Brand Imitation
Transcript of Brand Imitation
Brand Imitation
By similar cues to believe that two brands are interchangeableTo copy or be like
Govt of India Glossary “ imitation means the action or product of imitating and to imitate
means to follow as a pattern, model or sample, to produce likeness of.
Kinds
Counterfeits or product pirates Knock offs or clones Design copy or trade dress Creative adaptations/ adopter
Counterfeits or product pirates
Are copies that carry the same brand name or trade marks as original.
Counterfeits are strictly illegal
Knock offs or clones
Often legal products in their own right. The absence or expiration of patents, copyrights and trademarks make many of them legal.
Same basic product with lower price and without any prestigious brand.
Assembled PC
Design copy or trade dress
Trade on the style, design or fashion of a competitors product
May also be based on unique and innovative technologies
Lexus ,
Creative adaptations/ adopter
They take the existing product and either improve upon them or adopt it to a new arena of competition
Innovative imitations
Factors affecting
Consumer factors Company factors The culture
Consumer factors
Desirability of top western brands Little knowledge of authentic
brands Unavailability of top brands
Company factors
Economic ( profit) Lack of infrastructural support
The culture
Moral aspect ( Asian vs. european)
Imitation vs. later market entry
Is imitation late market entry? Innovation Pioneering
Innovator Imitator
Pioneer Innovator is the first to market with an innovative product
Beats the innovator with imitative product while the innovator lingers in test marketing
Later entrant One innovator is beaten to the market by another innovator, each has developed its new product independently
The imitator enters the market after the innovator with a copy of innovator product
Classifying later entrants
Based on time elapsed between the pioneer and the subsequent entrants
Early followers Late followers
First mover advantages Image and reputation Brand loyalty Opportunity to pick market position Technological leadership An opportunity to set product standards Access to distribution Experience effects Patents as barrier to entry Switching cost as barrier to entry
Free rider effects
Which accrue to imitators and later entrants
Which is more realistic?
Benefits of free rider Avoiding products that have no potential Survivor bias (slot machine effect) Estimates of new product failure rates Lower R&D expenditures Relative cost of innovation versus copying Opportunity to gain share with heavy promotion Lower costs of educating customers Technology leap frog Sticking the pioneer with an obsolete standard Opportunity to benefit from market changes Opportunity to use shared experience
Imitation strategies
Offer lower prices than pioneers Sell a superior product or imitate
and improve Use market power to overwhelm
the weaker pioneer
Offer lower prices than pioneers
Selling exact duplicate at reduced price
Selling trimmed down version at much lower price
Low cost equals low price Timing entry to match growth
Sell a superior product or imitate and improve
Second but better Technological leap frog Is fast second entry important
here? Importance of staying
technologically current
Use market power to overwhelm the weaker pioneer
Brand power Advertising and distributions are
key Bigness Dish TV