Firmly entrenched as cultural signifiers of wealth and power, luxury brands rarely have to pay for advertising or marketing campaigns. Dreaming of achieving the means to own such a good is a better pitch than any marketer on Madison Avenue could ever dream up. This leads to a bizarre aftereffect endemic to the luxury market: widespread counterfeiting. Counterfeiting is simple enough to explain. Given the forbidding price and extreme desirability of luxury brands, a massive illicit market exists for unauthorized copies of valued luxury items like Rolex watches and Coach handbags. Some of these copies are remarkably sophisticated, to the point where they may be made on the exact same production line as the real good, while others are so poorly assembled they pose a health risk to users. Quality is largely irrelevant to the purchaser of a counterfeit good. What matters is that others will believe them to own a luxury brand, and they will have paid a fraction of the cost. In his “Why do Consumers Buy Luxury Brands?” Keith Wilcox observed that counterfeit goods only held sway over consumers who bought goods for social appeal rather than for their performance. “Conversely, when consumers' attitudes serve a value-adjustive function,” writes Wilcox, “their self-expression-related goals are likely to be salient. Because a counterfeit brand does not satisfy these important personal goals, it is unlikely that consumers will perceive counterfeit brands as being similar to luxury brands.” Purposefully sacrificing utility in the name of displaying a brand is the most perversely loyal action one can take for a brand’s sake. Obtaining an ostensible class marker has become more important than actually having a functional product in one’s
Firmly entrenched as cultural signifiers of wealth and power, luxury brands rarely have to pay for advertising or marketing campaigns. Dreaming of achieving the means to own such a good is a better pitch than any marketer on Madison Avenue could ever dream up. This leads to a bizarre aftereffect endemic to the luxury market: widespread counterfeiting. Counterfeiting is simple enough to explain. Given the forbidding price and extreme desirability of luxury brands, a massive illicit market exists for unauthorized copies of valued luxury items like Rolex watches and Coach handbags. Some of these copies are remarkably sophisticated, to the point where they may be made on the exact same production line as the real good, while others are so poorly assembled they pose a health risk to users. Quality is largely irrelevant to the purchaser of a counterfeit good. What matters is that others will believe them to own a luxury brand, and they will have paid a fraction of the cost. In his “Why do Consumers Buy Luxury Brands?” Keith Wilcox observed that counterfeit goods only held sway over consumers who bought goods for social appeal rather than for their performance. “Conversely, when consumers' attitudes serve a value-adjustive function,” writes Wilcox, “their self-expression-related goals are likely to be salient. Because a counterfeit brand does not satisfy these important personal goals, it is unlikely that consumers will perceive counterfeit brands as being similar to luxury brands.” Purposefully sacrificing utility in the name of displaying a brand is the most perversely loyal action one can take for a brand’s sake. Obtaining an ostensible class marker has become more important than actually having a functional product in one’s