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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present different naming, packaging, and pricing strategies adopted by private label (PL) retailers in India. This study also aims to identify preferred private label brand (PLB) categories, factors influencing their selection, and the importance of cues in evaluation of PLBs. The overall purpose is to identify important areas for future research of PLBs in the wake of organized retail growth in an emerging economy (India is the context here). Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on in-store observations of major Indian retail chains, longitudinal analyses of customers’ shopping bills, qualitative analyses of consumer interviews, and focus group discussions. Findings – The results indicate that retailers primarily adopt “Sub-branding” (using the store name along with a separate brand name) and “House of Brands” (using a separate brand name only) strategies to sell PLBs in the Indian market. Groceries, food and beverages, and apparel are the preferred categories in PLB. Price, quality, and convenience are the major factors influencing PLB. Taste, ingredients, packaging, price, brand name, and store name are the main factors that are used to evaluate PLBs. Research limitations/implications – Due to the qualitative analyses and interpretation, there are limitations to this study which need to be empirically validated. Practical implications – This research has implications for organized retailers in understanding the various strategies used for PLBs in India. Originality/value – This study is a novel study for documenting the PLB strategies adopted by organized retailers in India. It also uses a longitudinal exploratory approach to further understanding the consumption of PLBs in India.

We conducted a content analysis on 203 comparative print advertisements in India. We found that as hypothesized, direct comparative advertisements were used more (vis-à-vis indirect ones), differentiative claims were used more (vis-à-vis associative ones), maximal claims were higher than minimal claims, multibrand comparisons were greater in number (vis-à-vis single-brand comparisons), positive valence is preferred to negative valence, and underdog brands used more comparative advertisements than top-dog brands. Contrary to expectations, we found that hedonic and utilitarian products used comparative advertisements equally. We offer a snapshot of the state of comparative advertisements in India that would be useful to managers and researchers.

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Research on brand naming has recently taken center stage in marketing literature. This study formulates a comprehensive classification of brand names that incorporates frameworks from existing literature and current naming methods used by practitioners. A content analysis of the top 500 global brand names based on manifest content, across 11 product categories, was conducted to understand the current brandnaming trends. The results confirm extensive use of the promoter's name and place of origin (39.7 per cent of all brand names coded), compounding (34.1 per cent), abbreviations (18.2 per cent) and blending (7.9 per cent). Category-wise analysis indicates that certain categories, such as durables, follow the aggregate pattern of 61.5 per cent semantic word names, 53.0 per cent invented word names and 23.6 per cent non-word names. FMCG brands, on the other hand, show differing patterns because of disproportionately low abbreviations in the distribution. Further, χ 2 tests using equal expected frequencies of the three dimensions; semantic, invented and non-word names, showed that there appears to be significant differences in frequency between these dimensions. Practitioners may consider using these newly defined categories, such as semantically related acronyms, in creating distinctive brand names. This study also analyzes the use of sound symbolic names for brands.