You must have heard about the famous fashion brand Anna Sui, but do you know Sui by Anna Sui? Recently, when taking a walk around Jiu Guang and Parkson, popular department stores in Shanghai, you are going to find Sui by Anna Sui’s stores standing out in high-traffic locations areas. Does this mean Anna Sui has launched a sub-brand?

The decoration of the stores bears close resemblance to the Anna Sui brand identity. The logo uses main colour purple and the same capitalized font as Anna Sui’s logo, giving a strong impression to consumers that Sui by Anna Sui is indeed a sub-brand. If you ask the shop attendant which brand it is, she will likely tell you “It’s Anna Sui”. As for the price, a coat is more than 1000 RMB at regular price. If this store truly is a sub-brand of Anna Sui, it will benefit from the established brand equity and reputation of the original brand. It can bypass the process of creating an original brand visual identity, can attract customers’ attention more easily, and thus realize more profits with less input.

So did Anna Sui launch a sub-brand or not? As fashion lovers may already know, Sui by Anna Sui is actually a copycat brand. In China, there is a phenomenon called “copycat culture”. There are copycat brands which look exactly like the original brands by making tiny changes that consumers may not realize on first glance. There are also copycat products like mobile phones or MP3s which copy the entire design and functions of the original products. Interestingly, copycat culture has spread swiftly throughout the country, and it is something China has become known for worldwide. For some businessmen, developing copycat brands or products is cheaper and more profitable than developing original products. For consumers, copycat brands resemble famous brands, but cost much less.

Before, copycat brands used the methods of switching the order of the original brand’s English letters or changing one letter into another similar letter. But this time, the copycat brand Sui by Anna Sui is more difficult to detect. It appears to be Anna Sui’s sub-brand, just like Marc by Marc Jacobs.

Name-brands in China will continue to face copycat troubles. For example, Louis Vuitton may have sub-brands Louis by Louis Vuitton or Vuitton by Louis Vuitton popping up. To deal with this problem, brands should not only register their original brand names, but also any possible names that may used by copycat brands and give more importance to the trademark registration and legal check process. They can then take legal action against the copycat brands for trademark infringement.

For department stores, they should ensure the authenticity of the brands and products to make sure copycat brands don’t bring down the reputation of their shopping centres. Consumers should understand that building a successful brand is not easy and the rights of famous brands should be protected as more copycat brands will cause a disturbance in the marketplace. Let’s hope after the Sui by Anna Sui case, we won’t see other copycat brands sneaking into well-established department stores in Shanghai.