When counterfeits raise the appeal of luxury brands

Counterfeiting is a widespread practice throughout the world. The conventional wisdom is that it affects branded goods negatively. In this paper, however, we suggest that counterfeiting may actually benefit certain luxury brands. By means of two studies, we show how the market presence of luxury counterfeit items can increase consumers’ willingness to pay for original brands. In Study 1, we show that the presence of luxury counterfeits can increase consumers’ willingness to pay for well-known original brands, but not for lesser-known ones. Brand awareness plays a moderating role in the positive relationship between counterfeiting and willingness to pay (WTP). In Study 2, we address the psychological mechanisms that explain this increased willingness to pay. The results show that consumers’ (a) pleasure at being envied, (b) pleasure in distinguishing themselves, and (c) perception of the quality of the original goods fully mediate the relation between the presence of counterfeit in the market and consumers’ WTP for originals. We subsequently discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the two study results.     

Effects of cognitive resource availability on consumer decisions involving counterfeit products: The role of perceived justification

In four experiments, participants made a purchase decision about a counterfeit product under either constrained or unconstrained cognitive resource conditions. Participants were less likely to purchase the counterfeit when their cognitive resources were constrained than when they were not. However, this difference was evident only when individuals had strong (vs. weak) moral beliefs, or when they had low (vs. high) accountability for their decisions. These and other results suggest that the effect of cognitive resource availability on counterfeit purchase was mediated by participants’ perceptions of justification about the purchase.     

Determinants of Consumer’s Willingness to Purchase Gray-Market Smartphones

The study analyzes the influential factors of consumers’ willingness to purchase gray-market smartphones by considering the model of novelty seeking, status consumption, integrity, and perceived risk. Attitude toward counterfeit is used as mediation in the model. The causalities in the model of problematic willingness of consumer to purchase gray-market smartphones are hypothesized. A total sample of 350 respondents with 238 effective samples is collected by interviewing with questionnaires at the service counters of telecommunications operators. Structure equation modeling (SEM) is adopted in the analysis. Consumers’ attitude toward counterfeit goods is found to be positively related to the willingness of consumers to purchase gray-market smartphones, but perceived risk is negatively related to consumers’ willingness to purchase. As for personality constructs, integrity and status consumption are found to be negatively related to consumers’ attitude toward counterfeit goods, but novelty seeking is positively related to the attitude. Further, managerial implications for branded smartphone manufacturers and telecommunications regulators are provided by the research.     

Counterfeit Luxuries: Does Moral Reasoning Strategy Influence Consumers’ Pursuit of Counterfeits?

Morality, in the context of luxury counterfeit goods, has been widely discussed in existing literature as having a strong association with decreased purchase intention. However, drawing on moral disengagement theory, we argue that individuals are motivated to justify their immoral behaviors through guilt avoidance, thus increasing counterfeit purchase intention. This research demonstrates that consumers’ desire to purchase counterfeit luxuries hinges on (one of) two types of moral reasoning strategies: moral rationalization and moral decoupling. The empirical results show that each strategy increases purchase intention, but respectively through moral judgment and perceived benefit. Implications for researchers and managers are discussed.     

The “little emperor” and the luxury brand: How overt and covert narcissism affect brand loyalty and proneness to buy counterfeits

The authors build on approach‐avoidance motivations theory to investigate the relationship between narcissism and luxury brand consumption. Narcissistic consumers, that is, those showing excessive conceit, are prone to consuming high‐prestige products and are thus attractive targets for luxury brands. Yet despite research in psychology distinguishing two types of narcissism, overt (or grandiose) and covert (or vulnerable) narcissism, little is known about how luxury consumption varies by these forms of narcissism. This paper focuses on Chinese Generation Y consumers to examine how overt and covert narcissism differ in their effects on luxury brand loyalty and proneness to purchase counterfeits as well as the moderating role of brand‐image self‐image congruity on the relationship between overt/covert narcissism and brand loyalty. Findings highlight the need for marketers to understand narcissistic targets more clearly in order to develop successful strategies to foster brand loyalty and diminish counterfeit consumption.     

Consuming counterfeit: A study of consumer moralism in China

The consumption of counterfeits is a central theme in understanding consumer moralism. While some studies on marketing have highlighted the consumption motives and socio‐economic factors behind this seemingly unethical phenomenon, research on the subjective experiences of consumers and the cultural concerns about the consumption of counterfeits is lacking. The aim of this article is to gain a better understanding of how consumers construct and negotiate their moralistic identities through engaging in counterfeit consumption. We also examine how consumers utilize counterfeit goods as symbolic resources to echo, or even reproduce, the entrenched Chinese social relationships and marketplace ideological conditions. Our findings suggested that the research participants attempted to make sense of their counterfeit consumption behaviour by infusing the moralistic meanings drawn from the Chinese socio‐cultural value orientation. The study concludes that the moral identity work and counterfeit consumption practices are interwoven in a web of multiple discourses and resources available in the contemporary marketplace under the overarching consumer moralism framework.     

