Positioning of private label brands of men’s apparel against national brands

The article argues that apart from price competition with other underlying factors differentiate the customers’ perception of the national brand (NB) and private label brand (PLB). The data collected across various brands indicate that respondents prefer NBs for their reputation, stock adequacy, and sizes over PLBs’ price benefits. Rough set theory, analysis shows that the maximum one-to-one correspondence exists between the brand's reputation, the fabric quality, and the information quality for a product with each brand, irrespective of the brand type. The C4.5 decision tree analysis and multilayer perceptron theory show that the reputation and quality of the fabric are also accountable for selecting PLB over NB, besides price. The choice of colors is the conspicuous attribute of a PLB choice, followed by ease of availability in online stores. The study demonstrates that retailers should focus more on brand image and brand repositioning than keeping price gaps to satisfy young customers.