Suraj Commuri

The Impact of Counterfeiting on Genuine-Item Consumers’ Brand Relationships
An often-overlooked constituent in the debate on counterfeiting is the consumer of the genuine article—a brand manager’s primary constituent. These consumers are drawn to premium brands in part because of the exclusivity and connotation of prestige associated with them. These characteristics are also the reason such brands are attractive targets of counterfeiting. When premium brands are counterfeited, which in turn gives a variety of consumers access to them, how do consumers of the genuine items react to the erosion of exclusivity and prestige? An investigation involving premium brands in Thailand and India reveals that consumers of genuine items adopt one of three strategies when faced with the prospect of their favorite brands being counterfeited: flight (abandoning the brand), reclamation (elaborating the pioneering patronage of a brand), and abranding (disguising all brand cues). The author examines these strategies in detail, revealing how the potential loss of exclusivity and prestige can either drive genuine-item consumers away from the brand or impel them to make strong claims to their patronage.

Keywords: counterfeits, counterfeiting, brand relationships, conspicuous consumption, fashion, competitive consumption

irms invest substantially in building their brands. In some product categories, such efforts are aimed at making a brand prestigious and exclusive. For brands to be perceived as such, they must be widely popular but not widely accessible. Paradoxically, such necessary disparity between popularity and accessibility is also the impetus for counterfeiting. In other words, the more a firm invests in building a prestigious brand, the more likely the brand is to be counterfeited. Too little is known about the impact of counterfeiting prestigious brands on