Combating Counterfeit Pet Food Using WeChat for Product Authentication
NanoMatrix offers cutting-edge anti-counterfeiting technology customized to fight fraudsters in the pet food industry.
Global Threat: Proliferation of Fake Pet Food
China is one of the top three pet-owning nations of the world with a $5.6 billion dry pet food marketing in 2018. However, this growing economic opportunity in the pet food market has also attracted fraudsters who manufacture counterfeit and unsafe pet food.
A few years back, Champion Pet Food alerted pet owners in mainland China that counterfeit versions of their well-known Orijen brand line had entered the market.
With China’s high internet penetration, online retailers selling the cheaper counterfeit versions have proliferated and often saw pet owners sourcing their pet food from sellers who offered incredibly cheap prices. Consumers did not check if the sellers had been authorized by the original pet food brand.
Another case was in 2017 when an online pet food vendor in China has been ordered to compensate Taobao for selling fake Royal Canin cat food on its e-commerce platform. The online shop was ordered to pay 120,000 yuan (S$24,157) in compensation after it was found guilty of selling fake Royal Canin cat food on Taobao. This was the first ruling of its kind in China.
The online shop was run by a man surnamed Yao who started selling online in 2015. Taobao and Mars, the multinational company which owns Royal Canin, later suspected that the cat food sold by Yao might be fake and their suspicions were later confirmed by lab tests.
Because of the rampant nature of the spread of counterfeit food manufacturing in China, the country acquired notoriety around the pet food markets of the world. The major pet food retailer PetSmart, for instance received more than 1000 complaints about dog deaths on account of consuming duck, chicken and sweet potato jerky treats sourced from China.
Solution to Combat Fake Pet Food:
Security Label with embedded QR code (scannable via WeChat)
NanoMatriX can help the genuine pet food industry take on the counterfeiters with the help of its smart security labels embedded with QR codes. Anyone across the supply chain will be able to determine the authenticity of the product just by scanning the QR code via the WeChat app in their smartphones.
The QR code must be scanned via the WeChat app and the verification process will take place within WeChat. This solution is proven to be very effective in verifying products using WeChat especially in China.
Not only is this anticounterfeiting solution very user friendly and extremely effective it also allows brands to advocate their products by placing their company logo alongside the variable QR code.
NanoMatriX’s multi-level anti-counterfeit labels come with embedded overt, covert and forensic features to help pet food companies protect their brand.
The security graphic features of these labels are designed through special anti-counterfeiting software to create a non-duplicable image through mathematical algorithms. For example, guilloche, relief, latent, etc. All of these features are created or combined with other security graphic features.
Tamper-evident features and security taggants can also be added to these smart labels to ensure that food companies identify parallel trading, counterfeits, warranty return fraud, or production overrun.
Case Study:
Global Luxury Pet Food Company
Problem
A global pet food company started to distribute their products in China, but found that it was difficult to monitor their market channels. Therefore, they wanted to gather information from their customers in order to develop a better marketing strategy and prevent potential counterfeit products.
The ever growing market for luxury pet food has made it increasingly important for customers to know if the products they are purchasing are genuine. It is also vital that the brands themselves know where their products are being distributed, so that they can keep track of sales and protect their brand.
Solution
NanoMatriX provided TrackMatriX® Geo and a custom high-security label solution which would allow them to Track and Trace the distribution of their products, engage their customer directly, as well as protect their brand from counterfeiting.
As per the brand’s specific requirements, NanoMatriX created a revolutionary QR-ID tag with a unique scratch-off code. After the QR code is scanned, a consumer can input the 6-digit code to reveal a secondary level information. The code not only allowed the customer to verify the product’s authenticity, but also gain access to exclusive brand content.
Furthermore, the TrackMatriX® Geo code enables the brand owners to measure customer engagement, adding valuable marketing data, further enhancing their campaigns and increasing sales.
Results
The project turned out to be a huge success. More than 50% of their customers used the additional scratch off code to further verify the authenticity of the products and participate in consumer engagement activities.
The TrackMatriX® SaaS platform keeps a record of the time and location of every product scan, providing the company with deep consumer analytics. The company was also able to monitor the distribution and frequency of interest in their products. This kind of valuable information continues to help the company refine its marketing strategies and move towards smart business growth.
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