National brand

This article discusses branding within a country. For the concept of a national brand as the branding of an entire country internationally, see Nation branding.

A national brand is the brand of a product that is distributed nationally under a brand name - owned by a producer or distributor - as opposed to local brands (products distributed only in some areas of a country), and to private-label brands (products that carry the brand of the retailer rather than the producer.)

National brands compete with local and private brands. National brands are produced by, widely distributed by, and carry the name of the manufacturer.

• Local brands may appeal to those consumers who favor small, local producers over large national or global producers, and who may prefer to pay a premium to "buy local".
• Private-label producers can offer lower prices because they avoid the cost of marketing and advertising to build and protect a brand. In North America, large retailers such as Loblaws, Walgreens and Wal-Mart offer private-label products as store brands.

On the other hand, marketing and advertising may give consumers the impression that a national-brand product is superior to a local- or private-branded product.

References

• According to Kotler: The World's Foremost Authority on Marketing Answers Your Questions / Philip Kotler, 2005
• Retail Price Cutting and Its Control by Manufacturers / Albert Haring, 1976
• National Brand and Store Brand Price Competition: Who Hurts Whom? / Raj Sethuraman, 1995