Understanding how people's self-assessed knowledge of luxury goods affects their moral stance toward counterfeits can help shape strategies to combat the scourge—an illegal global trade predicted to reach a value of $1.79 trillion by the end of the decade.
- A new study conducted by Ludovica Cesareo, Assistant Professor of marketing in the Lehigh University College of Business, and Silvia Bellezza of Columbia University, and published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, said that talks with luxury managers confirmed that most of their customers have low knowledge in the domain of fashion and high-end luxury goods, are aware only of the prestige of the brands they are purchasing and are not real connoisseurs of the brands' history, heritage and craftsmanship.
- Low-knowledge consumers can more easily be influenced by messaging about the relative morality of counterfeiting.
- A key issue for marketers and brand managers is to understand how to channel their anti-counterfeiting efforts depending on the level of knowledge of a specific target market.
So, what is the ADVICE FOR ANTI-COUNTERFEITING MANAGERS at enterprises selling high end goods?
- In markets with mostly low-knowledge consumers, companies should aim to influence consumers' perceptions of the morality of counterfeiting through education. Strategies could include targeted advertising and communication campaigns by governmental agencies highlighting the immorality and illegality of purchasing counterfeits.
- To fight counterfeits in markets with mostly high-knowledge consumers, make consumers even more knowledgeable by being more informative in their advertising and communication campaigns. While most luxury advertising focuses on symbolic imagery and ephemerality, luxury brands would benefit from including more educational elements about their brand history and explanations of craftsmanship.
