The roles of distribution in determining store brand performance

Store brand is a key retailing issue today. In recent years numerous studies have been conducted to examine the effects of national brand marketing mix activities on store brand share. However, there has been little analysis of the roles and effects of distribution. This paper suggests that at a category level, other retailers’ store brand distribution, retailer’s own category assortment and national brands’ category distribution intensity would potentially affect store brand share. By adopting a parsimonious method for operationalising distribution intensity at the category level developed by Cadeaux (1997), this paper presents several theoretical propositions that aim to understand the various roles and effects of distribution on store brand share. This paper potentially has important implications for both store brand and distribution research.