The Impact of Category Legitimacy on the Adoption of Private Brand New Products: The Moderating Role of Consumption Orientation

Purpose: Private brands (PBs) have recently evolved from low-price alternatives to strategic instruments that enable retailers to create differentiation and even lead the introduction of new product categories. Despite this shift, prior research has primarily compared private and national brands (NBs) in terms of price or quality perceptions, offering limited insight into how PB entry influences consumers’ acceptance of unfamiliar product categories. This study introduces the concept of category legitimacy and examines whether the effect of brand type (PB vs. NB) on consumers’ evaluations operates through perceived legitimacy of the product category. Furthermore, it investigates how this process varies depending on consumers’ consumption orientation, specifically hedonic versus utilitarian tendencies. Research design, data, and methodology: A between-subjects online experiment was conducted with 300 consumers using a newly introduced product category (solid toothpaste). Participants were randomly assigned to either a private-brand or national-brand condition. Category legitimacy was measured as a mediator, and consumption orientation (hedonic–utilitarian gap) was modeled as a moderator. Category attitude, category adoption intention, and brand purchase intention were assessed as outcome variables. The hypotheses were tested using moderated mediation analysis with PROCESS Model 7. Results: The findings show that private brands significantly increased perceived category legitimacy among consumers with relatively stronger hedonic orientations. This heightened legitimacy, in turn, positively influenced category attitudes, adoption intentions, and brand purchase intentions through indirect effects. In contrast, national brands generated more favorable direct effects on category attitudes and adoption intentions regardless of consumption orientation. No significant direct effect of brand type was observed on brand purchase intention. These results suggest that consumers evaluate new products not only at the brand level but also at the broader category level, and that brand-type effects depend on individual consumption tendencies. Conclusions: This study extends legitimacy theory to the consumer decision-making context by conceptualizing legitimacy at the product-category level. It reconceptualizes private brands as signals that facilitate category acceptance rather than merely low-cost substitutes. The findings provide theoretical contributions by explaining how brand type interacts with consumer orientation to shape new product adoption and offer managerial implications for retailers seeking to stimulate category growth through private-label strategies and legitimacy-enhancing communications.