When it's being worn, who knows it's a fake? Photo: Owen Roberts
By Owen Roberts and Ariana Longley
One of North America’s biggest shopping days, Black Friday, has arrived -- November 23, the day after Thanksgiving Day in the US.
Since the 1980s, Black Friday has taken conspicuous consumption to the max. It started out innocent enough, with retailers offering super prices to kick start the Christmas shopping season.
But it’s brought out the worst in consumer behaviour, with shoppers lining up hours before stores open, then trampling each other to get to a deal. Most lately its spawned Cyber Monday, its online equivalent, to help consumers avoid in-store hysteria.
Black Friday is about deals, but it’s mostly about money. After months of toiling away, Black Friday is considered the day retailers start making a profit for the year. Its name comes from the economic term “in the black,” referring to the black ink that was traditionally found on the profit side of an accounting ledger.
However, it turns out Black Friday and Cyber Monday are also banner days for the world’s $4-trillion counterfeit goods industry.
Online shopping has made it harder to spot counterfeit goods. In stores, at least you can handle the merchandise and try to spot obvious fakes by their tactile or visible flaws. Online, it’s a different matter.
No reputable retailer, online or othereise, wants to take a chance with counterfeit products, given the kind of damage fake merchandise could do to their reputation, let alone to their customers. Counterfeit products are unlikely to have passed any safety requirements, which should be a red flag particularly for buying electronics or anything that requires a power source.
At best, quality control on fake goods is suspect; most likely, it’s as questionable as the products themselves.
Yet some consumers line up for fakes. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says counterfeit goods play a big role in the global economy, and that the trade of these goods is not slowing.
In fact, counterfeit goods have become one of the top ways to finance organized crime rings and terrorists. And despite pressure from groups such as the International Trademark Association, little progress is being made policing the problem at the source.
So what’s up with consumers?
At the University of Guelph, Prof. Anne Wilcock and graduate student Amy Faria, College of Business and Economics, are trying to figure it out.
With support from the Canadian Home Economics Association, they’re sorting through the way implicit thought processes impact decisions not only in purchasing environments, but also in all other instances of social behaviors.
“We hope our research contributes to the movement to have more resources allocated toward this global counterfeiting issue,” says Wilcock.
Faria says the thought processes that go into purchasing decisions are so influential that we may accept buying behaviour that is unethical, and worse, that can even impact our safety and those around us.
Surprisingly little research has been dedicated to understanding how and why attitudes towards counterfeiting differ across cultures. In this case, the researchers turned their sights on China, the country with which many counterfeit products are associated.
They say China’s manufacturing boom led to a strong demand among consumers there for status-symbol products such vehicles, cosmetics and apparel produced overseas.
“Previous research has shown that in China, in terms of counterfeit goods, the desire to own a product that demonstrates prestige and is seen as a status symbol is more important than the quality of the goods,” says Faria.
They tested that theory in Guelph with a comparison of attitudes between Chinese students and Canadian students, and found the same thing.
Canadian students said they tend to purchase counterfeit items on a whim. For example, they’ll pick up a fake Gucci or Rolex while traveling, as a souvenir. They report being gratified owning the authentic brand name.
Not so for Chinese students. They say the ability to sport certain brands – knock off or not -- helps bolster their social identity. They would purchase the counterfeit version of a product if they perceive the performance was the same as that of the authentic product, or was recommended by friends.
Faria is quick to note the study results can’t be generalized to everyone in either culture.
“But it can give us a better an idea how cultural factors may lead people to support the problematic counterfeit goods industry,” she says.
If you’re concerned about authenticity, there are a few guidelines to follow from the Ontario government.
First, online especially, watch for spelling mistakes in product desciptions. Legitimate manufacturers’ quality control will normally catch such problems.
Second, look for secure e-commerce websites, denoted in the address by “https” rather than “http.”
Onsite, ask to see and hold the product outside of its package.
And price wise, remember anything that seems too good to be true could well be fake.
Happy shopping!