Branding strategies of low-priced products: Analysis of Serbian fruit juice market

Abstract

Frequent changes in consumers' preferences cause the need for constant adjustment of manufacturers' offer, which all give much importance to building appropriate brand architecture, that organizes company's portfolio. As a reaction to current growing price sensitive market segment, manufacturers have developed fighting brands and downward vertical brand extensions, while private labels are offered by retailers, so to fulfill expectations coming from the market. Different branding strategies used in fruit juice market in Serbia are the subject of this research and both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. The results show that low - cost brands are present in this category. However, there's no unique branding strategy. Consumers recognize various levels of products' quality, which influence their readiness to pay for it. Also, manufacturers' presence across different price levels doesn't negatively affect their image amongst the consumers and the level of trust given to manufacturers is generally higher compared to products' brands. In fruit juice category, manufacturers' brands dominate private labels, although 'blind' test results show that quality of these two brands' types doesn't necessarily differ.

Keywords

• branding
• consumers
• food
• downward vertical brand extension
• private labels