Functional Similarity: How Consumption Goals Improve Brand Imitation Evaluation

Four studies demonstrate that seemingly counterproductive brand imitation strategies can become effective when specific consumption goals are activated. When activated goals bring a distant (close) copycat cognitively closer to (further away from) the imitated brand, evaluations and purchase intention of the copycat increase. Copycats imitate brand features of a successful original brand to freeride on its equity. Previous research revealed that brand imitation is ineffective when the imitation is too close to the imitated brand or too distant from the imitated brand. The current set of experiments demonstrate however how specific consumption goals can increase purchase intentions of these seemingly ineffective brand imitations, while keeping product similarity constant. These results show that when a goal brings a seemingly distant (close) copycat cognitively closer to (further away from) the imitated brand, evaluations and purchase intention of the copycat improve. Then, goal activation can mitigate or even reverse boomerang effects of high original-imitator similarity, independent of degree of similarity.