The Solutions Bridge
Brand security is an opportunity for package printers to be a bridge between technology providers and brand owners.
July 2007 by Chris Mc Loone
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“Counterfeit Colgate Toothpaste Found” is the headline for a June 14 U.S. Food and Drug Administration press release warning that toothpaste with packaging resembling a Colgate product found its way into dollar-type discount stores in four states in the United States. Consumers were lucky this time around —packages were readily identifiable as fake so they could discontinue use or dispose of the product immediately. The counterfeit labels included several misspellings, and stated that the product had been manufactured in South Africa—a location Colgate does not use for manufacturing toothpaste.
This is only one example of how a brand’s identity was stolen and reproduced to allow contaminated product to reach the store shelves. There are countless more, particularly in the pharmaceutical realm.
Counterfeiting, diverting, tampering, and stealing are nothing new. However, they present an opportunity for packaging converters to offer solutions that protect the brands they supply from counterfeiting, diverting, or theft. At the June 20 Gallus VIP Technology Seminar (see p. 11), Bud Gray, of the Brand Protection Alliance (BPA), stated that brand security is an opportunity for package printers to be a bridge between technology providers and brand owners. In this way, package printers can help shield brand owners from loss of revenue, damage to the brands’ reputations, erosion of their integrity, potential liabilities, and enforcement and litigation costs.
Covert and overt
Covert brand security, according to Roland Krapp, vice president of sheetfed product management, Heidelberg USA, covers, in general terms, all technological features that are unseen to the naked human eye and are made visible only by use of special equipment, such as decoders, verifiers, and similar equipment. Overt technologies, he explains, are features designed to be clearly visible so that printers easily can look for these features to determine whether packaging is fake. Examples are holographic foil or a hologram. “Covert technologies, which are unseen, must be identified with special equipment in order to identify and prove authenticity of the packaging,” says Krapp. “The major advantage of covert features is that no one actually knows what to look for on the package without the assistance of special detectors, thus they are less prone to be counterfeited.”
Jack Walsh, marketing manager, brand protection solutions for Videojet Technologies, Inc., defines covert brand security as the concept of protecting a brand against damaging events like counterfeiting, diversion, and product terrorism by using marking/coding methods that are unseen to the consumer and other parties. “Examples of covert marking/coding techniques on packaging include invisible marks, inks with taggants, and nano marks,” he says. “Another example is hidden marks, or visible marks that are located inside a package, which means the package must be opened to view them.”
This is only one example of how a brand’s identity was stolen and reproduced to allow contaminated product to reach the store shelves. There are countless more, particularly in the pharmaceutical realm.
Counterfeiting, diverting, tampering, and stealing are nothing new. However, they present an opportunity for packaging converters to offer solutions that protect the brands they supply from counterfeiting, diverting, or theft. At the June 20 Gallus VIP Technology Seminar (see p. 11), Bud Gray, of the Brand Protection Alliance (BPA), stated that brand security is an opportunity for package printers to be a bridge between technology providers and brand owners. In this way, package printers can help shield brand owners from loss of revenue, damage to the brands’ reputations, erosion of their integrity, potential liabilities, and enforcement and litigation costs.
Covert and overt
Covert brand security, according to Roland Krapp, vice president of sheetfed product management, Heidelberg USA, covers, in general terms, all technological features that are unseen to the naked human eye and are made visible only by use of special equipment, such as decoders, verifiers, and similar equipment. Overt technologies, he explains, are features designed to be clearly visible so that printers easily can look for these features to determine whether packaging is fake. Examples are holographic foil or a hologram. “Covert technologies, which are unseen, must be identified with special equipment in order to identify and prove authenticity of the packaging,” says Krapp. “The major advantage of covert features is that no one actually knows what to look for on the package without the assistance of special detectors, thus they are less prone to be counterfeited.”
Jack Walsh, marketing manager, brand protection solutions for Videojet Technologies, Inc., defines covert brand security as the concept of protecting a brand against damaging events like counterfeiting, diversion, and product terrorism by using marking/coding methods that are unseen to the consumer and other parties. “Examples of covert marking/coding techniques on packaging include invisible marks, inks with taggants, and nano marks,” he says. “Another example is hidden marks, or visible marks that are located inside a package, which means the package must be opened to view them.”
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