Fake Out Those Shopping for Fakes

Prospects for purchasing counterfeit alternatives to merchandise you sell are sometimes fully aware they’re seeking fakes, and sometimes they’re not at all aware of it.
     Researchers at St. John Fisher College, Southern Illinois University, and University of Wisconsin–Whitewater analyzed the motivations of participants in online communities of counterfeit consumption (OCCC). Here are my suggestions for appealing to those motivations in ways which will result in the consumer buying the real deal from you.

• Interest in obtaining value for money. Show the shopper how prices for counterfeits might, in reality, not be dramatically better than what you can offer. So-called discounts claimed on 8,000 rogue sites monitored by brand protection firm MarkMonitor were often in the range of 25% to 50%—not too far beyond what a shopper might obtain during your special promotion sales. 
• Pride in being able to find fakes which are indistinguishable from the genuine version. Know your merchandise well enough to describe the hidden features or easily overlooked benefits lacking in the counterfeit version. 
• Trust in the seller. OCCC members might have felt cheated, unappreciated, or exploited by merchants in the past. Their attraction to counterfeit products could be a conscious or subconscious way of paying back legitimate retailers for these insults. Getting to know the shoppers outside the store setting and treating them with obvious fairness regardless of the setting can help counteract the attraction to the counterfeit. 

     Then there are the shoppers who don’t know an item being considered is not genuine. Because counterfeit goods are usually of inferior quality, you’ll be doing a service by helping those shoppers question whether they’re being fooled. Acknowledge the compelling appeal of counterfeits which seem genuine, then present the advantages of buying the real deal.
     The MarkMonitor study analyzed almost five million online shopping inquiries from more than 300,000 consumers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the U.S. The researchers found that shoppers are likely to end up on a site selling counterfeit goods if the shoppers include in their search query words such as fake, knockoff, or replica, but also if the search terms include words like cheap, clearance, discount, outlet, or wholesale. Of those guided to a site featuring fakes, roughly four times as many had been searching for a bargain than for knockoffs. That indicates that many people considering whether to purchase counterfeit goods don’t realize the goods aren’t legitimate.

Click below for more: 
Genuflect to Counterfeit’s Accidental Appeal 
Embrace Shopper Expertise 
Show Complainers Respect, Concern, & Empathy