We just did two articles about why your supply chain is vital to an effective consumer engagement strategy. Now we want to jump into brand protection strategy and your supply chain. Although consumer engagement is a usually a dedicated effort to boost brand recognition and loyalty, it must always be considered part of your brand protection strategy. Do you want to protect your business? Your employees, your bottom line, your reputation, your supply chain, your intellectual property?
Of course you do. Your brand protection strategy is your firewall. And many β if not most β of the factors that can harm your brand are directly related to your supply chain. These include counterfeits also called fakes , diversion, theft, and insufficient traceability. In fact, counterfeits and pirated products accounted for up to 3. The people who make them, including children, often work for long hours in sweatshop conditions.
Some may have been trafficked or coerced. Furthermore, it has been established that counterfeits are inextricably linked to organized crime. The pandemic provided many examples counterfeits making their way into the global supply chain β fake vaccines, fake COVID testing kits, fake masks, fake nitrile gloves.
But counterfeiting affects every industry, from food and footwear to cosmetics and computers. When your goods are in transit along your supply chain, you want them to reach their final destination as quickly and safely as possible. This is why diversion is another key consideration for a brand protection strategy. Diversion is actually a two-pronged problem. Many drugs must be kept within a certain temperature range or maintained under certain lighting or humidity conditions.
Even the slightest delay could spell disaster β ruined products, which means patients might not get medicines on time. Diversion can also indicate theft. If a truck goes off its prescribed route, bad actors might be hijacking it and your product could end up on unauthorized e-commerce sites rogue websites and other grey markets or black markets.
