A matter of love: consumers’ relationships with original brands and their counterfeits

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to explore brand personality relationships in the context of original versus counterfeit products. Specifically, it investigates consumers’ perception of both original brands and their counterfeits. Design/methodology/approach – The authors present four studies conducted with 657 Mexican consumers who own or have owned an original luxury-brand product as well as a counterfeit of the same brand. Data were analyzed through regression analyses, t-tests, correlation coefficients and one-way ANOVA. Findings – Results show that consumers who voluntarily acquire both original luxury brands and their counterfeits transfer the symbolic personality traits of the original brand to the counterfeit, experience significantly higher coincidence between their personality traits and those of the original brand and also experience a stronger overlap between their overall self-concept and the original brand’s concept than with the counterfeit’s concept, and feel higher levels of love towards the original brands than towards their counterfeits. Research limitations/implications – This study plays a relevant role in understanding how consumers form relationships with original and counterfeit brand products. Managers of original brands are advised to build their efforts around the idea of consumers’ love for the original brand, emphasizing issues of authenticity and congruence between consumers and their purchase decisions. Practical implications – Managers of original brands are advised to build their efforts around the idea of consumers’ love for the original brand, emphasizing the trust element of a love relationship in order to encourage consumers to be “faithful” to the original brands. Originality/value – This study provides insights into the relationships consumers form with brands and their counterfeits. This is novel because, so far, most of the studies on counterfeits have mainly sought to explain why and how consumers choose counterfeits instead of original brands.

Consumption Authenticity in the Accommodations Industry: The Keys to Brand Love and Brand Loyalty for Hotels and Airbnb

“…Alnawas and Altarifi (2016) made a similar recommendation for hotel brands, and Yannopoulou, Moufahim, and Bian (2013) found authenticity to be a key ingredient in Airbnb’s generation of brand love. In a study comparing consumers’ relationships with original brands and their counterfeits, Castaño and Perez (2014) found that consumers feel higher levels of love toward the original brands; consequently, they urged brand managers to emphasize issues of authenticity in order to encourage consumers to be faithful. Similarly, Riivits-Arkonsuo, Kaljund, and Leppiman (2014) highlight authenticity as one of the key elements of the brand experience that contributes to brand love, and subsequently, brand evangelism.…”

Intention to Purchase Counterfeit Luxury Products: A Comparative Study Between Pakistani and the UK Consumers

“…Luxury products, in particular, are extremely susceptible to counterfeit manufacturers because of their high value and the perceived image of exclusivity (Phau et al, 2009). According to Carpenter and Edwards (2013), the causes for this abrupt rise in counterfeit products are: (a) accessibility of technology offering a variety of means to assemble superior value counterfeit products by replicating symbols and casings; (b) the globalization of the marketplace which makes the transportation of counterfeit products easier; (c) the manufacturing of genuine products in countries such as China, Egypt and Colombia, resulting in opportunities for the creation of counterfeits by local competitors via illegitimate channels; and (d) lack of legal penalties in a number of countries for producing counterfeits (Yoo andLee, 2009, Castaño andEugenia Perez, 2014).…”

Brand evaluation, satisfaction and trust as predictors of brand loyalty: the mediator-moderator effect of brand relationships

“…They may form attachments with more than one brand in the same category (Fournier and Yao, 1997), or even with the original brands and their counterfeits (Castaño & Perez, 2014), as long as they are familiar with these brands. As it is the case for human relationships, bonds exist and flourish only for a brand consumers are familiar with.…”