EVOLUTION OF PRIVATE LABEL DEVELOPMENT: A JAPANESE CASE

Sa？etak This paper discusses on recent trend in private label development in Japan. Reasons for introducing of private label products have been explained as low price with moderate quality by the beginning of 21st century in Japan. However, improvement of quality is one of the persuasive factors which explains recent growth of private label products. In this paper, we will show market share growth which evolves with private label evolution from low price appeal to quality focused, when we traced its evolutionary sequence. Continuous quality improvement of private label product is one of the critical factors which influences consumers’ repeated purchase. Though previous studies indicated that quality improvement positively influenced, there was few report on practices and management of quality improvement in retailers. This paper will explore such quality improvement activities, how that evolved. Recent private label development focused on involvement to upstream, that is, production phase, such as material selections and supply management