To say or not to say. The importance of being transparent in retail branding

In the age of sharing and social media, brands are increasingly being called upon to meet consumers’ demand for transparency. Over the past decades Store Brands (SBs) have increased both their market share and customer loyalty internationally; thus it is of paramount importance that they increase their capability of responding to this need for transparency. The aim of this work is to verify whether and to what extent the online discussion about the co-packer identity and/or the place of origin of SB products can reduce perception of risk associated to purchasing of SBs and more generally to increase the credibility and thus the brand image of the retailers. Methodology is based on classification and elaboration, through the Nvivo software, of comments posted by consumers on the“Io leggo l’etichetta” Facebook page, which offers the most popular “wiki” on this theme. The results show that the retailers’ which are most cited online are characterized by a general positive sentiment. This implies a need of increasing investments in the sphere of transparency branding by the same retailers and some potential risks for their National Brand co-packers.