Consumers’ Perceptions of Variety – the Impact of Private Brands

This study aims to investigate how consumers perceive variety in grocery stores and further how private brands have affected consumers’ perceptions of variety in grocery stores.The study focuses on the perceptions and attitudes towards variety and the impact of private brands on perceived variety. Hence, a qualitative rather than quantitative study has been used. Photo elicitation has been used in both focus groups and in-depth interviews, which have been the empirical data collection of the study. Scientific articles and books have also been used in the process. The connection of new empirical data with previous research has been analyzed through the whole thesis and is presented in detail in the analysis and the conclusions.Previous theories in form of books and scientific articles have been used to describe the research area, to support the selection of key factors in the conceptual framework and to increase understandings of previous research of these factors.Focus groups have been used in order to find the key aspects of how consumers perceive variety. In combination with previous studies on these aspects focus groups have created the propositions that have been tested in the in-depth interviews. The interviews were built on the key aspects and gave us the foundation for the analysis and conclusions.During the research process it has become clear that consumers perceive the variety in grocery stores differently in distinct product categories. Product involvement, taste and price are some of the factors that strongly influence their perceptions of variety. The results from this study indicate that consumers think that private brands have increased their options in various product categories, mainly due to the extension of price options