Do consumers perceive differences among national brands, international private labels and local private labels? The case of Taiwan

Purpose This research attempts to investigate the differences of consumer perceptions on product quality, price, brand leadership and brand personality among national brands, international private labels and local private labels. It aims to use product categories as the moderator of the preceding perceptions. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected outside the entrances of the main rail station of Taipei, Taiwan. A systematic sampling was adopted and 254 questionnaires were eventually collected. Findings The findings revealed that on the whole national brands were perceived as significantly superior to international private labels, while international private labels were perceived as being superior to local private labels in terms of all perceptions except price perception. The findings also revealed that product categories moderated price and brand personality perceptions across the three brand types, while product categories failed to moderate the effect of the three brands types on quality and brand leadership perceptions. Originality/value This research represents one of the few pioneer works that empirically investigate the aforementioned issues.