IP Outreach Research > IP Crime
Reference
| Title: | Why Do Consumers Buy Counterfeit Luxury Brands? |
| Author: | Keith Wilcox and Sankar Sen [City University of New York], Hyeong Min Kim [Johns Hopkins University] |
| Source: | Journal of Marketing Research 46, no. 2: 247-259 |
| Year: | 2009 |
Details
| Subject/Type: | Counterfeiting |
| Focus: | Brands (non-deceptive counterfeits), Luxury Goods |
| Country/Territory: | United States of America |
| Objective: | To investigate the role of social motives in driving counterfeit consumption. |
| Sample: | 79 undergraduate students (56% female) at a large north-eastern university; 138 female undergraduate students at a large north-eastern university; 176 undergraduate students (55% female) at a large north-eastern university |
| Methodology: | Questionnaire; experimental studies |
Main Findings
Social goals underlie consumer attitudes towards luxury brands: consumption of luxury goods to gain social status serves a self-presentation function (social-adjustive attitude), and, consumption of luxury goods to reflect personality serves a self-expression function (value-expressive attitude).
Accordingly, a consumer’s likelihood of purchasing counterfeit luxury brands varies considerably with the social function these brands perform:
- consumers viewing luxury goods as a means of gaining social status (self-presentation function) are more likely to purchase counterfeits compared to consumers viewing them as a reflection of their personality (self-expression function)
- negative moral beliefs about counterfeiting per se are found to diminish the likelihood of purchasing counterfeits if they serve a self-expression function, but not if they serve a self-presentation function
Similarly, the effect of the availability of counterfeits on consumer preferences for the real brand depends on social function: the more the luxury brand is perceived as serving a self-presentation function, the more negative the effect is on the genuine brand.
Understanding the social goals of luxury good consumption, it is possible to influence people’s counterfeit consumption behaviours: the way a luxury brand’s meaning is created through advertising and made accessible to consumers through product design can affect consumers’ desire for counterfeit versions of the brand. To decrease counterfeit consumption, luxury brand marketers need to find an equilibrium between reducing the self-presentation function of the brand (by making brands less conspicuous and emphasising self expression in advertisemetns) without diminishing demand for the real brand.
Marketers can also adapt their communications according to whether the consumers they target purchase luxury goods for self-presentation or self-expression. People with self-presentation motives may be less inclined to purchase counterfeit luxury brands after viewing advertisements depicting the damage of counterfeit consumption on people’s social standing, such as losing the valuable opinion of friends or being rejected by important reference groups. In turn, consumers with self-expression motives may be less likely to purchase counterfeit luxury brands after viewing information-based advertisements discussing ethical issues associated with counterfeiting, such as its links to narcotics, human trafficking, and terrorism. Media outlets diffusing these campaigns should be chosen depending on their appeal to predominantly social-adjustive or value-expressive audiences.
[Date Added: Mar 31, 2009 ]