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Marketing research and the legislative literature on trademark infringement have emphasized the threats that high similarity copycats pose to leader brands. This is important and based on the idea that the larger the similarity between copycat and leader is, the more positive consumers’ evaluation of the copycat. Yet, brand imitation strategies are often subtler than the high-similarity cases that garner the most attention. The results of a series of studies demonstrate that even subtle imitations can free ride on the positive associations of the leader brand and are actually often more effective than high similarity imitations. Three controlled studies that systematically varied the degree of similarity between copycat and leader brand reveal that high similarity copycats are liked more than low and moderate similarity copycats, when evaluation is noncomparative (i.e., when leader brand is absent). However, moderate-similarity copycats are liked more than low- and high-similarity copycats, when evaluation is comparative (i.e., when leader brand is present). The studies employ student and regular consumers, brand name and brand package similarities, and a range of product categories to establish the robustness of the findings.

This research provides evidence that subtler, moderate similarity copycats can be more threatening than blatant, high similarity ones. This is important because the free riding of subtle copycats remained undetected by consumers. Moderate similarity copycats may also fly under the radar of trademark legislation, because these copycats have similar but not confusing package designs, and trademark legislation focuses on brand confusion. Furthermore, it shows that copycat evaluation—besides on the degree of similarity between copycat and leader brand—critically depends on the evaluation mode that consumers are in: comparative or noncomparative. When being in a comparative evaluation mode, high similarity copycats lose and subtle copycats gain. Evaluation mode can be manipulated by simple characteristics of the shopping environment that are under managerial control. In addition to the presence or absence of the leader brand during product evaluation, other characteristics such as the categorization of product assortments (i.e., feature- or benefit-based categories) or the descriptions of products in advertisements and displays (description on the same or on different dimensions) could activate a comparative evaluation mode and thus reverse copycat liking.

Biography
Femke van Horen is Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Cologne, Germany. She received her PhD in Consumer Behavior at the Tilburg Institute of Behavioral Economics Research (TIBER), Tilburg University, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on the effectiveness of product imitation strategies. She is further interested in how uncertainty affects consumers’ decision making.

Rik Pieters is Professor of Marketing and TIBER fellow at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He obtained his PhD in Marketing at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. His research interests are visual marketing effectiveness, consumer emotions and decision-making. He is excited about data collection in the fields.

Journal of Marketing Research, Volume 49, Number 1, February 2012
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