The Influence of Brand Awareness on the Intention of Buying Counterfeit Brands

Abstract

Purpose - This paper want to confirm whether the guilty consciousness moderates the relationship between luxury brand awareness and purchase intention. The purpose of this study is to clarify the effect of buying intention of counterfeit luxury brand and to increase intention of purchase of genuine brand. Research design, data, and methodology - This study was analyzed using SPSS 19 and SPSS Macro. An internal consistency analysis was performed to verify the reliability of the measuring instruments and Pearson's miniscule correlation to examine the correlation of variants. In addition, the data were averaged to perform regression analysis and to see the control effects of guilt, and the significance of the control effect was verified using SPSS Macro. Results - The first hypothesis that the perception of luxury brands will have a positive effect on the intent of buying counterfeit luxury brands was found to be significant. Next, a hypothesis was also established that the sense of guilt would have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between the recognition of a luxury brand and the intention of buying a counterfeit brand. Conclusions - The study expanded the study of counterfeit brand names by making an empirical check on the effects of brand awareness and guilt for the first time in the research done so far.

1. Introduction

In the world, counterfeit goods for luxury goods are developing rapidly in the Asian region. Among them, China is producing a large number of counterfeit goods, which accounts for 63% of the total number of counterfeit goods worldwide(OECD & EUIPO, 2016). As a result, many fake goods companies are emerging these days, threatening not only people's property damage but also food health. However, despite the social phenomenon, there is still a lack of research on the connection between fake luxury goods and buyers in China.

However, despite the social phenomenon, there is still a lack of research on the connection between fake luxury goods and buyers in China. The previous research on luxury product cloning shows why they are buying cloned products from a consumer perspective and why they are buying them(Alnersmiller, 1999; Penz, & Stottinger, 2005). From a corporate perspective, there are studies of legislative damage and response strategies(Givon, Mahajan, & Muller, 1995; Green & Smich, 2002). However, research on the impact on the willingness to purchase counterfeit brands and counterfeit goods, particularly on consumer sentiment during the purchase of counterfeit goods, is very insufficient. There is also a lack of research on the impact of consumers' psychology on the purchase of counterfeit brands and products in particular.

It is very difficult to study the effect of the purchase psychology on the purchase intention of counterfeit goods, especially the counterfeit brand. The purpose of this study is to find ways to lower the consumer's intention to purchase counterfeit goods by identifying the factors based on the psychological aspects of the consumers who influence the behavior of consumers who purchase such counterfeit luxury brands.

2. Theoretical Background and Research Hypothesis

2.1. Counterfeit Products

One of the reasons for the continued existence of counterfeit goods on the market may be that they are worth paying for. And the size of the value is subjective and will vary depending on individual circumstances. Many scholars increasingly focused on the aspects of demand and began analyzing and investigating the causes of consumers buying counterfeit goods. Luxury Brands, also known as "Status goods," are traditionally intended to simply use or show specific branded products that give prestige to the owner of them, apart from certain functional uses. Luxury goods are usually expensive and have exclusive characteristics. In other words, it is a way to stand out and express one's personality(Nia & Zaichokowsky, 2000).

There are two main attributes of luxury brands. First, luxury brands have high price characteristics. Companies that own luxury brands invest a lot of money in marketing factors such as high-quality products, luxury packages, promotional activities, advertising campaigns, brand names, etc. to maintain awareness and familiarity. The second is brand name. Luxury goods, more than other products, are purchased not just by what they mean but by what they mean(Nia & Zaichokowsky, 2000; Dubois & Paternault, 1995).

Many consumers said that they usually buy luxury goods to satisfy their symbolic needs, and that the status of a product or images associated with it work more valuable than the product itself. In these circumstances, the product does not necessarily need to be unique and is acceptable, recognized and admired by others. Therefore, luxury brand purchases are an extreme form of expressing one's value within one's group(Dubois & Duquesne, 1993).

When consumers buy luxury goods, they are synchronized by a variety of factors, which can be social or physical product attributes. In other words, buying luxury goods means symbolizing a particular consumption pattern, expressing the specific social class, communicating the meaning of the self-image and satisfying the psychological need to strengthen the self-concept(Nia & Zaichokowsky, 2000).

