Philips Automotive protects brand with Heroes Trademark solution

Identify counterfeits and grey markets

If you are buying a light for your car, there is a good chance it is from Philips. But car lights are also subject to counterfeits and grey markets (unofficial markets for goods that have not been obtained from official suppliers). Counterfeits are often of poor quality and so consumers who purchased counterfeit products are likely to lose trust in the brand, despite the fact they never purchased a genuine product. As a result, counterfeits and grey markets have a negative impact not just on the profits of affected companies, but also their reputation.

Therefore, Philips was looking for a tool that would allow them to detect counterfeits and grey markets and enable them to take appropriate action. While there were already solutions available, they were either too time consuming and costly or they collect company data making them unsuitable for consumer goods such as automobile headlights. Philips required a simple end-user friendly solution that could work for anyone.

The solution? Heroes Trademark

Trademark is a counterfeit detection and global track and trace solution developed by Heroes for Philips. The tool, which is based on artificial intelligence (AI), can easily analyse all types of packaging elements to determine whether a product is genuine or counterfeit. In two weeks, we created a Proof of Concept for Philips. The full implementation of the Trademark solution took three months. Now, Philips has a catalogue of over 250 products that can be checked for counterfeits and grey markets.

How Philips uses the Trademark solution

Each Philips automotive product package includes a small QR code that can be scanned for more information, such as installation tips, cross-sell promotions, or other marketing activities. A landing page pops up when the consumer scans the QR code. Here, the consumer can find such information as well as the counterfeiting function which can be used in as little as five or six seconds. With Trademark, a consumer can tell if a Philips car light is genuine with a 98.5% certainty.

At the same time, a number of characteristics are passed on to a customizable dashboard. At the backend, Philips sees a large world map with all the scans that are taking place, in real time. They have the ability to zoom in on the country or city where the product is being scanned. Green flags indicate that an original Philips product is available on the right market. Red flags, however, indicate grey markets or counterfeits.

Privacy and data ownership

The data gathered is processed in accordance with European privacy legislation. The Trademark solution does not store any sensitive data related to natural persons and addresses at 100m. As a result, Philips can only see where the product is located in terms of city or town. In addition, Philips has no idea who scanned the product and the gathered data belongs to Philips, not Heroes. While Trademark is a Dutch solution, it is perfectly suited for international rollout, like Philips is currently doing.

Easily detect counterfeits and grey markets

For consumer products in the lower price ranges, it is not cost effective to use expensive methods to detect whether a product is counterfeit. Trademark is a user friendly and affordable solution that helps Philips to identify counterfeits and grey markets. Not only does this provide Philips with valuable insights into counterfeit product and packaging methods, it also gives them a powerful marketing tool to keep their customers happy and engaged. Consumers can now easily tell if they have purchased a genuine Philips light. If it turns out to be a fake, they may exchange it for an original item, free of charge. So, Trademark benefits both the consumer and Philips.