Expertise Makes Perfect: How the Variance of a Reviewer's Historical Ratings Influences the Persuasiveness of Online Reviews

Online reviews have become an important source of information for consumers’ purchase decisions. Drawing upon the consumer expertise and persuasion literature, this study proposes that consumers are more willing to accept a reviewer's recommendation when his/her historical ratings in a certain product domain display greater variance. Five experiments provide consistent support for this hypothesis and the underlying process. Study 1 tests the proposed effect of a reviewer's rating variance on consumers’ willingness to accept the reviewer's recommendation. Studies 2 and 3 show that this effect can be attributed to perceptions regarding the reviewer's expertise. Moreover, this “variance-expert inference” effect is attenuated when the consumption experience of the reviewer is limited (Study 4) and when the consumers are familiar with the products (Study 5). The theoretical implications for the online review and persuasion literature and practical implications for online retailers are discussed.     

Concurrent Ownership of Brands and Counterfeits: Conceptualization and Temporal Transformation from a Consumer Perspective

The aim of this paper is to shed light on consumers’ concurrent ownership of original and counterfeit versions of a brand, a phenomenon that is lively in the global market place but has thus far failed to attract adequate research attention. Using findings from eight focus group discussions, this paper investigates the relationships consumers have with brands and counterfeits when they own both at the same time, based on different object‐, self‐, and other‐centered engagements. Subsequently, three distinct consumer segments were identified that vary in their relationship trajectories over time. Along three established phases, a decline in purchasing of counterfeits can be observed; between Phases 1 and 2, this is due largely to negative emotional aspects, while making the transition to Phase 3 is always induced by a conflict with the social self. In all three segments the gap between the perceived and ideal social self widens, yet, once again, there are differences in the coping strategies.     

Genuine brands or high quality counterfeits: An investigation of luxury consumption in China

This study examines the effects of different marketing and manufacturing factors on the perceived quality gap and willingness to pay (WTP) for genuine luxury brands. Using the survey data of 786 Chinese consumers, the results show that three marketing factors (product innovation, price promotion, and sales environment) and two manufacturing factors (production in country of brand origin and difficulty in producing the products) all indirectly influence WTP through a perceived quality gap between originals and counterfeits. These effects differ significantly among consumers with different counterfeit and genuine brand purchasing experiences. For consumers with counterfeit purchasing experience, it is important to emphasize the manufacturing factors in the marketing strategies; however, for consumers who only buy genuine brands, marketing factors play a more important role. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consumer demand for counterfeit goods

Research on counterfeiting has focused on the supply side, with scant attention to consumer demand for counterfeit goods. Anticounterfeiting efforts would benefit from the identification of the segment(s) of consumer counterfeiting accomplices, consumers who knowingly purchase counterfeit products. This article reports on three studies, conducted at flea markets and malls, that attempted to identify consumer accomplices. Study 1 investigated prepurchase factors, Study 2 focused on factors active during purchasing, and Study 3 concentrated on postpurchase factors. The results suggest the existence of a typology of consumer accomplices, sly shoppers who purposely purchase counterfeit goods to demonstrate their consumer shrewdness and economically concerned shoppers whose intentional purchase of fake goods is driven by economic concerns. Implications for marketing practitioners are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The Impact of Stress on Consumers' Willingness to Pay

Stress is a companion in most consumers’ lives and as such should impact purchase behavior in many ways. Drawing on construal‐level theory, which relates to information processing on different levels of abstraction, the authors propose that consumers’ stress deteriorates their evaluation of products. The latter effect results from a stress‐induced focus shift, from product characteristics with high levels of construal to those with low levels of construal (Study 1). This shift also decreases the price that consumers are willing to pay (Study 2), though the product category moderates the impact of stress on willingness to pay (WTP), such that the decline in consumers’ WTP is smaller for products characterized by lower levels of construal (Study 3). This research extends existing knowledge on the impact of relaxation on consumers’ WTP by including stress in the analysis. Effect sizes are similar to those in related studies. In terms of managerial implications, this study recommends decreasing consumers’ stress levels at the point of purchase and tailoring marketing mix activities to match prevalent stress levels, if firms hope to mitigate the negative effect of stress.     

