Look-alike Products

It’s no surprise that when a company makes something well and makes a lot of money off of it other companies will swoop in with eerily identical products and try to have the same success that the first company had. It’s not necessarily knocking off another company as they are not trying to claim the name of the first company; they are just trying to offer an alternative-usually at a cheaper price!

One of the biggest companies in the world is Apple. Most everyone has or has had an Apple product and equally as many people have an opinion of the ever debated question- Mac or PC? For a long time the answer was PC, everyone preferred the windows system to Macs unconditional approach to technology. However, Apple made big moves with the iPod and somehow became the most relevant and popular technology company. They have been known to sell out products within seconds of releasing them online and people will wait in lines for days to be the first to get their hands on an iPhone. One extremely popular product that Apple has had successes with is the iPad, a smart tablet as an easy alternative to a heavy laptop. 

Of course with the success of the iPad came companies that wanted to make as much money and a product like an iPad. The first iPad was released in April 2010 and it became a worldwide phenomenon. Later in October 2013 Windows released the Surface Pro 2, which was the windows alternative to the iPad. However, Apple still remains the main provider when it comes to tablets. To date Apple has sold 170M iPads where as Windows have only sold 1.5M tablets.

-Mare

A lot of people know about Toms, Vans, and Uggs, but what’s funny is that a company called Bob’s from Sketchers has shoes that look exactly like some of the other brands mentioned. I have put images of the shoe designs so you could get an example of just how similar the designs are to each other. On their website it states that ”With a collection that includes vulcanized sneakers, flats, Mary Janes, Alpargatas and more, BOBS has more styles than ever for you to look good, feel good and do good.” 

On top of how they look, Bob’s also has a similar way of operating compared to Tom’s. Sketchers donates new shoes to children in need every time somebody purchases Bob’s for men, women, or kids. They are a non-profit organization helping those who are affected by poverty homelessness, epidemics, or life-changing events. It is tough to say whether it is bad that they have copied the shoe styles because they are doing good for the world… I believe that the idea is great and people are benefiting, and I understand that the shoes they are copying are very popular leading to people wanting to purchase them even more, but I think they should be a little bit more original.

-Chatty Charlie

When consumers are purchasing their favorite personal items and if they are in a rush they could possibly pick up a product that is not an own-brand but yet simply a copy-cat.

I would say I have seen most products that are look-alikes at Walmart, especially in the food department. For example the popular product “I can’t believe it’s not butter” with the container colors being yellow and blue the other product has the similar container size and color is called “You’d butter believe it!” so it wouldn’t be surprising if consumers purchased the look-alike product. Most of the time consumers like me familiarize products with their shapes, colors, font, and size and never read if it is the brand version or the copy-cat but who is to say the look-alike product quality isn’t as good as the original.

-KeAnna

Brands often times use look-alike product packaging to fool consumers. Many times a less expensive brand will mimic the packaging of a name brand item in order to draw consumers in to purchase the product. Sometimes the customer might grab the product out of confusion, grabbing it quickly and not even noticing it is not the brand they were looking for, or they will choose it because of the product design that is reminiscent of the name brand. Brands will often use similar color schemes, and designs that copy the original’s trademark.

In a study, one third of members mistakenly identified the products when the names on the labels were removed, proving that it is easy to get brands and own-labels mixed up if you don’t read the label carefully. Similarly when conducting a blind fold taste test in two out of three tests people preferred the taste of name brand products over their copy counterparts. Packaging is a huge factor in the purchasing decision for the customer, and lookalike product packaging advertising is a sneaky way to try to influence consumer’s decisions.

-Shani

Any musician can spot the difference between a Gibson and Fender guitar. For others just shopping around for a very expensive and nice guitar without musical background could easily mix up the two. Gibson came to the market in 1935 with the first pick up design – electric guitar. A decade later Fender produced “upgrade” of the electric guitar from a hallow-body instrument to a solid-body. From then on the two companies have created similar guitar product models. The bodies, stains, finishes and strings available are matching or highly similar between the companies makes it difficult to at times tell the difference. Beyond the actual product, Gibson and Fender logo show many resemblances.

As each brands logo is printed in metallic color of either gold or silver - as well written in script and placed on the upper left hand corner of the product packaging. These resemblances could easily confuse a new buyer who was torn between the two. This also gives advantage to each company to swap consumers when they are unsure of who to purchase when unable to identify the original product.
-Mary