世論 What Japan Thinks

Own brands, or house brands as I think they are known as in the USA, or private brands as they are known in Japan, are the supermarket’s own label items that are sold cheaper than the household brand names. To see what Japan thinks of them, MyVoice performed a survey into own brand products.

Demographics

Over the first five days on November 2008 15,510 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 36% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

I try to keep away from own brands in Japan, as I’ve not had very good experiences with them, on the whole. Daiei do fake Kit-Kats, for instance. Their plain ones just don’t have the right chocolate or the crispiness in the wafer, and their flavoured ones are downright nasty!

I think I remember back in the UK there was a web site that listed which own brands were repackaged famous brands; I wonder if such a service exists over here?

Research results

Q1: About how often do you buy supermarket, convenience store own brand products? (Sample size=15,510)

Almost every day	1.9%
Four or five times a week	3.8%
Twice or thrice a week	17.9%
Once a week	21.4%
Once a month	19.8%
Less than that	16.7%
Never bought own brand items (to Q5)	8.6%

Q2: What kinds of own brand products have you bought? (Sample size=own brand buyers, multiple answer)

Sweets	59.6%
Bread	48.9%
Drink	44.9%
Dairy	38.8%
Noodles	37.5%
Spices	29.4%
Sanitary items (toilet paper, tissue paper, etc)	29.1%
Ham, bacon	27.5%
Boil-in-the-bag foods	25.0%
Frozen foods	22.4%
Cleaning products	21.1%
Household items	20.9%
Stationery	9.5%
Other	7.5%
No answer	0.4%

Q3: Which one kind of own brand product do you buy the most? (Sample size=own brand buyers)

Sweets	21.1%
Bread	15.6%
Drink	13.1%
Noodles	9.2%
Dairy	8.6%
Spices	5.9%
Sanitary items (toilet paper, tissue paper, etc)	4.7%
Ham, bacon	4.0%
Boil-in-the-bag foods	2.9%
Cleaning products	2.5%
Household items	2.4%
Frozen foods	2.1%
Stationery	0.6%
Other	2.0%
Nothing in particular	4.6%
No answer	0.7%

Q4: What points have you felt dissatisfaction with regarding the one kind of own brand product you buy the most? (Sample size=own brand buyers, multiple answer)

Price	15.1%
Flavour	10.8%
Selection available	8.5%
Quality	8.4%
Resembles famous maker’s product	7.9%
Area, country of origin	6.5%
Few shops that sell them	5.3%
Amount of contents	4.7%
Package design	4.6%
Country of manufacture	4.0%
Difficult to find the product	3.0%
Scant advantage from purchasing them	2.4%
Brand, product name	1.3%
Package shape	1.3%
Other	1.0%
No particular dissatisfaction	49.8%
No answer	0.3%

Q5: Over the last year how has your frequency of purchasing own brand products changed? (Sample size=15,510)

Increased	17.8%
Increased slightly	25.7%
Not changed	44.1%
Decreased slightly	2.3%
Decreased	2.6%
Never bought own-brand items	6.2%
No answer	1.3%