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The perception of the ABM students to

the negative impact of copycat product

to the entrepreneur in the time of

pandemic

MEMBER’s 12-BALAGTAS

DAET, CHARLYN JOY A. (ABM)

SIMBULAN, ROIANNE P.

GONGORA, ALVINO P.

SECANG, RIZA MAE F.

CALORA, ENZO

RELUCIO, PRINCESS CARMELA

FUENTES, JUSTINE

MODANZA, DIANA KYLA T.

INMENZO, ELOUIE
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CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

People cropped the logo. Replaced the logo. Create great things and people will mimic,

steal and copy. Competition exists in all business markets .Competition fuels us to think faster,

act more intelligently and challenge our ideas on the fly. It makes us smarter, fiercer and more

successful. But with every business in any industry, there are biters. Those people who copy your

ideas, style, design, business model and/or content to advance their own goals. Copycats are

unavoidable, but how you deal with them will be the difference between achieving continued

success and becoming a one-hit-wonder. There are a number of tactics for dealing with copycats

in business. Don’t let copycats kill your vibe, it can be frustrating to invest time, money and

sweat into something just to turn around and find your competitors feasting on it. But, you can’t

let the coattail-riders slow you down or stall your progress. You must keep hustling, whoever

makes the first version of something is less important than the person who makes the best

version, so stay focused on creating great content, products and serving your customers well. In

the end, that’s what will keep you on top. Stay true to your customers, when you’re building your

brand you’re intently focused on the needs of your clients and customers. Stay close to your

audience, fans, clients and customers. Make a commitment to understanding their needs and

constantly innovating and forcing the copycats to try and keep up.
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Ignore the copycats. They don’t add any value to your life so don’t spend your time and energy

worrying about them. If people are stealing your ideas, content or approach – that’s okay. What

really matters is that people can’t copy your unique experiences. They can’t copy your

personality or the value you deliver in your work. Stay focused on your own growth, clients and

the new experiences you are having and forget about the rest who are following behind and

stealing your moves. Think of it this way, the more copycats you have, the bigger your fan base.

Don’t be afraid to speak up. Speak up and talk to people and learn about why they are copying

you. Get their thoughts on it and have a conversation about it. Oftentimes it can be a

misunderstanding where simply educating them on proper citation and reference practices can

make a huge difference. I’ve seen great collaborative projects come out of this type of positive

confrontation. On the other hand, I’ve had people completely ignore the fact that they stole from

you and ultimately be left with no other option but going to someone else.

While some are more subtle than others, each has their own benefits. When the copycats come

out, you know you’re doing something right. People who copy your approach to marketing or

branding or who offer imitations of your product or service are paying you a compliment.

Understand that they are a fan of what you do and take comfort in the tribute they are paying to

you by copying your work. Previous studies have covered various dimensions in the field of

copycat behavior and have explored the factors that influence consumer evaluation of copycats

(d'Astous & Gargouri, 2001). However, to the best of my knowledge, no research has been

conducted on how loyalty affects the assessment of a competitor when copycat behavior is

present. It has been shown that brand loyalty creates greater resistance to persuasion tactics from

competitors, e.g. advertising (Dick & Basu, 1994). This holds that the assessment of copycat

brands may not only be affected by the extent of similarity between products of the copycat and
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leader brand, but also on the state of mind of the person who assesses it, i.e. how brand loyal the

person is and to which brand the loyalty is directed towards. Copycats, moreover, are people who

sit on the sidelines and wait for others to find success. As soon as they smell success, they jump

in and try to make a quick buck. While copycats are rarely successful in the long run, they can

eat up some of your profits. And that's what you need to be cognizant about, moving forward.

“I’d rather succeed with someone else’s good idea, than fail with my own bad one” says Patrice

Cassard, well known French entrepreneur whose first success was La Fraise.

