Retail Brand Equity: Measurements through Brand Policy and Store Formats

Abstract

This research extends findings on the retail brand equity in measuring the impact of its antecedents on the loyalty to the brand and to the store. This article raises questions about the sustainable created value by standard retail brands mostly oriented to functional components. The retail branding policy and store formats moderate results. This research adopts a PLS-Path modeling to test the retail brand equity model and its variations and then to provide a synthetic calculation of the retail brand equity. Results show that the standard retail brand equity leads to the loyalty to the brand and to the store. It varies according to: 1) the store brand policy (store’s own-named) appears to be a winning option maximizing the loyalty; 2) the “popular store” format—combining supermarket and department store—reinforces the sustainable relationship with customers because of the high level of service. By calculating scores, Carrefour brand maximizes the relationships within the model. This work focuses on French standard retail brands excluding other retail brands (such as generics or premium). Results also focus on one product category. The retailer’s positioning variable extends previous contributions leading to more consistent results. This research is also focused on the antecedents of retail brand equity too less studied: Benefits (received from their consumption) and the packaging of the branded product are thus integrated. Hence, perspectives for practitioners are suggested.