option provided by the company or not ,because the lower price products have both a
positive and negative influence on the consumer mind (Zeithaml ,1988). Some consumers think theycan benefit by saving some amount of money from the lower price food product. And others might feelsuspicious if the price is low the quality might have some problematic issues. For this reason additionalquestion has been raised on the survey (Q-16) Buying ICA Basic food products are a good way to savemoney. 47.22% of them agreed and somewhat agreed 34.26% whereas 17.59% of respondent thoughtit depends on other factors .Supporting this financial risk on the theory explain that consumers whoperceive PLBs as low quality product did not want to spend their money for products they are notsatisfied. As shown in the figure below, only the minority, 0.93% of respondents were against the ideathat buying ICA Basic is a good way to save money
Though lower price products are preferred by most consumers there are other attributes thatconsumers take in to consideration that is perception of quality and perception of risk. Those whoanswered low price food product does not support saving money will be considered either they are notsatisfied with the quality of the product or they perceived high risk.
(Q- 13) Some assortment of ICA basic product has similar quality that can be my alternatives for otherpopular brands.Almost 75% of respondent agreed (30.77% agreed and 43.59% somewhat agreed) ICA basic productshave similar quality with other brands. While only 6.84% of respondents (5.13 % somewhat disagreedand 1.71 % Disagreed) disagree with the statement. The remaining 18.80% of respondents gave neutralopinion.
Information from the company webpage (translated from Swedish to English by web browser) statesthat in order to maintain the low price of ICA Basic pick out some of the ingredient content and providessimpler package styles. Concerning quality it was noted that there is a standard set of quality for ICABasic since the company has a special testing procedures to ensure that the quality meet certainrequirement level. An example of green bean was given: It might be the same quality of the bean, butwhen the bean was picked, what differ was the number of broken bean that allowed to be in packages,
for instance, for ICA product perhaps it is 10% broken bean but for ICA Basic it might be accepted atlevel of 15% (Heijne, 2013) . On the other hand frozen broccoli berries and vegetables relatively havesimilar nutrition content than similar product but the bean size might be different and might not beperfectly rounded (ica.se). Though in some of ICA Basic food products might slightly less in ingredientand simpler packaging compare to the national brand and other PLBs by ICA, most consumers aresatisfied with ICA Basic. Because 75% of respondents think ICA basic products have similar quality thatcan be a substitute for other brands. There is actually a situation when consumers are premiumpurchasers on particular products/categories and sometimes they can accept trade-off by purchasinglower price on other products /categories, such the case can be seen between high and low involvementproducts. By result given in question, the author believed that besides being regular buyer, someconsumers might still have occasional consumption with ICA Basic. They might find themselves trade-offcertain product categorizes offered by ICA Basic, which are lower price than others brand. Howeverwithin the frame of this thesis which concerns only PLBs food in general, in each type of food categorizesis not considered and the issue will not be investigated further in details.(Q-14) How do you perceive ICA Basic food products quality?In order to measure quality perception of consumer towards ICA Basic four variables were taken in toconsideration namely: - taste, package quality, ingredient, product shape and volume. Almost 76% ofrespondents (48.70% good and 26.96 % slightly good) believed that product volume is good moreover60.67% perceived quality of the package is good (33.04 % good and 27.83% slightly good).ICA basicpackagings might not always be thick to all of the product offerings and also might not have the sameopening style that is easy way to open packagings with zip or rigid packagings (Heijne, 2013). It couldbe less sophisticated design. However the survey result shows more than 60.67% of respondent give apositive opinion on package quality of ICA Basic products.In consideration to taste and ingredient, respondents perceive less quality in these attributes comparedto package and volume. The figure below shows respondents answered slightly good in taste andingredients with percentage amount of 40.52 and 32.74 .For this analysis the researchers believe tasteand origin might have relation because some of ICA Basic food products are supplied from outsideSweden. The products are supplied from different countries might taste differently and might haveimpact on consumer purchase intention of PLBLs food product since some Swedish consumers careabout the taste which they are adapted (Erik, 2013).
