Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to create a framework for broadly understanding categories and motivations behind purchasing different counterfeit products. Design/methodology/approach – Focus groups provided qualitative data from 509 counterfeit purchases incidents by 95 informants. Findings – The most frequently mentioned motivation was the utility (35 percent) received from the good over the genuine article. The second, but negative, motivation was the perceived risk involved in the purchase (22 percent), whether it is physical or social risk. Social norms, confusion, and ethical concerns each represented about 10 percent of the motivations toward the purchase of counterfeit items. The least mentioned motivations to purchase, at less than 4 percent each, were culture, habit, and desire to explore. These factors were evident across a variety of 15 product categories, headed by electronics, such as DVDs and computer software. Practical implications – Through targeting negative motivations, such as perceived physical and social risks, businesses can devise strategies from a demand side perspective to overcome the problem of counterfeit consumption. Originality/value – Qualitative responses, over many product categories, provide a unique overview to the perception of counterfeit consumption. The finding that consumer ethics may depend on whether the activity benefits the society as a whole is worthy of additional discussion. The authors learn that when consumers thought their counterfeit consumption caused little or no harm, they do not see much ethical concern in their actions.

Purpose This paper aims to document how AI has changed the way consumers make decisions and propose how that change impacts services marketing, service research and service management. Design/methodology/approach A review of the literature, documentation of sales and customer service experiences support the evolution of bot-driven consumer decision-making, proposing the bot-driven service platform as a key component of the service experience. Findings Today the focus is on convenience, the less time and effort, the better. The authors propose that AI has taken convenience to a new level for consumers. By using bots as their service of choice, consumers outsource their decisions to algorithms, hence give little attention to traditional consumer decision-making models and brand emphasis. At the moment, this is especially true for low involvement types of decisions, but high involvement decisions are on the cusp of delegating to AI. Therefore, management needs to change how they view consumers’ decision-making-processes and how services are being managed. Research limitations/implications In an AI-convenience driven service economy, the emphasis needs to be on search ranking or warehouse stock, rather than the traditional drivers of brand values such as service quality. Customer experience management will shift from interaction with products and services toward interactions with new service platforms such as AI, bots. Hence, service marketing, as the authors know it might be in decline and be replaced by an efficient complex attribute computer decision-making model. Originality/value The change in consumer behavior leads to a change in the service marketing approach needed in the world of AI. The bot, the new service platform is now in charge of search and choice for many purchase situations.

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Study of Canadian and U.S. television ads finds that they present little information.