Home»» Fakes are tempting for the average consumer--I’m just being honest. The lure of buying a little slice of fashion ecstasy, an homage really, is a reasonable offer in hard economic times, and it can be rationalized as a “deal” you didn’t “realize” was a Frada or a Louis Freeton. The sympathy meter is running short for high-ticket brands. Unfortunately, this is exactly what highly organized, global brand extortionists are banking on.
The reality of both online and offline crimes-against-our-brands is that it isn’t limited to the labels of luxury. Everything from computer components, batteries, car parts, prescription medications, baby formula and the can of soda you could be drinking right now have fallen prey to counterfeiting. Brand crime also comes in the form of cyber-criminals lifting a trusted bank’s logo to perpetrate a phishing scam to gain access to private accounts and personal information.
Criminals are also getting smarter. Counterfeit products and online scams are getting harder to detect. While most of us know that there isn’t actually a Nigerian prince who is in need of immediate wire transfers to gain freedom from prison to free his people, we can’t all tell if a product purchased in a trusted retailer is real or fake. So just think how the average consumer walking down Canal Street in New York might feel!
Here are a couple more facts to consider: counterfeiting costs the U.S. economy more than $200 billion each year; the toy industry alone estimates close to 80,000 jobs lost due to counterfeiting and fraud; and between 5 percent to 7 percent of global trade is lost due to counterfeiting. Let’s also consider that the weakened economy has created an environment where every dollar and every job counts.
This is why the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council embarked on a six-month study to benchmark what marketers were doing to protect the consumer’s brand and customer experience. What we found was that marketers are very aware of the threats, both online and off. The greatest encroachments are coming from cybersquatters and brand-jackers who illegally use brand names online and in URLs. Copyright infringement and theft of digital media is also a growing problem.
Marketers also agree that there’s a distinct cost to the brand at the hands of brand trespassers. Dilution of brand value and consumer counterfeit confusion are key issues. And, the majority of marketers estimate losses in sales between 5 percent and 15 percent.
What can be done: we can get smarter, faster. Marketers must monitor and protect their brands. If marketers truly step into their role as architects and owners of the customer experience, brand confidence will take a priority position in the mandate line. This is no longer a problem that can be relegated to legal or to industry watch-dog and lobbying organizations. This is a raging bull that must be taken by the horns.
To see what else marketers are saying about this issue, download the report by visiting http://www.cmocouncil.org/resources/form_protection.asp.
—Liz Miller, Guest Blogger
Liz Miller is vice president of programs & operations, CMO Council
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