More on Counterfeiting
14 December 2011 at 5:18 pm Peter G. Klein Leave a comment
| Peter Klein |
We asked in an earlier post if counterfeiting is good for business. Fakes may compete with the real thing, but having them around may also constitute free advertising that boosts demand for the original. Rubik’s Cube distributor Seven Towns Ltd. faces this conundrum, as a WSJ front-pager demonstrates:
One reason . . . a new generation of Rubik’s fanatics can solve the notoriously difficult puzzle in record time: They don’t use Rubik’s Cubes at all, instead substituting souped-up Chinese knockoffs engineered for speed.
The spread of these black-market cubes challenges the London-based company with a marketing brain teaser. Should Seven Towns crack down on the pirated toys? Or piggyback on the phenomenon of competitive speed-cubing?
I for one am happy to have all those cheap knockoffs of my articles and books flooding Chinese markets. Not everyone can afford a Klein® original, after all.
Entry filed under: - Klein -, Strategic Management.
Organizations and Markets 
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