Counterfeit products are illegally made similar to genuine products, but their performance, reliability and durability are lower than those of genuine products. However, due to the development of technology, it has become more and more difficult to distinguish genuine and counterfeit goods from counterfeit goods(Lai & Zaichkowchy, 1999).

However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between the original and the counterfeit as the technology advances, such as quality and appearance, is produced without much difference(Lai & Zachkowschy, 1999). As a result, for many luxury brands, counterfeits belonging to a series of genuine and counterfeit products, rather than dichotomous distinctions such as genuine or counterfeit, are appearing on the market.

However, consumers' attitudes to luxury goods can be applied to each or both of the social adaptation and value representation functions. The social-adjustive function of attitude is to maintain people's relationships, and consumers are synchronized to consume products to gain recognition of their social status. The value-expressive function of attitude also synchronizes consumers to consume their products in the form of self-expression, communicating their central beliefs, attitudes and values to others. Therefore, when the function of this attitude is applied in the context of a brand, social adaptation of a luxury item synchronizes the consumer to consume these products for form or image-related reasons. A value-expression attitude to luxury goods is to synchronize these products to consumers for functional or quality reasons(Wilkow, Kim, & Sen, 2009).

Counterfeiting poses a serious threat to the profitability of copyrights such as music, software, video games, movies and books, and features that are informal and distributed through black markets(Papadopoulos, 2004).

Consumers buy counterfeit goods because they want to have a genuine image at a lower price, and because of their economic reasons, they cannot buy expensive counterfeit goods, the higher the objective quality or cheaper the more consumers buy counterfeit goods. They think high-quality, expensive counterfeit goods are enough to replace the original(Tom et al., 1998).

Consumers who consume counterfeit goods have a positive image of them and do not believe that they are inferior. The value, satisfaction and status of luxury brands are not reduced by the high possibility of using counterfeit goods, and they do not believe that the availability of counterfeit goods negatively affects the intention of purchasing luxury brands(Nia & Zachokowsky, 2000).

A typical factor that affects consumers' attitudes towards counterfeit goods is the empirical aspect. That is, whether or not a counterfeit is purchased or not, and whether the preference for a post-purchase forgery affects the attitude of the counterfeit(Tom, Garibaldi, Zeng, & Pilcher). Phau, Sequira and Dix (2009) demonstrated that integrity is an influence on attitudes to counterfeit goods. People's actions are influenced by their own sense of personal justice, because the effects of values such as sincerity affect their judgment on unethical behavior. That is, the less genuine you are, the more favorable your attitude toward counterfeit goods(Ang, Chen, Lim, & Tambyah, 2001).

Some of the users of counterfeit goods are considered imitations but almost identical to the real product, while others are often people who cannot afford to have real products. This in turn helps other consumers who can't afford to have a genuine product at lower prices. As such, the sale of counterfeit goods is an illegal act that infringes on the profits and rights of the original company. Many consumers buy counterfeit goods at lower prices than regular ones. In this study, the entire product that copied luxury goods illegally was defined as counterfeit.

2.2. Purchase intention

Intention is a subjective judgment of how we will act in the future, meaning the individual's judgment on what we will buy in the future(Blackwell, Mini, & Engel, 2001). Behavior means a subjective representation of action (Azjen, 2010). According to Engel et al.(1995), purchase intent is the tendency of consumers to buy a product or service, which means that they will buy a particular product. Attitudes have, on the other hand, been strongly correlated with purchasing intent and behavior in various situations (Ajzen, 1991).

Purchase intent is the attitude related to whether or not consumers will purchase certain products or brands based on comprehensive factors such as foreign goods and environment(Mullet & Karson, 1985),

Purchasing intent is one of the main areas of marketing research closely linked to consumer behavior, receiving much attention from marketing, advertising and consumer studies. Purchase intent may appear by simple necessity or by listening to new information in order to pursue variety, and may be formed due to the process or contextual nature of using products, services, and ideas.

Purchasing intention is an important variable that measures an entity's performance by expressing a consumer's willingness to perform certain future actions in purchasing a product(Taylor & Baker, 1994). Purchasing intent means the purchase of a brand to achieve the highest level of satisfaction after evaluating the brand. It turns out that there is a very high correlation between consumers who are willing to purchase products in practice(Asael, 2007).

