Today, counterfeiting is seen in many goods markets, one of them being that of luxury branded goods. Luxury goods are purchased by people who want to show their social status and they strive for recognition and acceptance by others. These goods are bought by consumers who want to express their social class and belonging by being admired and recognized by people around them. Luxury brand companies want to keep their brands exclusive. But the presence of counterfeit luxury brands in the market make them easily accessible to all which hurts the core of a luxury brand and causes lot of damage to its brand image and brand equity. The purpose of the study is to understand the purchase behaviour of consumers for these counterfeit goods. This paper explores consumers’ mind-set in relation to purchasing counterfeits of luxury brands. First a secondary study was done through books and the internet. Then primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire from people of different family incomes, gender and age groups. The collected data was then analysed using various quantitative tools. The relation between various demographic variables and consumer buying behaviour was observed.
Luxury, counterfeit, purchase behaviour, luxury brands
