Cheap, imperfect product knock-offs are the bane of a branded products business, right? They pollute the value equation, and risk diluting the brand with ersatz materials, attributes, and associations.
So why would a fashion brand create a knock-off brand on purpose?
That's exactly what a South African T-shirt company called Love Jozi did...for two years, until it admitted to the ruse just before Christmas last year.
Luv Jozi (notice the purposeful misspelling?) was splayed on a range of el cheapo shirts supposedly manufactured in China (they weren't), then sold on a web site and promoted via a Facebook page. Also, the merchandise was actually distributed to flea markets and other city street vendors, just as you’d expect from a knock-off business. Bloggers ranted about the injustice, as consumers were made aware of the authenticity of the real Love Jozi brand.
Alternate reality gaming meets culturejamming, with a dose of irascible invention thrown in just for the hell of it.
Love Jozi took control of the inevitable knock-off viral meme, and by doing so strengthened the credibility of its brand value proposition. It gamed the system to generate publicity, and provided consumers with an albeit indirect, but still real, way to interact with its brand. It didn't just fake an evil competitor...it created one, and the company sold real products to real people.
Was it disingenuous? Partly, I'd say, but I'm not sure I'm all that refreshed by the crude, obvious honesty of much of the viral nonsense that gets propagated into the ether these days (i.e. shouldn't I be more offended by the intentional time-wasting, society-sapping nature of the Burger King videos?).
I have a lot of respect for marketers who can see the marketplace in its totality, and devise programs that interact through and around it, and not just within it.
Plus, it turns out that Love Jozi was planning to legitimizing the knock-off as its own low-price sub-brand anyway, which is what prompted the disclosure late last year.
I wonder how many other knock-offs and social media trends are similarly contrived?
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