Consumer Attitudes And Purchase Inclination Of Counterfeit Luxury Goods

The growing magnitude and scope of counterfeiting activities have caused serious attentions of governments and institutions and thus call for serious counteracts to this problem. There is a strong need to understand the demand side as well as the supply side in order to better deal with counterfeiting.We conduct this study based on extensive review of past marketing literature in order to investigate college-educated Chinese consumers’attitude and behavior regarding counterfeits of luxury products, with the hope to provide some effective suggestions for luxury companies. We incorporate the theory of planned behavior to develop the conceptual model, and data is collected through questionnaire which is put on a professional survey website,184 valid responses are used for the analysis. Results show that the three aspects of attitude, namely judgment of illegality, anti-big business attitude and perception of counterfeits significantly influence consumers’ attitude toward buying counterfeits, as well as the normative pressure from families and friends. Furthermore, the attitude toward buying counterfeits is found to be the most important predictor for purchase intention, followed by perception of counterfeits, normative pressure, embarrassment potential and past purchase of counterfeits. There is not much difference in attitude between consumers who have purchased counterfeits before and those who haven’t, but these two groups are different in terms of normative pressure and embarrassment potential.Based on the empirical study, we suggest that luxury brands owners put more emphasis in product innovation and advertisement, with specific attention to educate consumers about the differences between counterfeits and genuine products, and the potential harm of counterfeits. Policy makers should educate consumers about the illegality of counterfeit transaction, and buying counterfeits can potentially fund these illegal activities and criminals.