The dubious business of counterfeit goods has upsurged into the global industry with the value worth USD 461 billion (OECD estimate). According to the International Chamber of Commerce, this costs more than 2.5 million jobs worldwide and a profound decrease in total exports. In the cosmetics and personal care sector only, nearly 50.000 jobs are lost every year due to counterfeiting.
With counterfeiting being one of the hottest issues on the market, more and more brand owners become tech-savvy to protect their products from being exposed by counterfeiters. Businesses from different industries come together, having the same purpose: protect their content and valued customers from being forged, exposed, or imitated.
CK&B Company also joins the consensus over the intellectual property rights and fights for fair distribution and safety of the products. CK&B Company’s proprietary technology HiddenTag is the first technology of its kind that offers user-friendly authentication of the product through the smart labels and convenient traceability for brand owners to prevent any illegal distribution.
By utilising image watermarking HiddenTag smart labels are strong to any duplication or imitation attempts. This means beauty brands will not have to worry ever again that their customers might get the inferior imitation from the market.
Alongside with the brand owners stepping up to fight the fakes on the market, the buying behaviour and power of the customers is changing as well. Consumers are becoming more and more sophisticated and suspicious over the authenticity of the goods. Especially, in countries like China and South Korea, where the rapid development of the technology and super-fast internet amuses the whole world, consumers’ demand of user friendly apps and tools are high enough to make the companies think of integrating smart packaging and other innovative technologies to their products.
Some of the major beauty brands from Korea and China have already introduced HiddenTag smart labels to their packaging, thus increasing their brand credibility and guaranteeing the safety of their consumers.
The advancement of technology enables us move forward, however it also makes infringements of any kind more potential and high at stock. Thus, it is brand owners’ responsibility to take initiatives in protecting their products, distributors, and valued customers.