Brand Management - Security

Brand protection is hot and getting hotter. A brand’s equity needs to be protected at all costs. It is sometimes developed over decades, can impart implicit trust, and can be lost in a matter of days, if not hours. Some major consumer products companies are getting first-hand exposure to the ramifications of what can happen. Mattel is taking a beating with multiple recalls involving its Fisher-Price and Barbie brands, and Colgate-Palmolive’s Colgate toothpaste has had a scare due to counterfeit products on the shelf. Companies have an exposure with any negative events impacting their brands whether they are responsible for the problems or not—and they

“Counterfeit Colgate Toothpaste Found” is the headline for a June 14 U.S. Food and Drug Administration press release warning that toothpaste with packaging resembling a Colgate product found its way into dollar-type discount stores in four states in the United States. Consumers were lucky this time around —packages were readily identifiable as fake so they could discontinue use or dispose of the product immediately. The counterfeit labels included several misspellings, and stated that the product had been manufactured in South Africa—a location Colgate does not use for manufacturing toothpaste. This is only one example of how a brand’s identity was stolen and reproduced to

Food packaging runs the gamut of methods and techniques, some tried and true and some pushing the envelope of contemporary packaging. Pouches fall into this latter category, with an even more targeted segment dealing with retort packaging. With retort pouches, the food is processed (cooked) in the actual package. Therefore, the pouch construction must withstand the rigors of high temperatures and pressure, testing the robustness of all aspects of the package—seals, closures, inks, laminations, and adhesives. All this means is that retort pouches fit the age-old adage, “you don’t get something for nothing.” The “something” you get is fairly substantial. Tobin Hass,

By Dr Peter Harrop IDTechEx At IDTechEx, when we teach Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), we talk of it being a ubiquitous enabling technology like the wheel or paper. Some people consider that to be rather far fetched. After all, wheels extend from prayer wheels, steering wheels, and wheels of fortune to aircraft wheels and microscopic wheels in Micro Electro Mechanical Systems MEMS. They are everywhere, as is paper because that appears as anything from art to toilet paper, packaging, books, and origami. The IDTechEx RFID Knowledgebase has captured more than 2,400 cases of RFID in action involving more than 2,500 organizations in 85 countries.

Converters that print labels for pharmaceutical applications can look forward to long, prosperous, and booming businesses if they stay on top of the prevailing issue in pharmaceutical labeling today—security. “Security has been a hot topic of discussion in the pharmaceutical industry for a few years now,” says Robert Ryckman, vice president of sales and marketing, CCL Label Healthcare Group NA. “Many reported cases of counterfeit and diversion are well documented and that will continue. There is a slow, steady movement toward adding security features to the packaging within the industry.” Counterfeiting and diverting continue to challenge pharmaceutical manufacturers to come up with new and

We unknowingly ingest more stuff than we would ever like to imagine. Between the microscopic bugs, bacteria, and viruses that find their way into the food we eat, we are walking hosts to a menagerie of living things—some of which can make us sick or even can be fatal. The good news is that there are layers of protection built into food production designed to keep what we eat safe from pathogens that cause food-borne illnesses. A growing part of this safety system is smart packaging. Smart packaging 101 There are several kinds of smart packaging that serve the food industry and protect consumers.

Holograms can do more than just attract consumers. They can also protect against counterfeiting, diversion, and product tampering. ACCORDING TO MARTY KELEM, sales and marketing manager, Spectratek Technologies, a consumer travels at seven miles per hour down store aisles, which only allows a product one-tenth of a second to make its impact. An impulse purchase occurs half of the time when a consumer visually notices the product, but that rate raises to 85 percent when the product is touched by the consumer. This is one of the main reasons for all of the product displays at the checkout aisles of retail stores.

Food CPCs are taking a serious look at smart packaging, exploring inventive ways to protect their products and consumers. FOOD-BORNE ILLNESSES cause more than upset stomachs. According to the Center for Disease Control, food poisoning results in more than 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,200 deaths in the United States each year. Worldwide, the World Health Organization reports that 3.2 million children under the age of five die of food-poisoning-related illnesses annually. The statistics are grim, but there's hope. Beyond better food-handling methods, packaging is becoming another avenue for food companies to better protect their consumers from the hidden dangers of organisms such as Salmonella, E.