Management & Marketing no. 3/2014

The interplay between brands and private labels and its consequences on small and medium wine producers

Jon Heinrich Hanf,
GeisenheimUniversity, Germany

Abstract. In the last twenty years the private labels of retailers have gained popularity among German food retail customers. Today over 40% of all food products are retail brands. Whereas retail brands started as rather cheap alternatives, in the last couple of years retailers introduced more and more premium retail brands that were very successful. Hence, differences from traditional producer brands are diminishing. This affects the existent category management strategies. Regarding the German wine market the majority of sales are done in classical food retail stores. At the moment we can observe the first retail branding approaches in this category. But, at the same time, wine brands are not very strong in Germany. Thus, the aim of this viewpoint is a discussion on the consequences of retail branding on the German wine market and, in particular, on wine brands.

Keyword: branding, German wine market, retail branding, retail development.

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