Consumer Behavior in the World of the Inauthentic Goods
(A2020-55034)

AUTHORS

Eleonora Axelova, LUISS Business School

KEYWORDS

Consumer Behavior; Counterfeiting; Typology

ABSTRACT

Understanding the different types of behavior facing the phenomenon of counterfeiting is important for better seizing such a complex and global phenomenon as counterfeiting has become. A typology of consumer behavior facing this phenomenon is proposed comprising four cases and the combination of two factors: the awareness that a product is inauthentic and the real purchase of this product. The notion of authenticity-seeking consumer behavior is discussed and an optimal marketing-mix for decreasing the probability of unknowingly buying inauthentic products is proposed. Moreover, for the distinction of inauthentic from authentic products, additionally to the sight, our paper proposes the involvement of the other four of the five senses, i.e. the taste, the touch, the smell, and the sound, that is another vision and use of the sensory marketing. Managerial implications and further developments are suggested.