Optimal brand differentiation and private brand introduction strategies considering carbon emission reduction

Abstract This paper constructs a theoretical model to explore whether manufacturers should launch low‐end products and whether retailers should introduce private brands. The main results show that whether retailers (manufacturers) introduce private brands or launch low‐end products depends not only on the fixed cost of introducing private brands (launching low‐end products) but also on the sensitivity of consumers to carbon reduction, product competition coefficient, manufacturer's cost of high‐end products, and carbon reduction cost coefficient. Furthermore, brand differentiation strategy and private brand introduction strategy have an impact on one another.