About the ingredient the company webpage noted, in orders to come up the price some ingredients arecut off. This have impact on buying behavior depends on the consumer preference such the higher pricewould be the higher ingredient content.Equal amount of respondent for product shape 33.64% (good and slightly good) also shows consumersare comfortable with the product shape compared to that of the food taste and ingredient.More than 25% respondents thought ICA Basic is neither good nor bad correspondingly to thoseattributes: 27.83% in package quality, 27.43% in product shape, 27.74% in ingredient and for the taste20.69% whereas 19.13% of them keep neutral opinion. The rest, minority of respondent perceived(taste, ingredient, volume and package) of the food product slightly bad less than 10% whereas and onlyless than 3% of them answer bad on the four attributes
As shown in the table above the majority of respondent are satisfied with the product they get incomparison to price scarifies i.e. 56.73% agree and 32.69 % somewhat agree. The rest answer depends(6.73%) and disagree i.e. 2.88% somewhat disagree and 0.96% disagree. When consumers are satisfiedperception of value will increased .From the findings it is believed that more than 80% of ICA Consumersare satisfied with ICA Basic. Q -15& Q-16 proved consumer high perception of price towards the privatelabel that is most consumer think ICA basic is low price and they can benefit the low price by savingsome about of money. Q-17 shows consumers high perception of quality in comparison to other brand.That means these consumer thought the quality of ICA Basic is quite okay and price is reasonable.According to Zeithaml (1998) PLB buyers are price seekers-those who look for low price, as a result, for
some consumers having inexpensive product means achieving high value. PLB consumers value for foodproduct is depending on the low price and also the quality of the product. Value is important factor forpurchasing food products. Some consumer give priority for low price instead of quality and other mightconcern for quality than price. Though buying behavior is different among individual qualityprice arenot separable when making purchase decision. Consumer will be satisfied and or give high value if thequalityprice relationship matches their expectation.
Value perception also related to perceived risk, consumers who perceived high value for the product arethose who think the product is less risky.
To measure the findings with the theory a relationship between perceived risk and value will beconsidered. Respondents who were totally agreed in Q-17 ICA Basic is good value for what I give forwill be considered to compare the relation with perceived risk (Q-19): The table shows 53.06% forrespondent who agree and not at all hesitate, 32.65 % agree and slightly hesitate, 2.04% agree and veryhesitate. This shows respondents who thought ICA Basic less risky give best value for the product but ifthey are skeptical about the product they will lose the value or interest they have towards the product.
Figure 16 -SatisfactionIn general consumers are quite satisfied with ICA Basic products with 31.19 very satisfied and 44.04%satisfy.
From the theory of satisfaction, attitude of post consumption is decided by previous experience oraccumulated experiences over time. The result indicates considerable proportion of roughly 75% buyersgave positive evaluated judgement on ICA Basic products based on their experience, in contrast to only0.92% dissatisfied buyers. The remaining 23.85% thought that they were neither satisfied nordissatisfied.
Both female and male respondents were asked do you buy ICA basic in order to find out which genderare more prone to the PLBS( ICA basic ). The figure below shows 53.85% of female and 46.15% maleanswer yes whereas 40.% of female and 60% of male answer no whereas equal amount of male andfemale 50% answer I bought it before but not anymore. From this it is understood that females are theone who buy more ICA basic compare to male on the other hand male hesitate more buying PLBs thanfemale.
The researchers also wanted to find out the relationship of PLB ICA Basic buying behavior with Incomebecause ICA basic provide lower price food product than the National brands. In order to find out therelationship respondents were asked their income in addition to do you buy ICA Basic. For this analysisonly those who answer Yes I buy ICA Basic will considered.
The table-7 shows majority of respondents (60.53%) are those who earn less than 10.000. 27.19% ofrespondent earn between 20000 to 30000 whereas minority of them who buy ICA Basic earn morethan 20000 that is ,8.77% for those who earn between 20000 to 30000 and above 30000 (3.51% ) .From this the study analysis that consumer who have less income are the one who buy ICA Basic more.as seen from the findings it is proved that as income increased the preference of buying ICA basic willdecreased. Hoch & Banerji (1993) mentioned when income decreases consumers become priceconsciousness and shift their preferences to private label brands rather than choosing national brands.In addition to that consumers who prefer to buy more PLBs than national brand are price conscious .
4.3.10 Attitude
ICA brand is well-known and has a strong position in the minds of Swedish consumers Anas (2013).Positive attitude towards the brand leads to positive attitude towards the private label. The findingshows ICA basic is known by more than 80% of consumers and from these more than 50% has a positiveattitude towards the PLB. Comparing to males females buy more ICA Basic food products and have apositive attitude towards the PLBs.
