Factors Influencing Consumers’ Purchase Intention of Counterfeit ‘Kente’ Products in the Kwabre East District

Abstract

This study examined factors that influence consumers’ purchase intentions of counterfeit kente products. Employing a quantitative approach and a systematic random sampling technique, self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from 379 households within the Kwabre-East District. Pearson Correlation and Regression were the statistical tools used to test the postulated hypotheses. The findings indicated that informative susceptibility, as a social factor, has a positive significant effect on consumers’ purchase intention. Social characteristics, as a composite variable, has a positive effect on purchase intention towards counterfeit kente products. Again, among the personality factors, price consciousness and value consciousness had a direct effect on purchase intention. Personal factors also had a positive effect on purchase intention towards counterfeit kente products. The results imply that manufacturers and marketers of original kente products should create awareness of the original and authentic kente products and their impact on the economy. Sellers should also initiate promotional programmes that would divert the attention of consumers from the counterfeit kente to the genuine kente cloth. With informative susceptibility having a significant influence on purchase intention, sellers of the original kente can also fall on opinion leaders who play important role as points of reference for consumers who may have little or no knowledge about the differences of the kente cloth. Thus, since opinion leaders serve as reference groups because they are deemed to have expert knowledge of the differences between original and counterfeit kente products, consumers perception are also expected to change in terms of developing positive attitude towards original products and negative attitudes towards counterfeit.