When mirroring others causes confusion: reviewing brand confusion literature through the MIRROR framework

Chiara Mauri (), Marco Pichierri () and Martina Gurioli ()
Additional contact information
Chiara Mauri: LIUC Cattaneo University
Marco Pichierri: University of Bari “Aldo Moro”
Martina Gurioli: Ipsos Italia

Italian Journal of Marketing, 2025, vol. 2025, issue 4, No 5, 425-448

Abstract: Abstract Recent research has frequently remarked the increased crowding of store shelves driven by grocery manufacturers’ product expansion strategies. However, many new products are imitations, copycats, and lookalikes of leading brands, adding further complexity to consumer choice decisions. The high degree of similarity between products not only contributes to consumers’ information overload but also leads to increased brand confusion. This paper examines the academic debate on brand confusion through a systematic literature network analysis and introduces MIRROR, a thematic framework structured around six dominant perspectives that have shaped the understanding of this phenomenon: M for Mimicry, I for Imitation strategies, R for Reactions, R for Replication, O for Overall imitation effects, R for Retail price confusion. The acronym MIRROR also metaphorically reflects the competitive dynamics among products that adopt imitation strategies to capture consumer attention and drive purchase decisions.

Keywords: Brand imitation; Consumer confusion; Product imitation; Copycat; Systematic literature network analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43039-025-00124-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ijmark:v:2025:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s43039-025-00124-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/43039

DOI: 10.1007/s43039-025-00124-y

Access Statistics for this article

Italian Journal of Marketing is currently edited by Daniele Dalli

More articles in Italian Journal of Marketing from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().