The impact of customer awareness of manufacturer name disclosure on retail brand attitudes and loyalty in Korea

•Awareness of the manufacturer positively influences attitudes towards retail brands.•Manufacturer awareness does not fully mitigate the perceived risks of retail brands.•Awareness of the RB manufacturer negatively effects attitudes to manufacturer brands.•Favourable attitudes to RB have a positive and stronger effect on RB loyalty than store loyalty.

This paper explores the impact of exposing the name of the manufacturer on a retail brand product upon national brand loyalty, retail brand loyalty and store loyalty, It does so by exploring customer attitudes towards retail brands in South Korea, where there is a legal requirement for retail brands to portray the manufacturer׳s name. For international retailers entering markets where such disclosure is a legal requirement an understanding of the implications of this for retail brand management is essential. The findings suggest that in the Korean case revealing the name of the manufacturer who supplies the retail brand on the product packaging has a positive influence on attitudes towards retail brands, although it did not mitigate the perceived risks held by customers towards retail brand products in general.