Older consumers’ perceptions of functional foods and non‐edible health‐enhancing innovations

Increasing interest in health and well‐being is likely to drive a growth in demand for products that have positive effects on health. Consumers’ acceptance of and willingness to buy functional foods has been widely studied, but there has not been research on consumers’ attitudes towards innovative non‐edible products with health effects. This study examines how older consumers perceive functional foods and novel non‐edible health‐enhancing products, how willing they are to purchase such products, and how health orientation influences their views. As an example of a ‘radical’ innovation, consumers’ acceptance of rubbing their hands in a specific soil‐based mixture to modulate the immune system is explored. The research material, 13 thematic interviews, was collected in Lahti region, Finland, in 2015. The study indicates that the older consumers’ market is not homogeneous. Based on a qualitative, in‐depth approach, the study distinguishes four consumer segments with different lay understandings of health and attitudes towards health‐enhancing products, which influence people's willingness to purchase such products. The segments are health‐seeking consumers, cautious consumers, critical consumers and natural health consumers. Various motives and barriers for using products with health claims are also identified. The case of rubbing hands in organic soil‐based mixture indicates the difficulty of predicting which consumer segment will first adopt this kind of ‘radical’ innovation. The results highlight that the credence qualities of a novel product must be communicated and advertised before entering the market while also taking into account the sensory properties of the product. ‘Radical innovations’ must be in a form that consumers can easily accept.     

When are Consumers Motivated to Connect with Ethical Brands? The Roles of Guilt and Moral Identity Importance

This research adds to the growing literature on what draws consumers to ethical brands. Findings from three studies demonstrate that guilt motivates consumers to connect with ethical brands, especially those consumers with high levels of moral identity importance (MII). Specifically, Study 1 finds that consumers report stronger self‐brand connections (SBCs) with an ethical brand when they feel guilty (vs. control). Study 2 finds that guilt particularly motivates consumers with high MII to report stronger SBCs with an ethical (vs. unethical) brand. In turn, these strong connections lead to increased intentions to purchase the ethical brand. Finally, Study 3 finds evidence for the proposed motivation‐based process explanation by showing that high MII consumers’ propensity to connect with ethical brands when feeling guilty (vs. control) is attenuated when these consumers are first given the opportunity to donate to a charitable cause to alleviate their guilt. Overall, the findings suggest that ethical brands can foster strong connections with and elicit higher purchase intentions from consumers seeking ways to alleviate their guilt.     

Modelling effects of consumer animosity: Consumers' willingness to buy foreign and hybrid products

This study aims to examine the effects of animosity on consumers’ willingness to buy hybrid products i.e. products that involve affiliations of two or more countries (such as branded in Japan but made in China). While consumers’ reluctance to purchase foreign products from countries that they have animosity towards is clearly evident in the current literature, little is known about consumers’ attitudes towards hybrid products. As such, the study introduces this new construct (i.e. willingness to buy hybrid products) to the animosity model to determine if animositic consumers would be more receptive or willing to accept hybrid products where the animistic tendencies towards foreign countries in question can be negated by the products’ domestic affiliations. To conduct this investigation, the study is undertaken in China where the Chinese consumers’ animosity towards the Japanese was examined. The data with a usable sample size of 435 were collected in the Chinese city of Nanjing. The findings of the study revealed that the high level of animosity present against the Japanese resulted in the Chinese consumers’ unwillingness to buy Japanese products. More importantly, results showed that the Chinese consumers are not any more receptive to hybrid products as such domestic affiliations have not diluted the animosity. Consistent with the literature, the study has also validated that Consumer Animosity to be a higher-order construct indicated by war and economic animosity. Under the conditions of extreme animosity, Consumer Ethnocentrism does not take a significant role in influencing other constructs in the animosity model.     

The effect of religiosity on luxury goods: The case of Chilean youths

Religion has always rejected the concept of materialism and urged people to live in simplicity and moderation. Nonetheless, reality reveals a different phenomenon. Studies on religion and materialism have found inconsistent results. We examine the effect of religion on materialism and affective attitudes towards luxury goods and the mediating effect of materialism on affective attitude towards luxury goods. We propose the idea that many religious people reject the concept of materialism, but they consider luxury goods consumption compatible with their religious beliefs. 355 university students show that youth consumers with high intrinsic religiosity possess an affective attitude towards luxury goods. The results show that consumers perceived materialism and luxury goods as two separate constructs. Religious consumers reject the concept of materialism as an attachment to worldly possessions, but they maintain their emotional affection towards luxury goods. The results have several implications for both business and religious leaders. First, from a business perspective, there are no significant differences between religious and nonreligious youth consumers, especially in their acceptance of luxury goods. Simply put, religious youth consumers love God, but they also love Gucci (i.e., luxury goods). On the other hand, if religious leaders are teaching their congregations to reject materialism, they may need to shift the focus of their teaching from materialism to the role of luxury goods in their lives and how the purchase and ownership of luxury items may not reflect the true values of their beliefs.     

