How to convert the online counterfeiters ‘whack-a-mole’ approach to real-world success?
The world of counterfeit goods isn’t just a minor inconvenience; it’s a massive, multi-billion-dollar business.
According to Forbes, the annual sales of counterfeit products range from $1.7 trillion to a staggering $4.5 trillion, making counterfeiting a self-sustaining economy.
To put this into perspective, if counterfeiting were a country, it would be the tenth-largest global economy.
It presents a huge business opportunity for counterfeiters while posing immense challenges to Brand Owners and their Brand Managers building or managing Brand Protection (BP) programs and identifying the right solution providers while working non-stop to combat counterfeiting, diversion or both.
Are you having an impact on the problem or just putting your finger in the dyke?
Actually, is it even possible to make a difference?
The Counterfeiters Pyramid
If we think of the counterfeit business as a pyramid, the base would be the point of sale B2C (Business to Consumer), which we call ‘The Whack-a-mole Space’. This is where you find multiple sellers offering small quantities of counterfeit goods either anonymously online or physically on markets in areas like Cheetham Hill in Manchester, UK.
And while we often hear about:
- Website takedowns
- Real-world raids
- Seizures at points of entry
The crucial question remains:
How often do these actions lead to identifying and exposing the illicit supply chain, people and organisation in the real world?
In our opinion? Rarely.
Counterfeiters ‘Whack-a-mole’
Okay, they might disrupt the counterfeiters at the lowest levels, but they hardly ever disrupt the entire network — especially not the countries of manufacturer at the top of the pyramid.
This means as quickly as they’re shut down, they spring up again somewhere else, like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole.
And while this is a legitimate strategy, it should be a starting point, not an end game.
Moving an investigation from anonymous online sellers to real people in the real world, you can get results that are nothing short of amazing.
But how can you achieve it?