Consumers who earn more hesitate to buy ICA Basic and prefer the national brand thus might have aunfavorable attitude towards the brand. On the other hand consumers who have less income prefer tobuy ICA basic and have a favorable attitude towards the brand.
Majority of consumers are comfortable with ICA Basic food products and the price offered by thecompany, this have a positive impact on customers attitude; whereas the minority who thought ICABasic is not good quality will give less value and favorable attitude.
Additional question were raised to find out how word of mouth has influence on attitude (Q-20)Howlikely would your friends, families ,social media, change your attitude towards ICA Basic?
Findings of the survey shows that WOM has little effect on buying behavior 33% of respondents answerthey are not at all influenced and 27.78 % of them are slightly influenced by friends/families or socialmedia, 29.63% felt they are neither be influenced nor not . The rest minority of respondent (7.41% veryinfluential, 1.85% extremely influential) are influenced by friends, social media and families. Below aresome of the comments collected from survey:
Some rumors about low quality ingredients and using bad preservative substance somewhat made medoubtful about Ica Basic.
The impact of WOM on the PLB was proven in this question. Beside the factor affect attitude such asdirect experience. WOM has its both negative and positive influences on consumer attitude.
To Find out attitude of consumer towards the PLB respondents compared to other similar PLBs areasked (Q-22) I would rather choose ICA own brand-ICA Basic rather than other similar products by(example: Eldorardo(Axfood), Coop-xtra (by Coop).., low price private label products).
Some consumer totally agreed with this statement (24.07%) and somewhat agree (22.22) while (41.67%)of respondents noted that the attitude they have towards ICA Basic is depends on different factorswhereas approximately 12 % disagree. The majority supported that rather choose ICA Basic than othersimilar PLBs are those who have positive attitude towards the PLBs, which means the value they give forICA Basic is higher and hold favorable attitudes for it. On the other hand, 41.67% thought that itdepends, keep their opinion neutral.
(Q-21)What make you decide to buy ICA Basic? (It is possible to select more than one answer).
Purchase intention is a planned behavior that a consumer willing to buy certain product (Ajzen, 1992).According to Schiffman (2013) price perception has strong influence on purchase intention of PLBs.From the data collected most consumer (85.05%) answer they intend to buy ICA Basic because of lowprice. According to Richardson (1996), quality perception determines consumer proneness to buy aprivate brand. 61.68% of respondents have intended to buy ICA Basic because of acceptable quality.Whereas 14.02% of the respondents are influenced by variety of options provided by the company andothers minority of them 4.67% were not sure in which way they are influenced.
From the survey the researcher found out that location of the store has impact on purchase intentionbut for this study that issue is not been taken into consideration.
(Q-23) Would you accept to pay slightly more for improvement of ICA Basic on?
(Q-23) aims at investigating whether consumers are willing to pay a little more extra for ICA Basicproduct improvement in three attributes: Ingredient, taste, and packaging. As it is shown in the figures,consumer are approximately more or less equally agree to pay a little extra for improvement iningredient 51.4% and 50.46% are interested in paying more if improvement were made in taste. Thisdistribution of answering Yes for improvement in taste and ingredient is more or less equal. Buyersmight perceive the relations might results in: if ingredient is improves, so as the taste of the products.Conversely, only small proportion of 17% support for improvement in package design and the majority62.96% uninterested in paying more for better package. The entire result enables to see that firstgeneration ICA Basic is positioned as low price for price proneness buyers. Those consumers are to someextent are still willing in paying extra for implementing improvement. However only increase in intrinsicquality attributes such as ingredient, tastes are of their interested. The increase in price for extrinsiccues, concerning packaging is mostly unsupported by the majority.
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For the respondents who answered No (17% for better ingredient, 62.96% for better packaging, 20.18 for better taste) not willing to pay more. There can be many explanations for that. One reason might be they are already satisfied with the current situation of ICA Basic; another the reason might be they are interested in changes for improvements, however without paying more.
Brand familiarity- The result from the finding shows that almost 85% of consumers are familiar with ICA Basic package. Familiarity with the PLB is due to strong umbrella brand name or by intuitive observation of the researchers of this study, the high level of brand recognition results from appealing package of PLB products, that easily recognizable for consumers.
