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STEALING BRAND ASSETS WITH TOTAL IMMUNITY
Knocking off others people ideas or products is not new, manufacturing copy cats of leading brands has always be around but the awareness by consumers on how badly this type of illegal buying could impact their economy and their pocketbooks just don’t resonate yet.
“Jobs are being lost to illegal production, unsafe products and medication are flooding markets without people’s knowledge on their origin , even highly technical car spare parts are being replaced by dangerous one” Says Christine LAI, the General Manager of the Union des Fabriquants in Paris whose goal is to promote intellectual property rights. “Medication is coming from sources that don’t get any official supervision and we tend to forget that the Crocks or Havaiana’s copies we may have found at a lower price could be made with unsafe products that will hurt our skin or create debilitating lesions.”
Hey! We all feel good and smart when getting a good bargain bypassing those brands that we believe overcharge us anyway with their luxury goods, a way for us to circumvent the system and go the “source”. “Maybe a laughing matter for many but a legal one for me” impressed on me Christine Lai in our interview in Paris .She brought forward to me the magnitude of the problem particularly with the growth of the internet and commerce online. Indeed in the age of brick and mortar the damage was somewhat contained, on line it is exponential. She showed me on Ebay illegal products being sold and she browsed through a few websites to show me where Nike shoes that are fake are sold as original. ( one site even prides itself on selling only authentic products). The fraud is staggering. Fake Ipods and iphones are populating the web sphere and brands are being trampled by the onslaught. Think of this as fake money being flooded on an economy, it could destroy it.
In light of Google’s victory on the inclusion of keywords that correspond to certain trademarks, luxury brands fear that this decision will open a wider door to the sale of counterfeited products on line. Not a good news when 200.000 jobs are already being lost in Europe with an annual financial loss for France to be 6 billions euros. Over 178 million products have been seized in the 27 members state of the European Union in 2008, a rise by 126% comparing to 2007. The tsunami is just starting and the money is being made in shanty towns around the world by underground bosses with no scrupul.
“Textile products and shoes are still in the lead of ranking of copies but we observe a very worrying phenomenom: over 463.000 hygiene products, cosmetics and perfume and over 881 205 fake drugs have equally been seized” says Christine LAI
The amazing thing is that the industries concerned are fighting the problem through legal means leaving the public completely in the dark about those problems. Given the apathy that exists with consumers vis a vis what is perceived by many as fat cat brands there is little emotional compassion to help. This is where the brands need to change, regain the public trust, show the importance of buying the real thing and move people in their direction or the problem will get uglier and uglier when considering the speed and agility of the counterfeited manufacturers.
Here are some actions that will truly help change the tide.
1) Brands should move aggressively to make consumers partners in this fight as they are the one that can make the biggest difference.
2) Brands have to have a strategy in social media in order to own the dialogue on the web around the danger of counterfeiting and establish their credibility there.
3) Brands have to have to have an emotional connection with people beyond the legal fights that are beyond anybody’s reach.
4) Brands have to encourage people to vouch for their brand authenticity and establish their credibility.
5) Brands have to fight where the enemy is , on the web not with traditional media
This is no laughing matter . At the Union des Fabriquants there is a small museum filled with some of those counterfeited goods for everyone to see. Those products that did not make it trough customs are a real experience in understanding the depth of the problem. Let’s hope that it symbolizes a contained problem and not the worst to come. When our recovery hinges on people’s consuming power we can’t let this happen or the fake goods will have their own museum on what used to be genuine products, the real brands….albeit dead.
l’Union des Fabriquants is a Paris based organization that help global companies such as Nike, Dior , Vuitton, Hermes, Peugeot and Renault to fight for their intellectual property rights.
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