However, even if consumers have a good attitude toward a product or service, they often give up purchasing that product or service. That is why consumers' actual purchasing behavior should be predicted not by attitude but by intent. Ajzen(1991) said that purchasing intentions are an expression of consumers' willingness to perform certain future actions through purchasing intentions, using them as a middle variable between individual attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, this paper will confirm that whether the alliances of these two brands are profitable, especially from the viewpoint of the manufacturer, will depend on the characteristics of the consumers.

2.3. Brand Awareness

A brand is defined as a means by which a particular manufacturer uses its product to distinguish it from other competitors' products. The key to creating a brand is to select brand names, logos, symbols, or other characteristic elements that distinguish it from competitors' products and identify the product(Keller, 1998). Aaker(1991) defined a brand as a unique name or symbol(Registration trademark, logo, packaging, design) used by a seller or group of sellers to identify a product or service and differentiate it from competitors.

Brand awareness is one of the components of brand equity, which refers to the intensity of attitudes toward specific brands in customers' minds(Aaker, 2002), and the ability of consumers to draw specific brand information into storage devices(Keller, 2008), or the ability of the buyer to recreate and remember a brand of a product category (Nedunga, 1990).

Brand awareness was divided into Recognition and Recall. Recognition is defined as the ability of consumers to distinguish accurately in past recall when they are eating and shopping, with consumers convinced that a particular brand has been a clue to the various buying situations (Keller, 1993).

Keller (2008) summed up the brand recognition role by three reasons:

First, brand awareness is the role of a brand intersection that links product images and information, and is responsible for communicating relevant associations to consumers.

Second, brand awareness allows products with low level of involvement to become familiar brands so that they can decide on a purchase.

Third, brand awareness plays a role in enabling consumers to determine and consume the quality of products through the reliability of the corporate brand.

Therefore, brand awareness helps consumers to recall major product information. Brand awareness provides consumers with familiarity and confidence in their products. Based on these findings, the following hypothesis was established that the recognition of luxury brand affects the purchase intention of counterfeit luxury brand.

High brand awareness contributes to the consideration of the brand as a choice at the time of purchase. In addition, an entity can increase the probability of choosing a brand by simply changing its brand awareness without changing consumers' preferences for its brand(Nedungadi, 1990). Brand awareness provides a useful way to easily recall brand names and product information stored in consumers' memory by providing suggestions or clues that can easily recall memories about their brands at the time of purchase(Keller, 2008).

Brand awareness can influence the determination of brands in a category even if consumers do not have a target category to buy, and help consumers make decisions by influencing the formation and strength of brand associations to create brand images. "Brand awareness" means when consumers have some knowledge of the products they want to purchase, but do not intend to insist on or select any particular product. Recall refers to the ability of consumers to experience categories first and draw answers from memory. Consumers should be able to recall brands from memory(Keller, 1993).

Lee (2004) said consumers who intentionally buy fake brands tend to think of them as products that help them buy fake brands. In-depth interviews with consumers, Rha et al. (2010) suggested that consumers would purchase a fake brand as a means to satisfy their desire for a luxury brand, and that a higher percentage of customers would be willing to buy a fake brand. Kim (2011) confirmed that the higher the preference for luxury brands, the more positive the preference for counterfeit brands is. In other words, this explains that the desire to buy a fake brand begins with an attachment to the luxury brand. Based on these details, the following hypothesis was established, considering that awareness of luxury brand affects the intention of purchasing counterfeit brand.

[Hypothesis 1] Luxury brand awareness will have a positive effect on the purchase intention of counterfeit luxury brand.

2.4. A Sense of Guilt

As one of the most common negative emotions, including all cultures (Izard, 1977), A sense of guilt is defined as a consumer's guilty conscience as an emotional state that includes remorse, remorse, self-criticism and self-punishment experienced after committing a crime or future violation of appropriate standards Conscience is one of the most common negative emotions in all cultures. A consumer's guilty conscience is defined as an emotional state that includes remorse, conscience, self-criticism and self-punishment experienced after committing a guilt or future violation of appropriate standards of conduct(Lascu, 1991; Moser, 1965).

People feel guilty when they remind them of breaking rules and violating their own moral standards and beliefs. People can also feel guilty when they fail to fulfill or accept their responsibilities and obligations(Izard, 1977).