Awareness-The finding shows that majority of respondents know about ICA basic .However , the research prove that minority of consumers who buy ICA Basic are not aware about the brand and also there are some consumers who are aware about ICA Basic and they did not want to buy .Therefore, brand familiarity is not a significant factor that influence purchase decision. In addition 94% of consumer are aware the brand at the store the rest 6% are influenced by advertisement , WOM and other factors for that reason the study proved that advertisement and WOM has slight effect on buying low-price PLB food product.
Perceived price-The evidences from the findings stress that price is an important factor for the target group that persuade them to buy to buy ICA Basic (Low price PLB). This means that, people buy ICA Basic because most consumers perceived it is lower than similar other brands and they benefit saving some about of money for buying at ICA Basic. However some of the target group thought price is not the most important factor to buy the PLB but they consider other aspects like package, taste, size ingredient of the products. Moreover for some consumers price is an indication of quality these consumers perceive that higher price means higher quality. That means, if the price is very cheap, consumers perceived it is poor-quality. Therefore consumers have to consider other aspects such as quality when
they make any purchase. price and quality are connected to each other and both factors have an effecttowards purchasing intentions of private label brands.
Perceived quality-The findings from the survey questionnaires shows that most consumers whopurchase the PLB thought quality of ICA Basic is good. However for those consumers who thought thequality of PLB is not good; quality is most important factor that affects their purchasing experience. Butif the quality of the PLB has good quality as national brand, consumer will be more attracted to buy theprivate label brand.
Perceived risk-Some of the target group want to be sure the quality of the food before buying .This kindof people want to search food product that reduce risk. The finding shows that some consumers are notsatisfied with the taste and the ingredient of the ICA Basic food products. The taste difference is resultfrom, because of the PLBS food products are supplied from different countries and in Swedish societysome of them are addictive on the taste which they used to and have impact on the buying behaviour.On the other hand , others conscious about the ingredient content might found the ingredient contentis not enough hesitate to buy this products. However most consumers thought the quality of packagequality, volume and size ICA Basic food product is quite okay.
Perceived value-The study shows that most consumers are satisfied with quality ICA Basic food productand the price offer by the company. Majority of respondents thought that they paid less than othersimilar products, this increases consumers value perception. So, cheaper store brand products mightmake consumers to perceive higher value. Value perception is a relation between quality and price, ifthe consumers expectation matches the quality with the price what they sacrifices for then theyperceived higher value for the product. It is also proved that consumers who have higher value to ICABasic food product are the one who perceived less risk .So there is a negative relationship with valueperception and perception of risk.
Demographic factor-The study shows female are the one who buy ICA Basic more than male and alsothe one who earn lesser income have positive attitude towards ICA Basic buy more compare to the onewho earn more.
Attitude- If consumers are aware or familiar with the brand they have a positive attitude with the brand.Finding from the survey questioner shows that most consumer have positive attitude to ICA .From thismajority of them have a positive attitude towards the ICA Basic. In addition, most consumer answeredon the survey that they prefer to buy ICA own brand than other similar brand of other retailers.
Consumer perception, brand familiarity and brand awareness have higher impact on changing consumerattitude towards ICA Basic however slight effect has shown by WOM.
Purchase Intention -The finding shows that majority of consumer intended to buy ICA Basic because ofthe low price and acceptable quality respectively .Moreover most consumer have positive attitudetowards ICA Basic this have a positive impact on purchase intention.
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5. Conclusions This dissertation is based on theoretical framework and empirical findings which includes managerial interviews and survey results. This chapter provide summarized the finding in accordance with the given concepts had been presented; that aims to answer the research question. Also, this chapter provides some suggestion for future researches
The research identified five factors that influence consumer buying behaviour in Low price private label that is: Brand and Brand related activities (advertisement& word of mouth), Consumer Perception, Attitude, Purchase Intention and Demographic factors. Though these five factors have impact consumer purchase decision, the study proves that, for food products price-quality relationship is most important factor. Consumer prefer lower price moreover take in to consideration of the quality of the food that is ingredient content, taste and other depends on consumer preference .For detail describe each factors as follows:
Brand: ICA brand is well-known and has a strong position in the minds of Swedish consumers. Positive organizational association and strong brand create a positive attitude towards the organization. Furthermore, The PLB released by strong corporation brand has advantages on creating familiarity. Low price PLB is familiar with mostly consumers by their own perception and attention. Advertisement and WOM only have little impact on their familiarity. The favourable consumers have relatively high familiarity to the PLB. The majority who purchase low price first generation PLBs buyers and feel trusts toward the brand taken over by well-known retailer. Low price PLBs can be considered as alternative among consumers who want to trade of some categorizes for lower price, but acceptable quality
Demographic: Consumers who earn more hesitate to buy low price PLB and have negative purchase intention to PLB brand. On the other hand consumers who have less income prefer to buy lower price PLB
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and have a positive attitude towards the brand and have purchase intention. The study shows females buy more PLB food products than males.
