If you can’t beat them, join them, right? This was the thinking behind t-shirt brand Love Jozi, who turned a threat into an opportunity, with great success. Rather than wait for someone else to produce imitations of their brand – they did it themselves.

Love Jozi started out as a premium brand for the youth of South Africa who had cash to spend. The brand quickly became famous for its iconic photography of Johannesburg’s skyline. All was going well – but what about the masses who would never be able to afford the real McCoy?

Love Jozi started producing substitute brand Luv Jozi. And they took the role relatively seriously. For example:

1. They purposefully misspelt the logo
2. They created a fake website which subtly suggested the products were being manufactured in China. The photos were actually taken in Chinatown, Johannesburg!
3. They distributed the t-shirts in all the places other fake brands could be found - traffic lights, flea markets, street vendors and Chinese owned retail outlets

For two years no-one was any wiser until the company released a press release admitting it was behind the fake brand.

I’ve got to say this whole ‘behind their back’ approach does make me question the brand’s regard for loyal customers, especially when fans of the brand were writing blogs supporting the real Love Jozi brand. But it would appear, at least in the short term, this isn’t much of a problem. Following the stunt, retailer Big Blue started stocking the Luv Jozi brand, sales of which now make up 75% of total orders. At the very least this idea demanded guts and could just provide some lessons for the rest of us in taking a premium brand mainstream?

Posted by: Carmen Campbell
Thanks to: Love Jozi, Contagious