ARTICLES

5. COURTESY COUNTERFEITS, THREAT TO LIFE, IS HIGHER TODAY

The threat posed by counterfeits, cheap pass-offs and smuggling are higher today than at any other point during the past twenty-five years. FICCI estimates that businesses in pharmaceuticals, FMCG, packaged foods, mobile phones, alcoholic beverages and bottled water have lost over one lac crore rupees of sales in 2015 in India alone.

A staggering figure that is growing at over 20% per annum. This threat affects everyone in our society: businesses, consumers, and the government.

Many businesses underestimate the risks from counterfeits and pass-offs, they argue that they don’t suffer a direct cash loss. True, counterfeiting causes no cash loss. However, each fake, each cheap pass-off is one less product sold by the brand owner, meaning lower revenue and lower profit.

And not only this, the consumer may be harmed by the fakes and pass-offs, which steadily erodes trust in the brand and risks the future of the business.

Government suffers loss of tax revenue and higher economic burden of higher medical costs as counterfeits cause danger to life and public health.

In the same way that we protect our homes by locking our doors to make it difficult for intruders to enter, so businesses need to protect their brands by using brand authentication solutions which build barriers against counterfeits and pass-offs.

Studies have shown that companies that have implemented even rudimentary forms of brand protection have seen increases in their sales and market share resulting in ROI’s of over 600% on their investment in brand authentication.