Playing Devil's Advocate: The Case for Counterfeiting

Ask any dedicated fashionista how they feel about knockoffs and you're likely to get the same response. Most already know of the detrimental practices associated with the counterfeiting industry, including child labor and indentured servitude. Salon recently published an article about the human cost of buying phony items on the black market. 

But what if there was an upside to counterfeiting? I recently came across two articles that made me rethink the relationship between brands and their imitations. According to a new study in Marketing Science, counterfeiting can drive original brands to improve designs and use better quality materials to differentiate themselves from the knockoffs. As one researcher commented: "Established companies don't sit idly by while they are copied shamelessly. They react by improving their products to set them apart from their illegal competitors."

In another article from Forbes, a writer argues that fakes can actually whet the consumer's appetite for the real deal. She observes how "purse parties" (think Tupperware, except with illegal handbags) can generate interest in the genuine goods:

Much to my surprise, and perhaps theirs, these consumers experienced increased attachment to the real brands. The fake products were a gateway. As my subjects’ knowledge of the luxury-handbag brands increased, they began to go into stores to check out the real thing–something they had never done prior to attending these purse parties.
The fakes hadn’t turned potential Gucci customers away from the brand. The opposite was true.
There were various reasons why. Women who’d bought bags at a purse party began to notice the inferior quality of the fakes–and envy the real thing. They also reported feeling compelled to admit to other that their purchases were fakes. This caused them to experience a tension between their positive private self-images and their dishonest public behavior. “If my possessions are fake,” they eventually reasoned, “what does that say about me?”

Disclaimer: I do not condone counterfeiting. As the title suggests, I am merely playing devil's advocate