75 “M easuring materialism in counterfeit luxury brands consumption” Viet Dung Trinh (Curtin University, Australia) Ian Phau (Curtin University, Australia) Counterfeiting of luxury brands is a growing problem worldwide for authentic brands and policy makers. Regardless of the results of international trade talks, the combined efforts of individual organizations and law enforcement agencies, the issue of counterfeit consumption seems to remain a permanent feature of the marketplace. In recent years, counterfeit purchasing continues to grow worldwide, and it is it is sometimes regarded as a common act of consumption. There are many explanations for consumers to intrigue themselves in purchasing counterfeit luxury brands. The explanations are varied from price to accessibility, from hedonic value to symbolic value and so on. From the listed possible explanations, the tie between what make consumers buy counterfeit luxury brands and materialism has become so clear. Materialism is “the importance ascribed to the ownership and acquisition of material goods in achieving major life goals or desired states”. Materialistic consumers tend to consume more than other consumers, with clear intention to consume products that generate social recognition or status for the owner. They often display acquired goods to feel distinctive from others. Luxury brands offer flamboyant display of wealth and status. Therefore highly materialistic consumers without the financial capacity to achieve their ambitions are likely to turn to counterfeit luxury brands. Materialism is also a term that usually associates with luxury brands consumption. But despite the prolonged relationship of materialism in luxury brands consumption and its more recent tie with counterfeit consumption, there are only a handful of studies that included materialism as a predictor of consumer attitudes toward counterfeit luxury brands and their willingness to buy such products. Nevertheless, the findings of these studies have denied the role of materialism in influencing attitudes or willingness to purchase counterfeit luxury brands. This raises a critical question, whether materialism really does not have any influence in counterfeit luxury brands consumption or has it been measured wrongly? This paper proposes a new measure, through scale development to capture the dimensions of materialism in the context of counterfeit luxury brands. This research fulfils a significant gap in the current knowledge as current scales do not distinguish between the specific counterfeit consumption types based on product specificity and the underlying consumer value system in this case materialism. Specifically, this paper proposes a unique solution to clarify the problem by developing a new scale to measure three original material values – success, centrality and happiness – plus another three sub-dimensions that target counterfeit luxury brands consumption – conspicuousness, status and distinctiveness. Introduction Counterfeiting of luxury brands is a growing problem worldwide for authentic brands and policy makers. In recent years, counterfeit purchasing continues to grow worldwide, aggravating the current situation coupled with the emergence of new variants of counterfeiting activities (Eisend and Schuchert-Guler, 2006). There are many potential explanations for consumers to intrigue themselves in purchasing counterfeit luxury brands. From the literature, the link between what make consumers buy counterfeit luxury brands and materialism has surfaced to be a critical driver to what some defined as unethical and immoral consumption behaviour (Eastman et al., 1999; Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, 1981; Wee et al., 1995). Materialism is “the importance ascribed to the ownership and acquisition of material goods in achieving major life goals or desired states” (Richins and Dawson, 1992). Materialistic consumers tend to consume more than other consumers, with clear intention to consume products that generate social recognition or status for the owner (Mason, 2001). They often display acquired goods to be distinct from others (Eastman et al., 1999). Luxury brands offer flamboyant display of wealth and status (Mason, 1998). Therefore highly materialistic consumers without the financial capacity to achieve their ambitions are likely to turn to counterfeit luxury brands. Background Literature Counterfeiting of luxury brands is a growing problem worldwide for authentic brands and policy makers. In recent years, counterfeit purchasing continues to grow worldwide, aggravating the current situation coupled with the emergence of new variants of counterfeiting activities (Eisend and Schuchert-Guler, 2006). There are many potential explanations for consumers to intrigue themselves in purchasing counterfeit luxury brands.