How to Combat Counterfeiting in Global Market Essay

Counterfeiting on Luxury Goods

Consuming counterfeit products social effects. Consumers want to project a desired social image

Consumers want to project an external image of themselves that gives them a certain social status, even though internally they know they did not pay top dollar for their "luxury good." For example, someone who buys a counterfeit Louis Vuitton bag does so for the purpose of being able to present herself in fashionable light without having to pay for it.

Thus, the reason that people buy counterfeit goods is simple: it is easy and one can maintain a status without paying a significant cost

This explanation, of course, only applies to individuals who want to be viewed as someone who is part of a particular social class or who has a social status (when in actuality he or she is on the outside of that class/status)

Someone who is actually a member of the class or state that can afford luxury goods does not go out of his or her way to locate counterfeit goods; the purpose of buying or wearing or driving luxury goods is that it displays one's wealth. If such a member actually purchased a counterfeit good it would go against the whole purpose of buying luxury; the consumer would feel cheated and rightly so.

4. Conclusion

Therefore, for members of the luxury brand class, of the upper classes that is, it is important to have authentic goods -- items that are legitimate luxury items, because it is a display of the actual wealth; such persons do not want to possess inauthentic items

For outsiders of this class, however, having luxury goods is something they cannot afford, but they still want to mimic the upper class and project those brands that mark their distinction. Thus, the seek out counterfeit goods that they can afford that still give of the same authentic look as the actual luxury brands. This makes the person feel that he or she is part of a class to which they actually do not belong.

Deliberate consumers of counterfeit goods are motivated by the desire to project an elitist image; accidental consumers of counterfeit goods are motivated to buy authentic items but are tricked by counterfeiters who make a profit by selling the fake item for top dollar prices.

8) Consuming Counterfeit Products and Constructing Person's Identity

Mattel in China

When Mattel opened its House of Barbie in Shanghai in 2009, it expected to sell Barbies to Chinese.

But the Chinese counterfeit market already produced knock-offs that the Chinese consumer could buy for cheaper than the Mattel Barbie.

Mattel was forced to close its doors on the $30 million facility two years after opening. There was no reason for the Chinese to pay for the luxury of owning a Mattel Barbie doll when a cheap knock-off could be purchased for much less the cost.

The same idea happens with wines.

Voigt, K. (2012, November 21). What do Chinese consumers want? Not Barbie. CNN.

Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/21/business/china-consumers-barbie/

Wang, H. (2012, October 24). Why Barbie stumbled in China and how she could reinvent herself. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and-how-she-could-re-invent-herself/

Counterfeiting Wine Brands

Counterfeiters in wine are able to bottle cheap wine and pass it off as expensive wine and not even professional wine tasters can tell because they are fooled by the label and the packaging.

This shows that authenticity is a perception.

Constructing a person's image -- in this case the wine maker's -- is all that is needed to fool consumers…