Essay On Counterfeit Products

The significant growth of luxury consumption over the past years has been accompanied with a dramatically rise of counterfeit luxury brands. Counterfeiting, the production and sale of fake products,which seem identical to the original product, has been spreading and continues to thrive around the world. Counterfeit goods are exact replicas that appear identical to the legitimate branded products in appearance, including packaging, trademarks and labelling [7]. Counterfeit goods are illegal, low-priced and often lower-quality replicas of products that typically possess high brand value. Since the quality of counterfeit products has been steadily improving over the years, almost every attribute defining luxury, including design, quality and

Physical product attributes and the intangible brand image associated with the product. They communicate meaning about their self-image and enhance their self-concept. This is especially true for luxury goods, which are bought much more for what they mean than for what they are. While the fake product might not fully comply with all the physical attributes the original product offers, the image dimension of the original branded product is preserved. The price differential, however, is much to the advantage of the counterfeit product. The bottom line is that buying fake products means getting the prestige of branded products without paying for it

Consumers perceive the brand name, the label, and recognizable design characteristics such as logo, color, and pattern to be valuable. Such hedonistic or novelty reasons make consumers value counterfeit luxury brands. When consumers pursue hedonistic rather than utilitarian or status needs, they will easily accept counterfeit luxury brands [13]. In emerging countries, for instance, the cost of buying an Armani shirt may be much too high for most citizens. This creates a demand for fakes, which then can be considered as the entry line of luxury brands. In addition, no one but the buyer will ever know it is fake