‘Brand Protection and the Global Risk of Product Counterfeits’: Flawed but Useful

There are very few books to guide brand owners on their brand protection (BP) programmes, so ‘Brand Protection and the Global Risk of Product Counterfeits’ is a useful addition to that small library.

Edited by Jeremy M Wilson, who was founder-director of the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection (A-CAPP) at Michigan State University, it recommends and sets out a strategic BP approach – the total business solution (tbs) – but seems to vacillate between being a text book for academics and a guidebook for brand owners.

It is very US-centric, probably reflecting A-CAPP’s own positioning, which is a shame for one of only two or three higher education research and study centres on this important topic. Although based in the US mid-west, it would benefit from a more global coverage.

The book’s 15 chapters are grouped into six parts, of which parts I and VI are single chapters, written by Wilson. The first explains the underlying approach to the tbs as a corporate brand protection strategy, while the last recaps the book’s content and sets out the ‘core principles in theory and practice (of a tbs)’. The parts in between cover counterfeit risk assessment, mitigating that risk, resourcing and measuring the value of BP programmes, and the total business solution in practice.

Wilson is in fact shown as author or joint author of eight of the book’s 15 chapters, so he clearly has major responsibility for its content.

There are 13 other authors of chapters listed (six academics and seven BP professionals), all but one of whom are US- based, which probably contributes to the book’s US bias.

Another incidental but important sign of this bias – and an unfortunate indictment of the editor and his fact-checkers – is a statement in the chapter by Sean O’Hearen, of Excellis Health Solutions, that the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC), which has its offices in Washington DC, ‘is the oldest organisation devoted solely to combating product counterfeiting and piracy’, when the French Union des Fabricants, founded in 1872, predates it by over 100 years.

Putting aside these shortcomings, in setting out the total business solution approach to brand protection the book provides valuable guidance for brand owners and their BP professionals.

Words like strategic, holistic, corporate, and high level are used in descriptions of the tbs, making the case that the BP approach must be endorsed and supported by the top level of companies and that it needs to involve numerous departments.

Too often we have seen the BP responsibility in a silo in the legal or security department, whereas the most effective BP strategies cut across and draw from all divisions of a company. So, this tbs approach is to be welcomed, while it is also a positive that several of the chapters strongly encourage a proactive stance.

To quote Wilson’s preface: ‘to maximise the performance and efficiency of brand protection programmes, firms need to be as strategic, data-driven, proactive and as comprehensive as possible’. Hear, hear!

Wilson also helpfully defines brand protection as ‘the effort, in any form, scope, or scale, undertaken by firms to protect the value, image and reputation of its brand(s)’. This makes clear that it is not just counterfeits that need combating, but other threats such as grey market, lookalikes, and diversion.

Fortunately, the book not only encourages this strategic approach, but guides readers on how to go about creating this within a brand owner’s organisation. An early diagram – below – shows the tbs programme model in a succinct and clear form, also demonstrating that this is an iterative, ever-learning and improving model.

I mentioned above that sometimes this seems more like an academic textbook than a practical guidebook. The chapters that are most guide-like are primarily those from the BP professionals, although the US bias comes through in these chapters.

Sean O’Hearen’s chapter on risk management and risk assessment for brand protection gives practical and detailed information on why this is necessary and how to go about this important component of the tbs. This chapter includes a tabular comparison of O’Hearen’s ‘tenets’ of a tbs with ISO 31000:2018, the international standard on risk assessment, where he concludes that ISO’s guidelines are well worth following.

Another aspect of the tbs which is described is the requirement for authentication of branded products.

In Chapter 11, Warren MacInnis of Underwriters Laboratories writes that ‘product authentication is a core requirement for any enforcement programme and should be included as an integral part of any anti-counterfeiting strategy’. Which gets another ‘hear, hear’ from me.

But given that ISO 31000 is referenced above, it leads me to wonder why there is no reference anywhere in the book to ISO 22383:2020, the revised standard on guidelines for the selection and performance evaluation of authentication solutions for material goods, which surely should be recommended as essential reading for BP professionals.

The book is strong on metrics and return on investment – notoriously difficult things to measure with regard to BP efficacy.

O’Hearen contributes detailed guidance on ‘a strategic scorecard approach’, while Jeremy M Wilson et al write about ‘identifying and assessing performance metrics in brand protection’. This is something that senior executives are usually keen to see – they want to know that they are getting their money back through the company’s BP programme.

The one chapter that is contributed by a non-US author, John Reiners of Oxford Economics – albeit writing with Peggy E Chaudhry, Associate Professor at the Villanova School of Business – sets out the findings of a 2018 Oxford research project into consumer motivation for buying counterfeits. I can’t summarise this dense chapter here, but it does explain why it is important for BP professionals to understand consumer behaviour.

At over 260 pages this is not a light read, but if you want guidance on setting up and running a BP programme, then skip much of the academic contributions to get useful input from the chapters from experienced professionals. But if you are based outside the USA you will need to relate this to your own situation.

ISBN 978 1 83910 581 4 (… 582 1 for the eBook).