Even small brands copy each other, the rationalizations are rampant, and enforcement is

costly...it is almost impossible to go after these people large or small and in the end they kill

design, there is a range of designs that are more "fair" game than others, however the benefits of

brand building and innovation are diminishing, and people ultimately will close their design

doors, the world will be a poorer place because the internet and consumers have less and less

information and choice. The theory behind the USP is that if your product is a complete copy of

a competitor, you offer customers no intrinsic reason to choose your offering over a competitor's.

And that seems to make sense, so far as it goes. Copycat is not a new problem but it’s getting

worse especially this time of pandemic. Counterfeiters are flooding the market with fake masks,

coronavirus test kits, PPE worn by frontlines, medicine and medical equipment used for healing

patients affected with COVID-19.

Addressing this kind of issue is more important now than ever. The large majority of counterfeit

products are ineffective if now downright dangerous, and deceive both patients and doctors who

trust that they are using genuine and effective treatments. This reduces the likelihood of the

patient's recovery and may disrupt efforts to stop or slow the spread of the virus. Entrepreneurs

are also affected. Counterfeit products affect the process of innovation, reduce the sales share of
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legitimate businesses and destroy the brand reputation. That's why it is important to know and

understand the negative impacts of copycat products.

Theoretical Framework

Imitation brands are seeking to free-ride a so-called copycat strategy on positive brand

connections generated by the leader brand. If a firm faces high uncertainty in the world in which

it works, Copycat activities become similar to a normal response (Lieberman & Asaba, 2006).

Innovation funding is a risky investment for businesses that are unable to process information in

this setting and may result in expensive gambling. Since these companies lack the ability to

process, they will instead observe successful companies that the copycats believe are better able

to process the data (Bikhchandani, Hirshleifer, & Welch, 1998). Similarly, the more successful a

company has been in the past, the more likely it is to succeed in the future. In addition, a new

product that has proven popular also reveals a newly discovered segment in the 15 business

segment (Kapferer, 1995). Through bringing an imitation product into the market, imitation

brands are able to respond rapidly with little risk or expense.

The explanation why copycat tactics are even possible is due to the existence of brand

uncertainty, which in turn is triggered by the fact that the load of information cannot be

interpreted by customers to make brand choices (Jacoby, 1977; Malhotra, 1982). In literature, the

concept of brand confusion is often not made explicit (Foxman, Berger, & Cote, 1992).However,

Foxman et al (1992), however, provided an enhanced description of the term:

Consumer brand confusion consists of one or more errors in inferential processing that lead a

consumer to unknowingly form inaccurate beliefs about the attributes or performance of a less-

known brand based on a more familiar brand's attributes or performance.

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Brand confusion may result from similarities between the features of two or more characteristics,

with a higher degree of similarity raising the inaccuracy of the inferential processing of an

individual. A higher similarity in product characteristics results in stimuli that are considered by

customers to be more similar, accompanied by a higher possibility of brand misunderstanding

occurring. By tapping into previously stored knowledge in consumers' minds, these copycat

brands exploit this misunderstanding. Due to this misunderstanding, positive data from a leading

brand can be triggered by the sight of the copycat product. A copycat product can be judged

more positively and closer to the leading brand if this happens (Van Horen & Pieters, 2012).

Brand confusion, however, varies from associated methods e.g. ambiguity, misunderstanding,

violation and deceit.

Process Difference from Brand Confusion

Miscomprehension Consumer misinterprets a message, resulting in a discrepancy between the intended

message of the brand and the received message by the consumer.

Infringement A product is found to be too similar to another product by the court. It is important to

note that brand confusion is not a necessity for infringement to take place.

Infringement is determined by a judge, and not by the fact if brand confusion truly

takes place or not.

Deception Comparison of different brands is not necessary. The key point is that there is a

discrepancy between the product characteristics and those that are claimed by the

marketer.

Uncertainty Consumers are aware of the potential error. Uncertainty is less likely to affect brand

choice, but instead will delay choice until more information is available.

