Multinationals never stop fighting counterfeited products and the bad guys never stop doing it. This game has been going on since forever and it seems gonna be here forever.

I have spotted the below Duracell batteries in Cyprus, and having worked and moved the same original product for many years and in so many different formats and packages, it did not need much time to know it is a counterfeited product, from the carton to the printing bad quality and some packs with the batteries upside down.

The most shocking was the shelf price, tagged as the original product positioning.

Apologies for the photo quality, as I was spotted by the store owner and had that look saying “who the hell are you and what the f*** are you doing” which made me more sure about the product.

When we hear about counterfeit or imitated goods, the first things that cross our minds are luxury products like Rolex watches or Gucci purses.

But the truth is counterfeit products are much more than that. They’re in every category of our lives: pharmaceuticals, household & supermarket products, food & beverage, luxury and daily cosmetics & beauty care, sportswear & sports goods, electrical appliances, cigarettes, car spare parts, baby food and baby toys & products…

As consumers, our lives are in great danger. Some of us are aware of it but choose not to act, while others don’t even know how to tell the difference between fake and real products.

Here are a couple of tips to help you spot counterfeit goods:

  • Watch out for deals that are too good to be true! If a product is offered at an unusually low price, think twice before you make your purchase and carefully examine the packaging.
  • Examine the packaging of the products you usually buy, this way you can easily compare and be able to spot a counterfeit product when offered to you. Reputable and well-known brands are always in neat packaging.
  • Take a short moment to read the information on the packaging, such as manufacturer, country of origin, logo, and look for any spelling mistakes.
  • Check the manufacturer’s website. Most manufacturers have a corporate website with all the information pertaining to the company.
  • Always purchase from a credible vendor and avoid adventurous outlets.
  • Request official invoices for all your purchases as they allow you to complain and get your rights back.

  • Brand Protection Group Lebanon

    Siblou Light-meat-tuna-in-oil We have been facing the presence of fake Siblou products for quite some time in many markets where we are present.

    Luckily we have uplifted our main logo not long time ago while fake products are still using our old one. As you can see while comparing our original label with the fake ones, that these people did not really bother themselves in making some major changes or differences (this reminds me when my daughter plays “find the 7 differences” game).

    All they did was to copy the label as is, without any effort and to be fair to one of these unethical people, he really wanted to make a difference while copying a known brand, he just added the “n” letter at the end to make our brand called Sibloun, so i have to admit that was a very clever move *ironic sigh*, while the other guy just used a scanner and surely the quality found inside these cans is not comparable with Siblou.

    fake siblou Definitely our company took legal actions to put an end to these counterfeited goods, but such cases need time and patience until all evidence are gathered.

    We have already other branding, packaging and marketing plans and solutions in place to fight back, but unfortunately i am not able to share such information for the time being.

    Nonetheless, we are not only copied on this range, our frozen products design (and quality) was also copied in so many countries in the Gulf and in Europe, i will be writing about this also soon.

    Unfortunately successful brands and products have been copied since forever worldwide, the dark side of this is directly hitting 2 main parties, the consumer, who, sometimes is buying without making sure he is not fooled and spending his money on the wrong product(s) and the brand owners spending big amounts to fight and protect their brands/products, while some unprincipled people make fast money, which i am sure will not last forever.

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    250px-heinzsvg Yesterday night I was digging in my feed reader when these Heinz ketchup ads popped in front of my eyes, bringing 2 things forward in my mind, an issue i blogged about earlier here.

    It is about the Heinz canned tuna business, it was in 2006 that Heinz decided to sell its European seafood unit to the merchant banking arm of Lehman Bros. And I am sure most of you knows what happened earlier to Lehman.

    Surely I need to dig further to see where this deal ended up.

    lehman

    Basically the issue I wanted to bring up is their canned tuna business mainly on the Egyptian market, where for more than 2 years now, their brand was copied in a very professional way, in my previous post I have mentioned this but I did not indicate who is doing this.

    And i don’t mean about the producer who really don’t care the label they producing specially in Thailand, the main canned tuna source in the world, but I am mean the importer of this brand.

    Believe it or not, it is the same company that was importing the Heinz canned tuna brand that made the second brand and what is funny that they did not even bother changing the background picture, just a small difference on the logo design, also keeping the same color trend.

    heinztuna

    Definitely this is not real ethical business move, specially that we have similar issue in our company where our canned tuna is also copied in 2 different ways, the first was 100% same label, same brand, the second was same label with a small one letter brand difference, from Siblou to Sibloun. (I will post the fake labels next week)

    On the other hand, for those who are interested in supply of quality branded canned tuna or under their private label, please visit our factory website at www.abad-cfood.com and feel free to email us any quotation request.

    abadcfood

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