Frost & Sullivan has published a new white paper entitled ‘How to Win Your Anti-Counterfeiting War?’, which examines how to protect brands from counterfeiting threats.

“Worldwide financial losses due to counterfeiting have been rising rapidly over the past decade,” says the consultancy firm. “2010 saw a spectacular increase of counterfeits for luxury goods and electronic devices. Counterfeiting is an organised industry with a large ecosystem of players so the battle of protecting brands and services is a real challenge. Companies have to employ reliable, standardised and certified solutions to prove that their products are genuine and maintain a positive perception of the brand by consumers.”

Jean-Noel Georges, global program director, Smart Cards Group and author of the white paper says: “The first requirement in the fight against counterfeiting is to find an easy way to check if a product is authentic. Holograms and barcodes, however commonly used, are not sufficient for luxury or high tech goods, where the product should be identified individually. Compilation of several solutions such as watermarks, magnetic, infrared and others, is more efficient, but used rather for official documents and banknotes.”

He adds: “More advanced technical solutions do not only provide visual verification but also deliver anti-counterfeiting capabilities. The RFID tag helps verifying, if the information on the chip is the same as that stored in a centralised database. Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is arguably the most advanced technical solution, but also the most expensive and therefore most commonly linked with high-end technical products.

“A global technical approach is the most important element to optimise the cost rationalisation, when implementing an anti-counterfeiting project. To ensure an efficient solution, technical choice should focus on certification and standardisation capabilities. It is crucial to have a well-established system and processes to anticipate – and even avoid – future problems.”

According to the white paper, companies should benchmark their exposure to the black and grey market and then design a tailored solution to the potential threat. As a global regulation and anti-counterfeiting law will take time to be created and applied, each company should assume responsibility for protecting their own market and products. This is an important message for the client and a real differentiator in terms of quality.

"Each company and every brand should be prepared for the anti-counterfeiting war,” says Georges. “The most advanced solution will be embedded, including last certified and standardised security features. Contactless features such as NFC will allow the brand to experiment with a new customer communication dimension. Not winning the anti-counterfeiting war might be dangerous and even mortal."

To obtain a copy of the white paper, email Joanna Lewandowska, Corporate Communications:  Joanna.lewandowska@frost.com.