To study consumer brand misinformation, we run in-store blind taste tests with a retailer’s private label food brands and the leading national brand counterparts in three large consumer packaged goods categories. Subjects self-report very high expectations about the quality of the private labels relative to national brands. However, they predict a relatively low probability of choosing them in a blind taste test. An overwhelming majority systematically choose the private label in the blinded test. Using program evaluation methods, we find that the causal effect of this intervention on treated consumers increases their market share for the tested private label product by 15 share points during the week after the intervention, on top of a base share of 8 share points. However, the effect diminishes to 8 share points during the second to fourth weeks after the test and to 2 share points during the second to fifth months after the test. Using a structural model of demand that controls for the self-selected participation and allows for heterogeneous treatment effects, we show that these effects survive controls for point-of-purchase prices, purchase incidence, and the feedback effects of brand loyalty. We also find that the intervention increases the preference for the private label brands, and that it decreases the preference for the national brands, relative to the outside good. Interpreting the intervention as an information treatment about the product, we find evidence consistent with an economically large informational barrier on demand for the private label product relative to an established national brand.

中文翻译：

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消费者错误信息和品牌溢价：自有品牌盲品测试

为了研究消费者品牌的错误信息，我们对零售商的自有品牌食品品牌和三个大型消费者包装商品类别中领先的国家品牌同行进行了店内盲品测试。受试者对私人品牌相对于民族品牌的质量自我期望很高。但是，他们预测在盲味测试中选择它们的可能性相对较低。绝大多数在盲测中系统地选择了自有品牌。通过使用程序评估方法，我们发现干预后的一周内，此干预对受过治疗的消费者的因果关系将其被测自有品牌产品的市场份额提高了15个百分点，而基础份额为8个百分点。然而，在测试后的第二至第四周，效果降低至8个共享点，在测试后的第二至第五个月，效果降低至2个共享点。使用需求结构模型来控制自我选择的参与并考虑到不同的处理效果，我们表明这些效果在购买点价格，购买发生率以及品牌忠诚度的反馈效果的控制下仍然存在。我们还发现，相对于外部商品，干预措施增加了对自有品牌品牌的偏好，并降低了对民族品牌的偏好。将干预解释为关于产品的信息处理，我们发现证据与相对于已建立的国家品牌的自有品牌产品的需求在经济上存在巨大的信息障碍相符。