This is a good example of a marketer identifying that a competitor brand has established characteristics that consumers now associate with quality and that they want to adopt these, without wanting to pass themselves off as the competitor.
“Realising the opportunity, a local cigarette maker, Pyongyang Taeson created a cigarette that borrowed (!) many of the traits of the imported cigarette.
They used a bold green, gold edge and fancy embossing with golden text.”
The brand being emulated is the Rothmans packaging on the right and the brand that was inspired by this is the North Korean cigarette brand on the left. Note that the indigenous imagery being used by the North Koreans shows that they are not trying to pass off as an international brand. Rather it’s the colours and stylying that are being copied to denote quality.