Copycat Brands: Why Reinvent the Wheel.. Right?

What are CopyCat Brands? 

Copycat brands imitate a brand that is in market, in terms of its appearance and packaging. It takes advantage of the 'original' brands reputation and marketing efforts (Horen & Pieters, 2012).

Why Reinvent the Wheel? 

When we think about copycat brands we usually associate low quality and cheaper price (ibid, 2012), and in most circumstances it is true. We all know that  Marketing as a discipline is mirrored with Psychology. I find copy -cat brands very interesting, for instance if we truly associated them with low quality, then why are Aldi and Walmart so successful? Well, that's thanks to psychology. 

Think about that first time you walked down Aldi supermarket aisle. You saw many brands that were completely unfamiliar to you; but you associated them to brands that are advertised or used in Woolworth and Coles. This relationship is brought to how we identify a product. For example, size, colour and texture all make up a product. When I was walking in Aldi, I picked up a packet of chocolates  The packaging was purple. similar size and material used, just like Cadbury. At that point I subconsciously mirrored the feelings I have to Cadbury to that bar and purchased it. Humans learn through association, thus all elements are important during the learning process. Back in 2006 Cadbury sued Darrel Lea claiming they owned the colour purple- they lost. Refer to the link for more information about this case: 

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/cadbury-loses-purple-case/2006/04/28/1145861520896.html

Although they lost, after my experience in Aldi, maybe they do own the colour purple in the chocolate industry? It seems a little far-fetched, but I would say 85% of the reason why I associated the chocolate in the Aldi store to Cadbury was because the colour purple was used. And the other 15% was due to my emotional connection with Cadbury. But then again, if I was brand loyal- then I would have never purchased the copycat brand? It is unfair, but for the life of me I do not remember the name of that brand I bought, and honestly do not care to learn it because it is not a mainstream brand. When I think about it, it is actually very smart. 

"Why reinvent the wheel when someone else has done the ground work for you?"

At the end of the day, that other brand gained a conversion based on my perception on Cadbury, but then again we can argue that my emotional connection and brand loyalty was obviously not that strong. Eagly & Chaiken (1993) found that "things that look the same must work the same." Thus associated learning played a major role in why I purchased the other brand.

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Reference

Eagly, Alice H. & Chaiken, Shelly (1993).  The Psychology of Attitudes, Fort Worth, TX:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Horen, F., & Pieters, R., (2012) Consumer evaluation of copycat brands: The effect of imitation type, Intern. J. of Research in Marketing  doi:10.1016/j.ijresmar.2012.04.001 [online] Available from http://social-cognition.uni-koeln.de/scc4/documents/IJRM_FVH_RP_2012.pdf (Accessed 26 December 2012).