Banking on holograms

Nearly 40 per cent sales in automobile spare parts are of counterfeits. To counter that, a large spare part manufacturer has decided to put matters, quite literally, in the customers hands.
It will soon have a hologram with a peel-off sticker on its packages. As the customer rips off the sticker at the time of purchase, the hologram will completely destroy itself.A stamp declaring the product as genuine will emerge. The innovation, it hopes, will keep counterfeiters at bay for some time.
Nearly 20 per cent of the tobacco market too is reported to be counterfeit. A bidi maker has decided to tackle that. Its brand will soon have invisible markings that only a specially-designed instrument can highlight. The instrument will be given to the local paan-wala, who can check each bidi before he sells it.
Elsewhere, a textile company is working on a specially-designed material that will be woven into its popular suitings. After that, all it has to do to check counterfeits is inform the customer on what they should be checking for while buying its product. The textile industry loses around 15 per cent of its business to counterfeits. Incidentally, all the three companies do not want to be named. The reason: They not want to alert the counterfeiters before the innovations hit the market.
The Indian industry loses Rs 30,000 crore to counterfeits every year. Till now viewed as a law enforcement issue, tackling counterfeits is suddenly emerging as a brand protection issue. With companies struggling to sell every additional unit in a slow market, wrestling marketshare from counterfeiters has become critical.
So, is every company working night and day to thwart counterfeit? Not really. Very few are taking up the challenge. Says Pradip Shroff, MD, PRS Permacel, which is working with the above firms to device tailor-make strategie, says: “Companies spend crores on advertising and promotions to wrest a couple of marketshare points from competitors, while they let counterfeiters walk away with large chunks of the market.�
Most companies continue to rely on holograms. Says UK Gupta, president, Hologram Manufacturers Association: “For about three years now, companies are relying on holograms. It has become a Rs 100 crore industry.� They are unwilling to go beyond and tailor-make anti-counterfeit measures. The marketing heads of an FMCG company and an automobile firm voice the reason: “Whatever we do will be copied soon again by the counterfeiter.� Shroff says that is precisely why firms need to invest in technology to make copying difficult. A few are beginning to do so, surely but slowly.