The luxury counterfeit consumer experience : exploring the hedonic and value expressive consumer

Abstract

Although luxury is the word on everybody’s lips, with the expansion of the luxury industry came the expansion of the not-so-equal luxury counterfeiting industry. With the International Chamber of Commerce (2004) estimating that as much as $12 billion a year is being lost due to the production of such imitations, this research aims to explore what drives the consumption of such replicas. Through the exploration of the consumer experience of hedonic and value expressive buyers, this research aims to give insight into the key driving forces behind these counterfeit purchases. This is done through the analysis of in-depth interviews carried out amongst Maltese luxury counterfeit consumers. The results obtained illustrated several differences between the driving forces in consumers purchasing for hedonic reasons and those purchasing with value expressive intention. The central areas where differences were noted included the motivations behind their purchases, the attitude towards the genuine brand, the expectations of the product and the chances of repeat purchases. These results indicate that further research should be done exploring the role that functional attitudes play in the purchasing of luxury counterfeits. Furthermore, the differences observed may be useful when strategizing ways to combat such purchases, indicating that hedonic luxury counterfeit consumers are much more likely to re-purchase such counterfeits.