Question

Given the complex issues surrounding counterfeit products, how is a marketer or manufacturer supposed to protect their brands and profits?

Answer 1

Following are the means which can help a business to deal with counterfeit products.

(i) Careful selection of vendors, periodic audits for product genuineness, surprise checks on vendor end, effective communication across the channels and listening to the customers' voice can help to ensure that only genuine products are manufactured / marketed /sold by the organisation.

(ii) Keeping track of market information about sources of counterfeit products, collaborating with other industry members and enforcement agencies to identify, check and eliminate counterfeit products.

(iii) Knowledge of latest developments in intellectual property laws and their potential impact on the company might save from undesirable situations.

(iv) Use technology to assign a unique ID to each product sold by the company and track its source.

(v) Securing patents, trademarks and copyrights for each product made by the company to avoid being wrongly framed into a situation by unscrupulous players of industry.