L'engagement du consommateur envers les marques de distributeurs : un modèle relationnel

Résumé du document

The distribution is the system which takes in charge all the operations by which a product that has been just made is given to the consumer or to the user. This field integrates three essential functions: a logistic function (delivery, storage), a transactional function (sale), and an entertaining function (interaction between the various actors).
If the first business of the distributors is the delivery of goods for the benefit of the consumer, it's not the only one today. Indeed, the distributors diversify their activities and propose henceforth services (insurance, travel, credit,), but what interests us in our study is the development by the distributors of their own brands: distributor's brand name (DBN) or private label.
The DBN has an existence of 80 years in France, but for about twenty years it knows an unprecedented development. Created at first to propose a cheaper offer, they are positioning today as quality brands and compete directly with the national brands.

It is this evolution which urges us to wonder about the existence of a real relation between this type of brand and the consumer (Brand Relationship Quality Fournier 1994), and to wonder if the DBN can develop loyalty of the consumers and how.
Indeed, if it seems evident that the value for money plays a dominating role in the act of purchase of a product DBN, we want to know if "relational" factors can have an influence on the repurchase of the product.

The brand loyalty is a subject widely studied in the marketing research, in the same way as the brand commitment which allows to measure the true fidelity by taking into account on one hand, the repurchase of the brand to continue the relation (Amine, on 1999, Geyer and al. 1991) and on the other hand, the resistance to change (Debling, on 1998; Crosby and Taylor, on 1983). We wish to transpose the core of these studies into the context of the DBN and verify the possibility of adaption of the various concepts in this context.

In 2002, Bozzo et al. underline the important role of four variables (received quality, trust, attachment and commitment) in the explanation of profiles contrasted by a typology of the loyal consumers (loyal - inert - detached). Then, the works of Benyoussef and al. (2005) show that on a relational plan the trust and the attachment are the mains factors of the loyalty.
Thus, we are going to be interested mainly in these two concepts to lead our study on the commitment to the DBN.
The distributors made many efforts on the competitiveness and the positioning of their brands, but the competitive context makes the DBN becoming a tool of development of customer loyalty, able to create a link between the distributor and the consumers by discriminating the offer (Binninger, 2007).
That is why we wish to direct our research to reveal the influence of relational variables as trust and attachment, as a supplement to the rational factors such as the value for money or the received risk, on the commitment of the consumers in the DBN.
We shall also verify the moderating role that can play the factors of brand and price sensibility.