Consumer motives for purchasing counterfeit luxury products: behind the status signaling behavior using brand prominence

Pur Purwanto,K Kuswandi,Lulus Margiati,Budi Prasetyo

doi:10.3846/btp.2019.20

Abstract

The present study sought to describe the relationship of customer motives with counterfeit products and brand prominence and purchasing behavior in three groups/classes of consumers (patrician, parvenus and poseur) in the context of luxury brand fashion. Data were obtained from a sample consisting of 400 consumers considered eligible. There were three findings; first, for the poseur class, consumer motives for purchasing products had an effect on counterfeit products and conspicuous brand prominence, as well as purchasing behavior. Second, for the parvenus class, consumer motives for purchasing products had no significant effect on counterfeit products, but it had a significant effect on brand prominence and purchasing behavior. Third, for the patrician class, consumer motives for purchasing products had no significant effect on counterfeit products and conspicuous brand prominence, and counterfeit products and brand prominence had no significant effect on purchasing behavior.

Highlights

The global losses due to the counterfeiting of luxury/ prestigious brands reached US $ 600 billion annually (Lieber 2014)
The survey was conducted on Indonesian consumers encountered in some places, such as famous boutiques selling genuine branded products, famous malls in metropolitan cities, and some retailers accustomed to selling counterfeit goods in Batam, Jakarta, Bandung, Bali and Surabaya
We developed questionnaire items from previous studies to measure consumer motives toward counterfeit products and brand prominence, such as “I use counterfeit luxury brands to look like a successful person,” “The price difference between counterfeit and genuine luxury goods is very high,” “I know that this is not the best thing to do but I want to experience wearing counterfeit luxury goods without spending a lot of money,” “It’s great when I can carefully distinguish counterfeit from genuine luxury products (Bian et al 2015, Stöttinger and Penz 2015, Tang et al 2014, Chiu and Leng 2016) to measure the choice of brand prominence and counterfeit products

Summary

Introduction

The global losses due to the counterfeiting of luxury/ prestigious brands reached US $ 600 billion annually (Lieber 2014). In Indonesia, a survey conducted by the Indonesian Anti-Counterfeiting Society (IACS 2015) indicated that counterfeit goods contributed $ 612 billion to national economy during 2015 and caused a loss to the government of approximately $ 30 billion per year from indirect tax revenue. Consumer motives consist of dark/evil motives and good motives for purchasing luxury products (Schiffman and Kanuk 2011, Thaichon and Quach 2016). Consumers consciously engaged in buying counterfeit products in markets deliberately selling counterfeit products or non-deceptive markets are said to have dark motives (Thaichon and Quach 2016, Bian et al 2015). Consumers consciously preventing themselves from being engaged in purchasing counterfeit products can be categorized as having good motives

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion