[Ip-health] TechDirt- Study Shows Counterfeit Buyers Frequently Buy Real Products Later

[Terri - Louise Beswick]

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Study Shows Counterfeit Buyers Frequently Buy Real Products Later

from the acta-what-now? dept

As the negotiations over the ACTA treaty continue in secret, one of the
more frustrating aspects is how defenders of ACTA repeatedly conflate
"counterfeit goods" with "copyright infringement." Witness Senator Evan
Bayh's nonsensical response
<http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/senator-bayh-responds-acta>  to
being asked about ACTA, where it becomes clear quite quickly that he's
unfamiliar with the most basic information on the subject. He switches
back and forth between counterfeiting and copyright as if they're the
same thing, and seems to think that any treaty on the matter must be
good.

But, an even more annoying part of all this is the use of fear mongering
over "counterfeit goods" as some huge problem that has to be solved,
when the evidence increasingly suggests otherwise. The copyright
lobbyists are using the cover of some mythical massive counterfeiting
problem to push for unnecessary and potentially dangerous copyright law
changes, but even the counterfeiting claims are suspect. In the past,
we've noted that both the GAO
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070504/130335.shtml>  and the OECD
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070504/130335.shtml>  have noted
that the "problem" of counterfeiting has been massively inflated by
lobbyists.

And, a new study suggests that even the counterfeit goods that do get
sold aren't really a huge problem to the original manufacturers
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601093&sid=a2goSFXqnqiw>
(thanks to Dave Barnes <http://www.marketingtactics.com>  for sending
this in) -- if there a problem at all. In a study that was actually
carried out by a former brand manager at LVMH, it was discovered that
people don't view counterfeit goods as a substitute to the real goods.
People aren't being tricked -- they know they're buying counterfeits,
and others know that they have counterfeit goods as well:

"Consumers are a lot smarter than we may give them credit for -- just
because you've got a nice fake doesn't mean you're going to get away
with it."

But, even more importantly, it looks like counterfeit products often act
as a stepping stone to get people to go forward and buy the original
version:

"The counterfeit actually served as a placebo for brand attachment," she
said. "People were becoming increasingly attached to the real brand even
though they never possessed it at all."

Forty-six percent of the counterfeit-bag owners bought the authentic
products within two and a half years, she said. Shoppers were willing to
pay $786 for a real luxury bag....

So, for all the reports of "harm" done by counterfeit products, here's a
study suggesting that it actually helps build brand loyalty, and appears
to often lead to the counterfeit buyer later buying a massively
expensive real offering in a relatively short time frame. As some are
noting, this suggests that the counterfeit goods act as advertising for
the real goods
<http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/12/06/those-weirdly-persiste
nt-counterfeiting-statistics/> . These are the sorts of things that
would probably be useful to discuss with those negotiating ACTA. If only
those discussions weren't all happening behind closed doors due to
"national security" issues.



http://techdirt.com/articles/20091202/1503337167.shtml