ANTI-COUNTERFEITING IN THE GARMENT INDUSTRY
Now more than ever before… In the Garment and footwear industry, many high ticket, high profile licensed, designer clothes and sportswear items are attractive targets for unauthorized copies because of their popularity, exclusivity and often expense.
Good examples of this are products licensed by the major professional sports leagues, merchandise from the entertainment industry such as Disney and products from well-known brands such as Nike, No Fear etc.
The high demand generated for these brand names is a direct result of the image created by the hard work of the companies around their product range… and the public’s belief that they are buying quality merchandise.
This “Brand” awareness by the public can become the company’s major asset and must be protected by a “loss prevention strategy” to combat counterfeiting and divergent product from undermining their hard fought market share!
The loss prevention or brand protection strategy should include the following areas:
-
The addition of a security feature to positively identify all products manufactured. -
The policing of the use and field detection of the security feature. (This may be by the company’s employees or by way of retention of the services of trained and licensed professionals.)
-
The establishment of a computerised audit trail for the security feature and the products it is attached to. (Again this is generally carried out in-house but can be contracted out to a professional security organization.) -
The establishments of a professional relationship with legal council to carry out civil action or with police to assist with prosecutions, once the offenders are identified.
Although some companies can and will develop the above areas independently, more companies are seeing the benefits of collectively combating counterfeiting by membership in a group or by the engagement of a firm specializing in these areas.