Quality Majority of consumers is comfortable with PLB food products and the price offered by the company, this have a positive impact on customers attitude. Whereas minority who thought PLB is not good quality will give less value to the product and think it is risky to buy, this bear a negative attitude towards the private label.
Price Price the highest factor that influence PLB buying behaviour. Most consumers think the price of PLB is lower than similar other private label products also can benefit saving money from the lower price offer. Value- The value is considered worth it for what consumers who buy the products; they get what they give, which means lower price, acceptable quality. The value is consistent with the image of PLB Attitude- Besides minority unfavourable attitude toward the PLB regarding quality and risk, the majority have positive attitude toward the PLB. Attitude comes from both from brand familiarity and one self-perception of the PLBs products
Intention: Majority of consumers buy the PLB in the intention of the low price offer. Moreover favourable attitude lead to future purchasing intention, hence it creates frequently consumption from loyal consumers5.2 Recommendation and future researches This study would like to give some proposition for those who would like to indulge themselves in the area of private label in further researches: Firstly, because of time constraint, this study is only focus on specific sample group that is Swedish consumers who live in Vasteras and age ranged between 18 to 35 and those who are ICA Basic food product consumers. The finding and result might not cover total population of Swedish consumers. Therefore, further research suggests if the sample should be a larger and include diversified of
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consumers who live in different cities and wider ranges of age. The result will lead to more understandings of Swedish consumers towards the private label brand. Secondly, this study has been limited investigating low price PLB in response to food consumption. It might be interesting for future investigation of consumer behaviour across different product categories within low price PLBs, other than food category. Furthermore, another recommendation for future studies is to examine consuming pattern of particular low price PLB categorizes as a trade-off for other higher price PLBs or national brands , as consumers might be premium purchasers in certain categorizes but might also seek for lower price products in other categorizes. Thirdly future researchers would perhaps consider aspect regarding size of households and PLBs buying proneness; which due to lack of sufficient data collection and was excluded in this study. Fourth, this thesis paper focused on single PLB which labelled under the retail brand; yet the authors of this thesis have noticed that some food retailers do not involved their retail names as umbrella brands for all PLB portfolios; in other word, some PLBs food possess different names from other counterparts, given that they are manufactured by the same retailer. It would be interesting to go deeper findings about the purpose of this branding strategy and degree to which consumer are familiar with such kind of PLBs and their ability to distinguish those PLBs with other brand of retailers, or with other national brands. Lastly, the information provided by store manager regarding PLBs shelf-management aspect is valuable finding. It is worthwhile for future investigation about level of effectiveness of shelf-management in accordance with consumer actual behaviour.5.3 Managerial Suggestion Consumers are price sensitive who purchase low price PLB but they are willing to pay extra for improvement in intrinsic cues such as ingredient and taste, but not for extrinsic cues like packaging. The company can take this as consideration for strategy of building the PLBs brand in the futures.
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APPENDIX-1 1st 2nd 3rd 4thType of Generic Quasi-branded Own brand Extended ownbrand No name Own label brand Brand free i.e. Unbranded segmented own brandStrategy Generics Cheapest price Me-too Value added
APPENDIX-2 Questionnaires interview with ICA managers
1. What do you say about ICA supermarket chains in term of market share, competitors, reputation, missions, etc.?
3. What do you say about ICA Private Label food products? (Different types of private Labels, targets, customer segmentations and so on)?
Which private label do you think most consumers in ICA are familiar with? And what are the reasons behind that?4. Could you provide further detailed information about ICA Basic? (Brand mission, strength, weakness, opportunities, targeted groups, price, quality, comparison to competitors, and advertising, marketing strategies and so on)
Which are the important factors to attract and retain customers to ICA Basic? Euro shopper products were no longer on ICA shelf since 2011, ICA Basic was replacement. What do you say about the company intention/strategies for ICA Basics food products (The introducing, promoting the brand, advertising, strategies to raise customer awareness)? How well do they work?
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