When Mirroring Others Causes Confusion: Reviewing Brand Confusion Literature Through the MIRROR Framework

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.