For companies that manufacture, market or sell goods of all kinds, their most valuable asset is often their brand. Unfortunately, high-value consumer goods are under attack by counterfeiters and criminals. The Internet has also made life easier for those looking to profit from fake goods. Buying goods online, while convenient, removes the consumer’s ability to better judge what they are buying – and who they are buying it from. But even when a customer has the ability to see and touch what they’re purchasing, it doesn’t mean that they can tell the real from the fake. That’s why consumers are looking to the company behind the brand for a helping hand.
What You Can Do
Manufacturers of all kinds – from pharmaceuticals to sporting goods – have taken steps to combat counterfeiting and protect their brands. Techniques include the serialization of goods and the use taggants, watermarks and even RFID as a means of tracking and securing product as it makes its way through the supply chain. Clearly, with product counterfeiting at an all time high, current measures are simply not enough. Profits, consumer confidence and enterprise risk management are on the line. So, what can manufacturers do to better protect themselves?
Invite Everyone into the Fight Against Counterfeiting
While highly accurate as an authenticating means, expensive technologies like taggants, spectral inks, RFID and other sophisticated measures don’t allow for consumers (or even most sellers) to participate in authentication process. Why? Because generally speaking, most sophisticated security mechanisms can only be authenticated with costly and complex equipment. The result is, counterfeit products continue to flow through alternate channels such as the Internet to meet the demand of unwitting consumers. Manufacturers need to implement security mechanisms that provide a universal means of authentication so that everyone in their value chain can join in the effort.
How We Help
AuthentiGuard On-Demand can serve as a foundational piece of a manufacturer’s security solution by providing a robust layer of security to printed materials like labels, packages, and certificates of authenticity, so that anyone in the supply chain - even the consumer - can verify its authenticity. Unlike other methods that rely on special papers, inks, codes and complex production equipment, AuthentiGuard On-Demand works with standard printers, papers and inks. Authentication is equally simple and affordable, eliminating barriers to use and increasing an individual’s ability to not only insist on genuine products, but also to be able to tell the difference. When combined with serialization and key coding, AuthentiGuard On-Demand can help protect your brand and your company from the dangers of counterfeiting.