The Brand
The brand was $ 25Bn conglomerate that included brands with 180 years of heritage. The company had over 38,000 employees globally.
The backdrop
A global, publicly listed company operating in the construction and agriculture space was looking for an anti-counterfeit solution that could be integrated seamlessly across their complex global footprint without disruptions.
The area of focus was brand protection and authentication of their spare parts inventory using an anti-counterfeit and brand authentication solution.
The Ennoventure solution
Ennoventure’s brand authentication solution provided the best combination of security, ease of use/deployment and cost effectiveness for the brand.
An invisible cryptographically protected signature would be added to the packaging artwork which could be scanned post-printing of the label, by any smartphone. This provided an unbreakable, non-replicable, easy/fast to deploy/maintain and cost-effective solution.
- The invisible signatures ensured that there was an easy way of integrating the anti-counterfeit solution into the product packaging without changing the artwork.
- The anti-counterfeiting signatures could be integrated right into the artwork, before it was sent for printing, ensuring a near zero cost of integration and avoiding any process change within the printing, factory deployment or warehousing process.
- The cloud-based deployment ensured that the technology could be kept updated without re-labelling, and the data from the on-field scans could be collated and displayed for actionable insights.
- The cryptographic code ensured that the authentication solution could not be hacked, broken, or replicated.
- The customised mobile app provided by Ennoventure ensured an easy way for any smartphone to be used to test, validate, and authenticate the brand, vastly increasing the number and frequency of check points.
The need for an anti-counterfeit and brand authentication solution
Brand authentication = Protecting trust
Farmers had trusted the brand’s products for 180 years, and in some cases over 5 generations of farmers have been using the products. It was important to protect their trust in the brand’s ability to continue to deliver quality products and support them with reliable spare parts. The brand’s reputation was built on the supply of superior equipment.
Global footprint = More complexity
The brand’s agricultural and construction products were made in multiple countries including Austria, Canada, Poland, Sweden and Italy and distributed to over 180 countries. The brand protection solution needed to be engineered to integrate, deploy and work across this complex network without causing any disruption.
More players x More locations
The brand relied on over 800 existing and prospective component suppliers. There were 34 parts depots worldwide, supplying to dealers and distributors, which were responsible for sales to retail customers. The anti-counterfeit solution needed to integrate efficiently across the supply chain and account for human, process and regulatory challenges.
More choice = More risk
The brand was proud to offer the broadest choice of agricultural and construction related products to support specific requirements for farmers. The customisation was built on deep insight gathered from farmers and construction workers over decades of experience. The increased span of the product line drove a larger permutation of product parts. The need of the hour was an easy and scalable anti-counterfeit solution.
Bad parts = Bad data
As a responsible member of the global brand community, with specific interest in agriculture and construction, the brand took great pride in integrating environment friendly monitoring technology to drive optimisation ‘out in the field’. There was no space for errors while protecting the environment with controlled outputs. Bad spare parts could damage the fidelity of the data generated by the machinery, leading to environmental damage and loss of efficiency.
Tough environment = Demanding customers
Farming and construction have always been a challenging, but critical global industry. These industries are affected by fluctuations in climate, supply chains, labor supply, financing, and regulation. In such demanding conditions, the brand has to offer energy efficiency, precision and reliability. Fake spare parts can seriously impact the value offering for the farmers, who are already battling challenges. The brand could not afford to compromise on maximising operational efficiency for growers.
Autonomous = No mistakes
There is an increasing focus on autonomous machinery, which is driven by efficiency concerns, working conditions and labour availability. Autonomous machinery cannot make errors, even with software/hardware checks and balances in place. Counterfeit spare parts can seriously impact the performance and safety of autonomous machinery. In farming and construction, the machinery operated has to cover large areas, during late or early hours, and require/consume considerable power. The machines are also large and heavy.
Bad parts = A noisy problem
In modern society, there is an increasing focus on Zero emission and quiet operations from farm and construction machinery. Noise, light and air pollution is a critical control area for social regulation. This is particularly true when farming or construction machinery is operated near areas of human or animal habitation. High quality construction equipment is required to work on projects that are in city areas that are densely populated. Fake spare parts may not be geared to provide the same level or noise control or emissions control as the original authentic parts. This can lead to increased complaints, regulatory issues and penalties. As the brand operates in 180 countries, the best way to avoid issues for its customers is to prevent bad spare parts from entering any of their machinery.
