Pirated cellphones refer to those that are suspected to imitate or copy the brand cellphones. They are similar with the hot products of famous brands in appearance, and are printed with the names that are extremely like famous brands in a confusing way, though having no brands of their own. Originally, pirated cellphones are commodities that hard to be sold, but as being favored by consumers, they have brought an irresistible purchasing tide. The users even publicly discuss and display their pirated cellphones with a strong flaunt. Flaunting products will drive conspicuous behavior, and conspicuous behavior will further gratify vanity. Once commodities are too expensive, valuable luxury items will be imitated. But, why consumers still snap up pirated cellphones which even though don’t imitate valuable luxury brands at present? It is doubted whether vanity lies in the purchase for these inexpensive imitated items. This paper takes consumers who have used pirated cellphone as its questionnaire respondents, and its purpose is to verify whether the consuming behavior of purchasing pirated cellphones appears a behavior performance of high flaunt due to the vanity trait. This paper applies structural equation modeling to conduct data collection and analysis, expecting to verify the constructed hypothesis in a more deliberate way. The results of this study show that vanity trait has a positive direct effect on conspicuous behavior. Finally, this study proposes effective managerial implications based on the verification results, for providing references to the cellphone industry in drawing out marketing strategies and further boosting the prosperity of the cellphone industry in future.
