Shang Qian, Pei Guanxiong, Jin Jia, Zhang Wuke, Wang Yuran, Wang Xiaoyi
Chinese Academy of Science and Education Evaluation, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, China.
Management School, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, China.
PLoS One. 2018 Feb 21;13(2):e0191475. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191475. eCollection 2018.
Copycat brands mimic brand leaders to free ride on the latter's equity. However, little is known regarding if and how consumers confuse copycat as leading brand in purchasing. In this study, we applied a word-pair evaluation paradigm in which the first word was a brand name (copycat vs. normal brand both similar with a leading brand in category), followed by a product name (near vs. far from the leading brand's category). Behavioral results showed that, when the product is near the leader's category, the copycat strategy (CN) was more preferred compared to the normal brand (NN) but not different in the far product condition (CF and NF). Event-related potential (ERP) data provided further insight into the mechanism. The N400 amplitude elicited by the CN condition was significantly smaller than NN. However, when products are far from the leader's category, there was no significant difference in N400 amplitudes. For the late positive component (LPC), the CN gave rise to a larger amplitude than the CF. The N400 amplitude was suggested to reflect the categorization process, and the LPC demonstrated the recollection process in long-term memory. These findings imply that the copycat brand strategy is generally only effective when products are within the category of the leading brand, which offers important implications for marketing practices.
山寨品牌模仿品牌领导者，以搭后者品牌资产的便车。然而，关于消费者在购买时是否以及如何将山寨品牌误认为领先品牌，我们知之甚少。在本研究中，我们采用了一种词对评估范式，其中第一个词是品牌名称（山寨品牌与普通品牌，两者在类别上均与领先品牌相似），后面跟着一个产品名称（与领先品牌的类别接近或远离）。行为结果表明，当产品与领先品牌的类别接近时，与普通品牌（NN）相比，山寨品牌策略（CN）更受青睐，但在产品类别远离的情况下没有差异（CF和NF）。事件相关电位（ERP）数据为该机制提供了进一步的见解。CN条件下引发的N400波幅明显小于NN。然而，当产品远离领先品牌的类别时，N400波幅没有显著差异。对于晚期正成分（LPC），CN产生的波幅大于CF。N400波幅被认为反映了分类过程，而LPC则展示了长期记忆中的回忆过程。这些发现意味着，山寨品牌策略通常只有在产品属于领先品牌的类别时才有效，这对营销实践具有重要意义。