Bad parts = More claims
Standard warranties and return conditions are provided by the company for parts manufacturing. Having counterfeit parts within the machinery can result in damage to other original parts working in tandem with the fake parts. This can result in more claims on warranty by customers. This can have a material impact on the brand, considering the volume of its products out in the market. Farming and machinery equipment are used continuously in demanding conditions – and are more likely to give away if fake, low quality parts are used.
Counterfeits = Time lost
Farming and construction work on challenging schedules, to align with seasonality, approved construction hours, financing schedules and other dependencies. Fake parts can cause machinery to fail, resulting in stoppage of work and loss of man hours. The financial and human impact of this can go beyond just the cost of the parts replacement.
Fake parts = Increased repair cost
Farming and construction machinery are difficult to move, dismantle, install, and repair. The machinery may often fail in difficult environments that are not conducive to repair work. The machinery may have to be shifted out of location, and there may be a wait period for the arrival of the new parts or technician. Unlike typical household appliances or consumer products, the impact of a failed spare part can be considerable in the farming and construction community. This can lead to disgruntlement and damage to the brand.
Bad spare parts = Failed retrofits
As part of the brand’s innovation, it offers products that can be retrofitted to older models to enhance efficiency and performance. These products have been tested to function perfectly with the older models. Fake spare parts can seriously impact the success of retrofit projects. Farmers or construction workers may see that a retrofit that was supposed to enhance performance has resulted in reduced efficiency.
Bad parts = Bad feedback
The brand offers retrofit precision agriculture technology to independent dealers and OEMs as well – and the relationship with these partners can be impacted if they see bad outcomes from these investments. The brand’s reputation can be impacted.
Fake spare parts = Unsafe work
In the agriculture and construction industry, there has been an increased focus on worker safety and well-being over the past decades, and the quality and operation of the machinery is a critical component to ensuring that high standards are met. With heavy machinery, even a small error can cost someone’s life, and that is unacceptable. The regulatory impact and penalties for an unsafe work environment can be debilitating for an agricultural or construction company.
Product life = More parts
Many of the brand’s agricultural and construction machinery products have a life of 20 years when properly maintained, and the parts have to be reliably supplied across such a long time period. This is an important, predictable revenue stream for the company. The anti-counterfeit solution needs to work across long time periods without deterioration in performance while being kept in storage or inventory.
Bad parts = Bad origin
Industrial machinery products for the agricultural and construction business are major consumers of metals and minerals. Responsible brands make sure that the source of the material used by approved suppliers meets the regulatory and ethical norms for human rights and sourcing standards. The material must be sourced ethically from an origin that does not damage the environment or use slavery. Approved suppliers have to use materials and metals that are sourced from accepted origins. Counterfeit spare parts may not use metals and minerals from approved sources, defeating the purpose of the brand’s commitment to the environment and human rights. This would be unacceptable.
Bad parts = Bad communication
Agricultural and construction machinery are expected to communicate with each other and human interfaces as well through sensors and wireless communication. The fidelity of the communication is critical to drive efficient, safe operations and in-time maintenance. Fake parts can affect the fidelity of the data and result in cascading effects on data analysis and inter-machinery communication.
Poor spare parts = Poor operating results
Spare part sales form a critical part of the brand’s balance sheet. The after sales market is less volatile than the whole goods market and helps reduce the impact on operating results of fluctuations in new sales. Along with the long lifespan of machinery products, the spare parts sales can be a major driver of operating efficiency for the brand’s financial results. Over time, fake spare parts can impact profitability, brand reputation and customer loyalty – all of which are detrimental to the brand.
More package sizes = More complexity
Spare parts come in all shapes and sizes, and therefore the packages covering them change size and orientation as well. The anti-counterfeit solution could simplify the deployment across multiple package sizes. The invisible signature was integrated into the logo on the label itself, and therefore eliminated any special processes, labor or machine related calibrations to suit different package sizes or orientation.
New parts = New learning curve
The brand’s spare parts are always undergoing improvements and iterations, and in some cases, complete redo. This means that new and modified spare parts can require a learning curve for the technician or the end-user while installing. In the long run the objective would be to make the spare part installation and/or replacement as simple as possible so that even the end user can deploy it (subject to safety considerations). In this case there is a lot of information that needs to be provided in multiple formats, to the end user or technician. This information can be related to the steps required to remove old parts, fit new ones, test for good fit etc.
