How to characterize and influence the customer journey: The case of the purchase of counterfeit luxury products

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Statistics and Information Management, specialization in Marketing Research and CRMCounterfeiting of famous luxury brands with high visibility is an ever-growing global industry. Customers who purchase counterfeit luxury products seek social status or social approval. The seek for social status, or social approval creates the need to purchase a product from a brand that is easy to recognize when exposed to others (i.e. brand prominence). Moreover, with the growth of the counterfeiting phenomenon through social media platforms, customers can obtain information about the product in a fast and accessible way, and new buying behaviors emerge. Thus, this research's main objective is to comprehend how to characterize and influence a counterfeit luxury product's purchase customer journey. It intends to understand the impact of individual and interpersonal factors on customer attitudes towards counterfeiting and comprehend if a counterfeit luxury product's purchase increases brand attachment and customer satisfaction. The findings, obtained through exploratory research, underline that counterfeit luxury products are linked to easy and rapid brand recognition for female customers. The research shows that individual and interpersonal types of factors influence this type of product's purchase intention. Also, and although there is no influence of customer-brand attachment on customer satisfaction, it was found that personal motivations (as an individual factor) positively influence the customer-brand attachment