A study by Kivetz, Urminsky, and Zheng(2006) points out that people feel guilty because they tend to pursue and indulge in pleasure without a justifiable reason as useless and immoral acts. The expected guilt in the context of consumption is a foreseen guilt for consuming certain goods, suggesting that this guilt plays an important role in the decision-making process of people in many literature (Baumeister, 1999; Dhar & Simonson, 1999).

Kivetz and Zheng(2006) also point out that people feel guilty because they tend to pursue hedonistic pleasure without justifiable reason and tend to perceive indulgence as futile and non-moral behavior. Guilt related to consumption predicts guilt for consuming certain goods, and many literature suggests that such an explanation plays an important role in people's decision-making process (Baumeister, 2002; Dhar & Simonson, 1999). The following hypothesis was derived by combining the results of previous studies.

So far, there have been many studies focusing on pleasure products in counterfeit goods. It was said that pleasure is valued by the pleasure of the product's consumption and that motivation arises in the need for sensory pleasure and fantasy (Batra & Ahtola, 1990). In this regard, the consumption of pleasure goods such as counterfeit goods leads to negative sentiments such as guilt, shame and regret (Chun et al., 2007; Maclnis & Patrick, 2006).

According to existing studies, the status of product attributes is not the same (Horschman & Holbrook, 1982) and the level of consumer emotional involvement depends on the nature of the product (Batra & Ahtola, 1990). If brand awareness is high, consumers will be asked to choose only brands of image products that are more intimate and reliable. Ultimately, brand awareness is linked to purchase (Jacoby, 1977). Thus, when buying pleasure goods, it creates pleasure, which is both positive and guilty, one of the negative emotions.

[Hypothesis 2] The sense of guilt will have a significant effect on the relationship between luxury brand awareness and intention to buy counterfeit luxury brand. In other words, as the sense of guilt grows, the influence of luxury brand recognition on the intention of purchasing a luxury brand will decrease.

3. Empirical analysis

3.1. Data collection and Analysis methods

The data collection survey was conducted in three cities in Beijing, Shanghai and Qingdao, China, to survey consumers with experience in purchasing counterfeit goods. The survey was prepared based on prior study, and the survey period began in May 2017 for about a month, and the survey period was distributed for the first time, and 345 copies were used in the study, excluding 105 who answered honestly.

The demographic characteristics of the respondents are as follows: Female students accounted for a whopping 74.6 percent of the total number of women, ages 20 to 80 years of age, and education at 42.8 percent and 34.5 percent of college graduates, respectively.

This study was analyzed using SPSS19 and SPSS Macro. An internal correlation analysis was conducted to verify the reliability of measurement tools and Pearson's relative rate analysis to examine the correlation of variables. In addition, the data were averaged in order to perform regression analysis and to view the effect of adjustment of guilt, and the significance of the adjustment effect was verified using SPSS Macros.s

3.2. Evaluation of measurement items

Internal Consistency analysis was performed to verify the reliability of the measuring tools used in this study. Internal consistency refers to the variance of the measurements that occur when measured repeatedly on the same concept. A study by Carmines and Zeller (1991) stated that the Cronbach's α is an indicator of the internality of the measuring items and is a suitable method for verifying reliability.

As a result of reviewing reliability of measurement variables, Cronbach's α=886), Cronbach's α=.883), Cronbach's α=.865) was higher. In general, a chroma alpha value of 0.6 or higher can be said to be reliable. In this study, all chroma-bar alpha values are above 0.6 and therefore reliability is assured.