Coping with copies: The influence of risk perceptions in luxury counterfeit consumption in GCC countries

This research investigates counterfeit luxury consumption in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, where consumers are so affluent that their consumption of counterfeit goods is surprising. An exploratory quantitative survey conducted in the United Arab Emirates demonstrates that though GCC nationals do purchase counterfeit luxury products, the perceived performance, psychosocial, and moral risks might prevent them from the engagement in such consumption. Based on 19 in-depth interviews, a follow-up qualitative study identifies the strategies Emiratis use to cope with the cognitive dissonance that occurs from the perception of those risks. The findings are of major interest for public policy makers and luxury brand managers fighting counterfeiting.     

Self-concept,individual characteristics,and counterfeit consumption: Evidence from an emerging market

The study draws on a sample of over 350 consumers from 10 department stores in an emerging market where counterfeit products are available in abundance and there is a huge demand for such goods. The findings reveal that interdependent and independent self traits significantly affect individual characteristics, that is, susceptibility to normative influence, readiness to take social risk, and status acquisition (SA), which in turn influences counterfeit purchase intention. It was discovered that such individual characteristics play a mediating effect on the self-concept—purchase intention relationship and that high degrees of interdependent self traits positively affect consumers' purchase intention. The study adds to the theory of reasoned action (TRA) by incorporating SA variables into the TRA framework and discovers their significant influence on purchase intention. Some novel insights surrounding counterfeit consumption in an emerging economy context are presented and several implications are extracted to help practitioners appeal to such individual characteristics for combating counterfeit consumption.     

Purchasing Counterfeit and Legitimate Products in China: Social and Psychological Correlates and Predictors

Actual purchases of counterfeit and legitimate (brand-name) products in China were studied, with dissimilar variables found to predict the different types of purchases. Buying counterfeits correlated positively with self-monitoring, need for dominance, face-work, risk-taking, and worry about inflation but negatively with perfectionism. Regression analysis revealed that need for dominance, risk-taking, and worry about inflation predicted purchasing counterfeits. Buying legitimates correlated positively with self-monitoring, need for dominance, self-esteem, and perfectionism, but negatively with worry about inflation. Regression analyses found that self-monitoring and perfectionism predicted purchasing legitimates. A separate regression found that purchasing counterfeits was a negative predictor of receiving esteem from others.     

The moderating impact of perceived globalness on consumers’ purchase intentions for copycats: The pleasure of hurting global brands

Copycats or “me‐too” brands imitate prominent features of market leaders with the intention to benefit from consumers’ positive associations of the imitated brand. However, the imitated market leader can be perceived as being local (=in‐group) or global (=out‐group). Employing social identity theory, Study 1 examined the interaction between copycat strategy and perceived globalness of the brand, showing that consumers have higher purchase intentions for global copycats versus a local counterpart. Study 2 shows that the interacting effect of copycat strategy and perceived globalness is moderated by consumer ethnocentrism. Further, authors demonstrate that a global copycat elicit greater schadenfreude (vs. local brand), which in turn increases consumers’ purchase intentions. Subsequent mediation analysis shows that ethnocentric consumers experience schadenfreude upon encountering copycats of global brands, which in turn increases purchase intention, whereas low ethnocentric consumers show higher purchase intentions for local differentiated brands because they deem a copycat strategy as unacceptable. Finally, Study 3 examines whether the results from Studies 1 and 2 continue to hold for theme copycats.     

消费者购买仿冒品行为的理论探析

知名品牌的仿冒和非法贸易问题一直困扰着各国政府和相关企业,反仿冒也陷入了一场无休止的战争。传统的反仿冒策略大多针对仿冒品的供给方,而没有关注仿冒品的需求方,缺乏对消费者购买仿冒品行为的理解,也缺乏相应地有效抑制需求的政策措施。本文在整理和分析现有文献的基础上,借助行为科学的相关理论,从消费者购买仿冒品的动机、行为意向、购买决策、认知失调处理等方面对消费者购买仿冒品的行为进行了理论分析,以期深刻理解仿冒品购买行为的内在机制,为企业制定反仿冒策略提供理论依据和新的思路。