Unhappy customers = Invisible loss of reputation
In many cases, the end customers maybe using the fake spare parts and facing issues. These customers may have a suspicion that the spare part is fake, and yet do not escalate it to the distributor or brand. They may lose faith in the brand and its distribution channels. The brand needed to find a way to pick up scans that showed up a fake, so that they can proactively respond.
Long relationships = Outdated information
In the case of agro-industrial products, the customer relationship with the brand can span years, if not decades. The information related to the spare parts could get outdated, and the printed information accompanying the spare parts could have been lost, misplaced or disposed. The end user would need this information years after installation, when there is a breakdown or fault with the spare part. Even if they have kept the printed material, it is likely to be outdated, considering the pace at which technology has updated.
Global supply chain = Wasted print material
With a global supply chain, the material suitable to accompany spare parts may become outdated due to changes in regulation or updated product information. This then has to be re-converted into multiple languages suitable for time zones. The length of translations can vary the size of the printed material. These printed materials have to be disposed safely if they become outdated. The labor costs in restocking, re-creating the content and labelling adds to the overall costs of change management.
High inventory = High cost of updation
Since the agro-industrial machinery and products industry is spread across the globe, the amount of inventory held in warehouses is likely to be substantial. In this case, any retrospective changes to product information in the warehouse or already in the market would be difficult to maintain and update. The warehouse will also not have easy information to segment the products which have already been delivered with the accompanying outdated information.
Multiple markets = Multiple technologies/vendors
Over a period of time, the anti-counterfeit technologies deployed across different markets would be different and various product types would be under different types of counterfeit protection methods. This causes an overhead in tracking and maintaining these technologies. The end users and distributor partners would have to be conversant in different types of authentication tools or methods. The payments and relationships/contracts with the vendors providing these solutions would be complex across various geographies. This requires an in-house team to track and maintain as well.
More geographies = More regulatory authorities
Since farming is a global necessity, the agro-industrial machinery and products have to be deployed across 180 countries. This means that the brand has to submit itself to the regulatory methodology of multiple agencies and countries. This multiplies the complexity of the nature of support required to maintain compliance. Regulators may not have special machinery or scanners to validate or authenticate the brand’s products. The brand has to submit to the traditional, long cycle or outdated methods used by regulators – driving up legal costs, and opportunity loss due to disruption of supply chains.
Generative AI = Exact Replicas
In the recent times of Generative AI, counterfeiters have the capability to produce an exact replica of the product packaging, leaving no scope of differentiation between the original and the fake part. Therefore, there is a need to adopt a robust anti-counterfeit solution that can overcome the challenges from generative AI driven high quality counterfeit labels and packaging.
“To save, protect and inform”
Ennoventure’s anti-counterfeit solution provided a multitude of advantages to the agro-industrial brand.
Protection at scale
The brand’s global supply chain footprint for its agricultural and industrial spare parts could be covered by the anti-counterfeit solution. This was possible because the anti-counterfeit solution could be deployed digitally and over the cloud, to be integrated with the product package labelling.
Accelerated adoption
The adoption of the anti-counterfeit solution could be done without disruption to global operations because the deployment did not need any customised scanners, ink or material. The solution was expected to roll out with high velocity.
Geography agnostic
The anti-counterfeit solution did not need any specific training, and therefore eliminated any dependence on language specific or region-specific customisation. With the large workforce deployed by the brand, the simple and effective solution by Ennoventure would save thousands of man hours of training.
Cost effectiveness
With Ennoventure’s anti-counterfeit solution, the brand did not need CAPEX to be invested in machines, scanners etc. This also eliminated labor in the addition of any special stickers. The cost was also significantly lower when compared to physical anti-counterfeiting add-on measures like holograms or RFID tags.
Sustainable and ecofriendly
Ennoventure’s anti-counterfeit solution did not need to consume any new product material and reduced the need for additional labels or stick-on solutions.
User friendly
Ennoventure’s solution integrated invisible signatures into the brand’s logo, which was already being printed on the product packaging labels. The logo became an easily identifiable visual cue for users/stakeholders to scan using their smartphone. This was easy to understand and less intimidating than figuring out holograms, RFID tags etc.
