This research investigates the influence of age in luxury counterfeit consumption in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. More specifically, a pilot quantitative survey conducted in the United Arab Emirates demonstrates that GCC consumers’ age has a positive influence on counterfeit luxury consumption, which runs counter the general consensus observed in the counterfeiting literature. Based on 25 in-depth interviews, a follow-up qualitative study explores this unexpected result using the functional theory of attitudes. It shows that the experience of the region’s major socio-economic changes in the last 40 years may explain the shift on how consumers understand the value of things, and therefore the existence of a positive correlation between age and counterfeit consumption in the GCC countries. This article contributes to the field of luxury counterfeit research and expands theoretical understanding on consumer responses of different age groups to counterfeit consumption. Our analyses corroborate the relevance of the functional theories of attitudes in explaining both luxury and counterfeit consumptions. Social-adjustive function is dominant for young people, however, the attitudes, which serve the social-adjustive function, are less likely to drive counterfeit consumption. Further, the research refines the existing model, suggesting that the value-expressive function served by different attitudes was relevant on both age groups, but depending on the values which are expressed, it influences the counterfeit consumption. The findings are of significant interest for public policy makers, luxury brand managers fighting counterfeiting, and more generally to any managers dealing with GCC nationals.

The counterfeit market makes up as much as seven percent of worldwide trade and is estimated as a $650 billion industry. Due to consumer demand, this phenomenon has grown over 10,000% in the past two decades and presents a serious threat to the global economy. Many luxury brand managers assume that counterfeiting damages brand image, however some experts have indicated that luxury houses use counterfeit sales to predict demand for their own brand. In this sense, brands are reacting to the effects of counterfeit purchase and need to develop a proactive strategy for preventing it. By understanding consumers’ perception of brands and how it relates to their counterfeit consumption, brand managers can better plan their marketing strategies to build relationships with consumers for increasing loyalty and preventing possible loss in sales. The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of branding on non-deceptive counterfeit consumption of luxury brands by proposing that brand equity plays a moderating role in the relationship between attitudes toward counterfeits and purchase intentions and in the relationship between social factors and purchase intentions. Specifically, this study conceptualizes the customer-based brand equity model with the Theory of Reasoned Action to develop strategic marketing implications for luxury brands. Previous research has resulted in managerial implications for combatting the counterfeit phenomenon, but it is more effective to prevent the increase in demand for counterfeits than to react to that demand. This study examines the role of brand equity to help brand managers focus their marketing strategies on specific levels of customer-based brand equity to build stronger relationships with consumers and reduce the demand for counterfeit products. Previous studies have examined the effects of counterfeits on brands, but research on the effects of brands on counterfeit consumption is very limited. This study adds to literature on counterfeits by understanding how branding can affect counterfeit purchase. Studies have used the Theory of Reasoned Action for understanding consumers’ intention to purchase counterfeit products. Drawing on the customer-based brand equity model, this research proposes brand identity, brand response, brand meaning, and brand relations as moderating variables in addition to the basic constructs of the model to extend previous literature, as no previous research has used customer-based brand equity for understanding counterfeit consumption. Previous studies have conceptualized customer-based brand equity for building relationships with customers, but this concept has never been used in the counterfeit context. This study is the first to use brand equity for understanding consumers’ counterfeit purchase intentions. This study suggests important implications for luxury brand marketers. By understanding how consumers associate with a brand, marketers can target specific levels of brand equity as part of their marketing strategies to deter counterfeit purchase. The proposed model serves as an initial step for understanding how brand equity affects non-deceptive consumption of counterfeit luxury goods. Future studies include empirically testing this proposed model and quantifying how much each level of customer-based brand equity contributes to consumer’ perception of brands. Future studies could also test the impact of branding on specific product types to analyze differences in consumers’ brand associations based on product category, as some product categories are more favorable to counterfeit consumers than others.