Food private label choice: the role of price-oriented psychographics and marketing communications

Purpose Private labels are appealing options for retailers and consumers during economic hardship. This study aims to examine the impact of consumers' price-oriented psychographics and retailers' marketing communications on private label attitudes. Design/methodology/approach A survey was administered to collect data. With 255 qualified responses, structural equation modelling was employed to test the proposed conceptual model. Findings Price-oriented deal proneness and in-store marketing significantly increase private-label attitudes. Interestingly, the price-quality schema marginally increases private-label attitudes rather than decreasing them. Moreover, personalised digital communications led to more favourable attitudes towards private labels among consumers with average or low perceptions of loyalty program value. In contrast, with the high perceived value of loyalty programs, personalised digital communications weakened private-label attitudes. Originality/value This study empirically explores the impact of private-label personalised digital communications, the perceived value of loyalty programs and their interaction impact on private label attitudes, integrating cue utilisation theory with privacy calculus theory and relationship exchange theory to examine the proposed impacts.