In practice, copycat strategy is the application of brand confusion in the marketing

strategy of a brand. Copycat brands imitate the name, logo, package design or even products of

competitor firms, with the belief that they can benefit from being similar to competitors. Copycat
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practices are not a rare phenomenon in the current market. On the contrary, copycat behavior is a

common and widespread occurrence; a national survey of US supermarkets concluded that half

of the store brands imitated the packaging of a leading brand in terms color, size and shape

(ScottMorton & Zettelmeyer, 2004). Leading brands will naturally seek to protect and maintain

the competitive advantage they obtain from innovating and having a first-mover advantage.

However, it has been shown that successful innovators can seldom prevent the entry of imitating

firms (Lieberman & Montgomery, 1988), which may lower profits of the leading brand.
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Conceptual Framework

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

The perception of the A survey among the Discover the negative

ABM students to the consumers who also be effect of copycat product

negative impact of copycat affected by buying the

products to the
entrepreneur in the time of
pandemic.
The reliance of student
product
on the product of the
entrepreneur

Research indicates that there are many negative impacts of copycat products to

the entrepreneur in the time of pandemic.Studies have been conducted assessing the

impacts of copycat products. As an input, the researchers will gather all the information

about the negative impacts of copycat products to the entrepreneur . To carry out the

study, the researchers conducted a survey among the consumers of products .

This diagram illustrates that the INPUT AND PROCESS are combined to

produce the OUTPUT, it will determine the perception of the ABM students to the

negative impact of copycat product to the entrepreneur in the time of pandemic

Statement of the Problem

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This study aims to know the perception of ABM students to the negative impact of

copycat products to the entrepreneur in the time of the pandemic.

Specifically, it sought to answer the following question.

1. What is the negative impact of copycat products to the entrepreneur in the time of the

pandemic?

2. What is the perception of ABM students to the negative impact of copycat products to the

entrepreneur in the time of the pandemic?

3. What products are commonly a counter field in the time of pandemic?

Significance of the Study

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This gave a brief description on various significance of the study given to those who

would be benefited. This research will guide and help the following:

Entrepreneur.

Consumers. The direct recipients of the output of this research will be the consumers, they

will be able to distinguish the difference of the original product that they will buy compared to

the products who are only copycats.

Suppliers of a Product. This research will benefit the main suppliers of a product. Through

this research they will be more on focusing on innovation and will be more competitive.

Retailers. These retailers' organizations who only focus on growth through copying a product

rather than continuous growth will be more innovative and creative and will be able to adapt in

the different aspects in terms of creating an original product that will be more of a rightful

product that they will own.

Scope and Limitations of Study

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The study covered the perception of ABM students to the negative impact of copycat

products to the entrepreneur in the time of the pandemic. The researcher will gather information

about the possible negative impact of copycat products to the consumers.

The survey will be conducted about the evaluation of the respondents regarding in the

study of the negative impact of copycat products to the entrepreneur in the time of pandemic. In

a random order ,twenty selected consumers will be given questionnaires to get information that

will be needed in the study.

Definition of Terms
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The following terms used in this study are defined operationally to ensure better

understanding of the text.

Persuasion

- the action or fact of persuading someone or of being persuaded to do or believe

something.

Quick buck

- easily and quickly earned money.

Cognizant

- having knowledge or being aware of.

Rampant

- especially of something unwelcome or unpleasant) flourishing or spreading

unchecked.

Diminishing

- make or become less.

Intrinsic

- belonging naturally; essential.

Disrupt
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- interrupt (an event, activity, or process) by causing a disturbance or problem.

Counterfeit

- made in imitation of something else with intent to deceive

Copycat

- it refers to someone who's copying someone's works or product. One who imitates

or adopts the behavior or practices of another.

Perception

- it refers to someone who can be a traitor in the business.The ability to see, hear, or

become aware of something through the senses.