Summary
As Europe enters its sixth year of economic turbulence, shoppers' attitudes to brands are changing, possibly forever. Concerns about household finances mean they are cutting back, trading down and buying more retailers' own labels. Food is being prioritised with the result that the household goods category has suffered, with volume sales down 1.3% across the continent. Consumers are now more likely to rely on shopping lists to ensure they buy only what they need and avoid impulse purchases. Manufacturers and retailers are having to respond to changing behaviour as people shop more often but for less each time, by producing smaller pack sizes or developing apps to help shoppers with budget planning and control. Price sensitivity is driving channel and brand migration as consumers seek out bargains and value using voucher and price comparison websites, leading to an increase in trade promotion activity from national brands. Retailers and brands in all countries face problems in retaining loyalty from increasingly fickle shoppers and will need to develop a much deeper understanding of what makes them tick.

Summary
As recession drags on, supermarket own-label groceries have prospered across Europe. Retailers have moved away from 'the same thing for less money' stance and have improved the quality of their own brands in terms of taste, range and performance and are shouting about it in their marketing. They have moved their products upmarket and created value by bringing in new brand identities and attributes at every price point. Retailers are also developing product assortments to address niche market needs, and multi-tiered private label offerings with different pricing strategies are well established. In order to compete, big brands need to stop focusing on price and promotions, and instead become much more innovative and invest in NPD.

Summary
In order to improve the effectiveness of store brand management, this study presents a meta-analysis that aggregates empirical findings from the literature on consumer behaviour towards store brands. First, the study provides a quantitative summary of bivariate findings regarding the way consumer-related factors influence store brand success. Second, the authors analyse the moderating effect of market context, product category and data type on store brand success. The resulting analysis suggest that price consciousness, quality consciousness, familiarity with store brands and perceived quality of store brands are the four most important factors that significantly influence consumer behaviour towards store brands. Market context and product category also exert significant moderating effects on the influence of some factors on consumer behaviour towards store brands. On the basis of these findings, this study concludes with a discussion of practical implications and possible directions for future research.

Summary
This research proposes a fixed effects panel data model to study store brand market share. The analysis is performed on the Spanish consumer products market for almost all Nielsen categories, with information about store brands from 1996 to 2000. The results of this research show both determinant variables of the evolution of store brand market share at temporal level (retail stock turnover for a category, manufacturer and retailer concentration, price differential and economic risk, among others) and determinant variables of crosssectional differences in store brand market share (price elasticity of demand and manufacturer brand differentiation, and so on). They reveal the importance of considering time in the analysis of the effect of price differential and economic risk on the store brand market share. Important implications for manufacturers and retailers in the management of their brands are stated.

Summary
This report from Euromonitor International, an offshoot of its Strategy Briefings series, looks at the potential for private label products in a weakening economy. It notes that private label sales are concentrated in Europe and North America, with the sector still in its infancy in emerging markets. Retailers are the driving force behind private label innovation as they adopt a brand-oriented approach to development. This extends to segmentation and the development of premium and economy ranges. The credit crunch and higher commodity prices will work in favour of private label products due to their perceived value for money.

Summary
Store brands, also known as private labels, are mainstream in many markets and becoming more so, particularly in developing markets. As such they constitute legitimate threats to established brands. As retailers update store brand packaging and roll out premium lines of private labels, shoppers seem increasingly willing to try these products. How can the makers of major consumer packaged goods brands defend their market share in the face of this phenomenon?

Summary
This article discusses and charts the relentless growth of retailer power, based on the popularity of private label. Premium private label is the threat of the future. The development of tiers of private label brands enables retailers to differentiate themselves from each other (far more important for them than differentiating themselves from brands). To compete with copy, and in future with premium, private label, brands must regain trust. Global, social and environmental issues are new opportunities for brands: obesity, consumerism, global warming, rubbish and pollution, etc. Greenwashing will not do: there must be real changes in a company's product and behaviour, as shown by Innocent and Whole Food Market. Three big global issues are identified: health, participation and lifestyle changes. To exploit these and compete successfully against private label, brands need to 'go back to basics', adapt to what consumers are demanding and re-establish consumer trust.

Summary
Modern trade retail chains and their private labels are some of the most visible elements of the transformation in Central and Eastern European countries in the last 15 years. This paper describes the situation and the potential of private labels in seven CEE countries (Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) and Russia. The results are based on both consumer opinion studies and market dynamics figures.

Summary
This paper demonstrates that branding matters. While this seems to state the obvious, in the context of low involvement categories that are retailer brands strongholds this might be quite provocative. In some low involvement categories, retailer brands volume share is not far from reaching 80% in some European countries. Still data show that for premium brands what really matters is their capacity to offer distinctive yet relevant consumer benefits. Evidence for branding power, even in low involvement categories, could be found in research run independently with consumers and shoppers. This paper calls for a shift of focus from blaming categories for being low involvement to blaming our own limitations in terms of capacity to create strong brands, recognizing the category low involvement difficulty. Brands that would be tempted to mimic retailer brands can only push down the involvement level of their categories degrading category value and ultimately allowing historical price players to win even more easily. Leaving the low involvement categories to retailer brands can easily backfire. This will fuel their capacity to enter later on categories that have higher level of involvement.

Summary
This study investigates from four angles why retail brands are growing. Employing panel and adhoc information collected on some 2,000 categories in 33 countries, the authors uncover reasons for different private label success rates between countries, categories, consumer segments and retailers. Results provide a comprehensive account on whether and why a certain category, and thus its key players, need to worry about retail brands. We show how organizations can use this understanding in developing effective counter strategies, both by improving the consumer equity created by its brands and by effectively cooperating with their new competition, the retailers.