It is often said that “Imitation is the best form of flattery”. While it is one thing to be flattered, in the business world, imitation/business/replicas of any product that has taken time and effort to innovate and design, is actually a breach of your intellectual property, and also a hindrance to your own revenue opportunity. To put it in plain words, sometimes, competitor brands can simply duplicate and implement the USP of your brand, and use the already-created market demand to their benefit. Unfair and disappointing, is it not? Although in the long run, this copy-and-paste strategy does not take them very far in terms of success, they surely take away a part of your business revenue and profits.
How do counterfeiters hamper your business?
Product copies, especially in the fashion and durable goods manufacturing industries, have become extremely advanced nowadays. Not just the products but the sellers too, The copies of durable luxury goods such as bags, phones, and garments are actually classified by counterfeiters as ‘first copy’, ‘second copy’, ‘rejected original goods’ and ‘Chinese copy’. Take for example, the dozens of Gucci slippers, Michael Kors bags, Coach bags, and Louis Vuitton belts – all fakes- that are readily available in unorganized flea markets, or illegally set-up kiosks and roadside stalls, etc. Let’s take a look at how this hampers the original business owners of these niche products:
- Significant Impact on Sales
Dupes are generally sold at much lower prices than originals, making them accessible to a larger and less niche audience. While customers are fooled into believing that they are getting the almost same designs at much more affordable and cheaper rates-they simply go for the ‘original copies’ instead of the actual luxury product, which basically translates into loss of sale for the original brand.
- Hinders and affects Goodwill
The dupes and copies that are sold in the market are obviously nowhere as good as the original. So when customers later experience defects and lack of durability in the product, it affects the goodwill that the brand has spent years in creating. For example, make-up dupes of international brands such as Kylie Jenner Cosmetics and Huda Beauty, have actually caused severe skin side effects and problems to the users.
- Low customer trust
From a consumer point of view, when they see the same product available in reseller markets, at much cheaper rates, they begin to question the credibility of the brand itself and feel a sense of deceit, which results in a loss of brand loyalty.
- Reduced business profits
It goes without saying that once these niche products are readily available elsewhere, and that too at competitive prices, it is the cheaper option that generally wins the price war. Hence, every customer buying a dupe is a customer lost, which ultimately results in the loss of profits.
- Putting extra efforts and resources to fight copycats
Copyright infringement suits, legally protecting intellectual property rights, and the removal or extrication of dupes leads to a massive expenditure of resources such as time, money, and dedicated teams and efforts.
The fight against copycats
- Legally protect your brand by trademarking, reporting copyright infringement, and joining hands with LetsVerify Brand Protection Solutions to define and protect your products from counterfeiting.
- Establish a powerful brand presence through quality, customer care, and exclusive marketing and promotions.
- Highlight your unique selling point- Bring your original product’s quality and material to the forefront, and educate your consumer base on the USP’s and quality standards of your products.
- Spread brand awareness in an effective manner so that a customer can easily identify and differentiate between a dupe and an original product.
- Keep innovation at the center, for with constant upgradation and unique innovations, it becomes hard to even catch up to the original product, let alone copy it.
- Opt for Smart and Connected Packaging- The Packaging of your goods should be such that it should be exclusive to the original product only.
- Register patents for unique product inventions. You must have heard of the famous KFC chicken- crispy, spicy, and delicious. While there are several replicas and copycats out there, due to KFC’s patented recipes, noone yet has been able to crack the exact product and process.
- Monitor and stay ahead of knockoffs by keeping an eye out on the counterfeit markets. Alert and caution your customers about the presence of fakes in the market, and advise them to abstain from falling for duplicacy through social media posts, advertisements, etc.
Don’t let copycats overpower your business!
We are living in the era of technology and virtual reality. The Internet has shrunk the world into a global village and while it is a boon, it is also a bane in the sense that all kinds of piracy, intellectual property theft, and illegal selling takes place online. Counterfeiters and illegal resellers have accessed the market and captured wider audiences by creating online stores and selling portals. The black market in today’s date is mostly online. To combat the imitators, and the illegal practitioners of retail and duplicacy, LetsVerify app works directly with end consumers to filter out fakes, and keeps a strong check on authenticity of products.