3.3. Hypothesis Verification

In this study, simple regression analysis was used to test Hypothesis 1. The results of the analysis show that the coefficient of determination is 0.484 in the summary of the model. In the analysis of variance, F statistic is 321.855 and significance probability (p value) is 0.000. In other words, the recognition of luxury brands has a statistically significant effect on the purchase intention of counterfeit luxury brands. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 was adopted. In order to verify the moderating effect of guilt, hierarchical regression analysis was conducted. In order to solve the problem of multi - collinearity, the brand awareness and sense of guilt were centered on average. The results are presented in [Table 2] below. [Table 2] shows analysis of moderating effect of sense of guilt on the Relationships between Luxury Brand Awareness and Purchase Intention. As shown in Table 2, the R square changed by 0.01 with the input of the recognition of luxury brand and the sense of guilt. The t-values, significance and standardized coefficients for the interaction term were -2.603, 0.01, -0.085, respectively. In other words, the effect of brand awareness on the willingness to purchase counterfeit brand may vary depending on the level of guilt. In other words, the bigger the sense of guilt, the smaller the relationship between the recognition of a luxury brand and the willingness to purchase a counterfeit brand. Therefore, it can be seen that the guilt style moderates the influence of the luxury brand awareness on the intention of the counterfeit luxury brand purchase intention. Hypothesis 2 was therefore adopted.

[Table 1] Analysis of Factors and Reliability

[Table 2] Results of the moderating effect of a sense of guilt

*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001

In addition, because the moderation variable is a continuous variable, a specific identification of the effect of the adjustment on the condition is required. Aiken and West (1991) proposes to identify the interaction effects of a specific value (average value, average value ± standard deviation) of the adjustment variables and to validate their significance. Therefore, SPSS PROCESS MACRO was verified whether the simple return of the effect of recognising a luxury brand on the purchase intention of a counterfeit brand when the adjustment variable was average and ± standard deviation values were statistically significant (Table 3). Familiarity with the brand has been a control variable. As [Table 3] shows, all simple returns of brand awareness on the intention of purchasing counterfeit brand have been significant. Therefore, The sense of guilt can be seen as moderating the impact of brand awareness on the willingness to purchase counterfeit brands.

[Table 3] Verification of significance of simple regression line according to the condition value of a sense of guilt

4. Conclusion & Discussion

The first hypothesis that luxury brand awareness has a positive effect on intention to buy a luxury brand is significant. The hypothesis that the following sense of guilt would show a significant moderating effect between the perception of luxury brand and the intention of purchasing counterfeit luxury brand. In other words, as the sense of guilt increases, the positive influence of the luxury brand awareness on the intention of purchasing the counterfeit luxury brand decreases.

This suggests that consumers can refrain from purchasing counterfeit luxury brands if they invite guilt, and that efforts to create such negative feelings should be made in a social atmosphere. In the future, it would be meaningful to examine the effects of situational variables besides personal characteristics by examining the effect of the message on the intention to buy the counterfeit luxury brand.

Choi, Hwang, and Lee(2011) argued that to build a successful brand asset, brand awareness and brand image must be systematically aggregated and managed. This requires a stronger and more differentiated branding.

The academic significance of this study is as follows. In this study, for the first time in the study of counterfeit luxury brands, the study of counterfeit luxury brands was expanded by confirming the effects of brand awareness and control of crime. This suggests that even if brand awareness positively influences purchase intention for counterfeit luxury brands, discriminative influences can be seen according to another personal tendency of guilt. The results of this paper are consistent with existing research. Lascu (1991) said that while consumers enjoy the highest pleasure and pleasure of purchasing pleasure goods, negative emotions such as guilt can even play a role in controlling consumers' product choices beforehand.

This study also assumed that guilt, a psychological motive that was mainly used in traditional brand research with respect to the status of high quality counterfeit goods, could have an influence on the attitude of counterfeit goods and introduced it as a moderator variable for the study.

This study has some limitations that need to be supplemented by subsequent weightlifting. First of all, although the study conducted an analysis locally on three consumers in Beijing, Shanghai and Qingdao, it is difficult to represent consumers across China. Therefore, this study has limitations that do not reflect the characteristics and culture of China's different regions. Therefore, further studies will need to perform an empirical analysis of the intention of purchasing counterfeit goods by region of China. The following research is conducted in a situation where there is little evidence of guilt affecting the consumption of counterfeit goods in China, and it is necessary to examine various aspects of the consumption of counterfeit goods that reflect various factors other than guilt. In this regard, it is necessary to study literature first on the many factors that affect the willingness to purchase counterfeit goods. Finally, because China has a very disproportionate gap between the rich and the poor by region and the income gap between cities, rural areas, eastern coastal regions and northwestern provinces, an empirical analysis of the factors of Chinese consumers' purchase of counterfeit goods is necessary.

This Research was supported(in part) by Research Funds of Mokpo National University in 2016.