Debranding through Prevarication in the Linguistic Market Place: A Study of Selected Products in Onitsha

This article investigates the ways cloners debrand products through prevarication. Prevarication is a feature in human language used in misinforming people. Cloners debrand products in the linguistic market place to deceive buyers. The study aims to examine linguistic strategies employed in cloning products taking into account morphophonological processes and phonotactic positions of sounds. It also evaluates buyers’ perceptions of these products. Schmitt (2012) consumer brand model and Bourdieu (1991) linguistic market theory provided the theoretical contexts for the study. Survey design was used in selecting Onitsha as the area of study. The work employed market survey method and four markets were randomly selected for the study. Data were collected on products such as T-Shirts, shoes, sandals, canvass, face caps, belts and wrist watches. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used for the data analysis. Findings showed most cloned productswere T-Shirts, Face Caps, Shoes and Canvas, Sandals, Belts and Watches. The analysis shows the activation of morphophonological processes such as insertion, deletion, substitution and metathesis in facilitating brand identity theft, and findings attested to phonotactics of segments. The study concludes that because debranding weakens trademark protection and undermines a company’s credibility, adequate policies should be put in place by the government to eliminate distrust in the market environment.