Increased scan-checkpoints
The anti-counterfeit signatures on the brand’s product packaging labels could be authenticated by any smartphone camera. This allowed for more checkpoints – anyone with a smartphone could verify and validate the product. The increased protection did not come with any additional costs, as it did not need any investment in scanners or machines.
Geo located data on scans
The cloud based anti-counterfeit solution provided ensured that the data from scans could be segmented by location for further review and analysis. This would help pinpoint locations where fake products have been detected.
Actionable dashboards
The anti-counterfeit solution came with a dashboard system that provided near real time data on scans, locations and other information on the type of devices used, scan attempts, samples of the photo scans etc. This allowed for quick decision making to stop fake products from being distributed. It also allowed for investigative analysis on tracking the flow of fake products.
Track different geographies separately
Ennoventure’s anti-counterfeit encryption technology allowed for separate invisible signatures to be integrated into labels meant for different geographies. This allowed for the data from different geographies to be tracked separately. In addition, the data flow into a user-friendly dashboard gave the brand a powerful way to derive insights from the raw data.
Track distributors and sales channels
The anti-counterfeit technology could also be used to track the scans from/within distributors and other sales channels. This was important for the brand, as the counterfeit products could have been infiltrating the supply chain at these points. The data could also be overlaid across sales data to find any discrepancies.
Preprint and simplify
The labels are preprinted with the invisible cryptographic signature and shipped across for labelling. This reduces the need for in-premise decision making, storage and shipping (of separate holograms etc) and reduces labor cost and human error when compared to traditional anti-counterfeit methods.
Protection plus information
The preprinted labels containing the invisible anti-counterfeit cryptographic signatures could be scanned by the end user to authenticate and get additional information about the spare part. This information could help the user or technician with the correct installation of the spare part. This is possible as the anti-counterfeit signature can be scanned by any smartphone and does not require any specialised machinery.
Service-related information
The anti-counterfeit signatures could also show information related to service intervals, warranties and other details. This can be shown by taking the end user to a webpage with this information.
Loyalty
Customers use the brands’ agro-industrial products for long time periods. The customers’ key touch points with the brand would be the spare parts replacement and service intervals. The invisible anti-counterfeit signature could encourage the customer to join or participate in loyalty programs, during the duration of their engagement with the brand’s products. Over a period of time, this is a powerful tool to activate and enhance the relationship with the customer.
Evergreen webpages
When an end user scans the brand’s label which contains the invisible anti-counterfeit signature, they can be led to webpages that contain information related to the product, new offers and other marketing information. These webpages can be kept evergreen for long periods, which cover the duration of the relationship of the customer with the brand.
Up to date information at any time
Having web pages linked to the anti-counterfeit signature allows for the latest information to be displayed to the customer at any given time when they scan for counterfeits. This can be built into an end user behaviour to scan the labels to get up to date information.
Alerts based on scan behaviour
The brand can get alerts based on scan behaviour and identify fake products and behaviour indicating higher concern for fake products by the consumer. The data is enriched with more information like the photos taken, time of scan, geo location and number of attempts. This allows the brand to proactively address issues even if the consumer does not escalate.
Re-oriented printed material
Often printed material are disposed of because the material becomes outdated. In this case, the content can be hosted online, allowing for changes on the fly. The brand can remain up to date on regulatory changes and production information near real time, rather than the delayed cycles previously in place. This reduces cost of compliance related issues and related operational cost.
Old inventory brought up to speed
The label based invisible signatures allows for the content accompanying old inventory or products ‘out in the market’ to be updated to the latest information on the fly in near real time. The warehouse or supply chain managers can also easily scan the product label to segment products according to new information.
One uniform protection method, globally
The deployment of Ennoventure’s invisible anti-counterfeit brand authentication signatures would help unify the method of protection across all spare part products for all geographies across the globe and supply chain. This vastly reduces the cost of maintaining multiple technologies and vendors across geographies, increases compliance cost due to regulation and training of stakeholders and employees to use multiple tools for brand authentication.
Empower regulators
Ennoventure’s easy to authenticate solution is a powerful way to empower regulators. They can simply use their smartphones to authenticate the brand’s products and spare part packaging. This, combined with a single unified and non-invasive way of counterfeit detection simplifies relationships with regulators across the globe. They no longer need to possess complex and expensive scanners and deal with different technologies for verification. They can vastly increase the number of checks that they conduct, increasing their confidence in the brand. This enables regulators to become active participants and partners to protect the brand.
