What claims best convey the quality of retailers’ standard private label products?

Purpose: Consumers consider retailers' standard private labels (PLs) as relevant choices, compared to national brands (NBs), and their demand for private label products has increased significantly over the past decade. At the same time, PLs have undergone a profound transformation as retailers have enhance their quality. Consequently, this research investigates the impact of claims used to highlight the quality of standard PL products on consumers' perceptions and behaviours. Design/methodology/approach: A between-subjects experiment, set in a store laboratory, was used to study consumers' perceptions and behaviours. The impact of six non-nutrition claims - linked, according to the self-other trade-off, either to concern for consumers' health (internal to the self) or for the environment (external to the self) - on consumers' reactions has been studied. Then, the data collected were analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings: This research indicates that health claims retailers make to echo consumers' own concerns have positive impacts at three basic levels: the brand, the retail chain, and the store. It also highlights the central role of trust in standard PLs, which, once activated by the non-nutrition claims made by retailers and the increase in the quality of standard PLs thus inferred by consumers, can improve consumers' attitude toward the food retailers' stores and reinforce their intentions to visit again and recommend them. Research limitations/implications: From a theoretical perspective, this research complements cue utilization theory as it applies this framework to standard PLs and establishes that consumers use extrinsic cues (i.e., communic et la thations on non-nutrition claims linked to concern for consumers' health) to infer the quality of standard PL brand products. Practical implications: From a managerial perspective, this research highlights the superiority of retailers' claims related to consumer health over those related to concern for the environment. It also affirms the superiority of retailers' claims highlighting the natural origin of ingredients. For this specific assertion, trust in the standard PL and the corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy of the brand have direct and indirect impacts, via attitude toward the stores, on consumers' intentions to return to and to recommend these stores. Originality/value: Despite the increasing importance of products as effective tools for communicating companies' CSR policies, scant research has been conducted on consumers' reactions to non-nutrition claims, which are increasingly prominent in the marketplace.