Retail Innovation Across Retail Brands And Product Brands

The focus of this paper is to analyse the relationships between brand strategies, formats, and assortment innovation processes as regards retailers. The first part of this work takes into account the concepts of “product brand” and “retail brand.” The authors emphasize that the contemporary concept of brand could be defined on a more general level as this traditional distinction fades. The second part of the paper analyses the possible set of interactions and integrations between retail and product brands, identifying the framework of the “vertical brand,” that is, a brand directly perceived by consumers as both a retail and product brand. The third part of the paper explores vertical brand innovation patterns starting at the retailing stage. The authors attempt to underscore how retail innovation does not necessarily follow hierarchical patterns, but rather seems to assume a circular path. Finally, the paper empirically analyses a set of international retailers. The method used is founded on qualitative secondary research and is mainly based on business databases, firm reports, and investor reports. This empirical section seeks to offer a first examination of the reliability of the vertical brand concept and to test the circular retail innovation patterns found in the retailers analysed.