Corporate image and product similarity– getting counterfeits closer to the consumers’ pocketbook

The demand for counterfeits has become a major headache for brand name manufacturers across the globe. This paper investigates two key demand drivers: 1. Corporate image, in the form of evaluative and descriptive judgments of the original manufacturer and the counterfeiter and 2. Product attributes, split into physical, beneficial and symbolic aspects, and their impact on consumers’ intentions to buy fakes, based on the tripartite model of attitudes and by applying Peabody’s (Peabody, 1984; Peabody & Goldberg, 1989; Saucier, 1994; Saucier, Ostendorf, & Peabody, 2001) concept of unconfounding evaluative and descriptive judgments. In total, 1,846 consumers were surveyed in six different countries: the U.S., Austria, Mexico, Sweden, Slovakia and the Ukraine. According to the results, corporate image and product characteristics show a strong impact on the consumers’ intention to buy fakes. The relative importance of the concepts’ sub-dimensions, however, differs substantially across the countries selected. With respect to the corporate image, respondents use mainly emotional responses to describe the image of original manufacturers and counterfeiters and they clearly distinguish them based on image. Product-level comparisons revealed that looks, functionality, image, and physical appearance differed between originals and fakes across countries, while quality and durability of originals and fakes are perceived very similar. The paper closes with managerial implications and avenues for future research.