54 | Market focus: brand protection“Invest in a solution that makes fnancial sense for the product you are selling”QR code, or any digital protection system. There are decisions from the brand owner, from the beginning of the lifecycle to its end, that need to be made which will ultimately decide whether the product being sold through e-commerce websites or even on the store shelves is legitimate. ‘When thinking about brand protection there are two important aspects that brand owners should think about: why your brand At All4Labels, the company looks to securely protect a company’s brand in the cloudneeds protecting and how you should go about protecting it. Because half the battle when it comes to brand protection, isn’t just providing security ink, it’s about the factory the brands are giving the ink to,’ says Tom Mitchell, international sales manager at Luminescence Sun Chemical Security. He adds: ‘if the inks are just given to any factory and not a vetted, trusted one, then half the counterfeits will just come from the factory next door because sometimes all it takes is one employee and a hundred dollar offer.’Because of this, brand owners need to use a trusted security printer, one that specializes in the application it is looking to use. Take, for example, All4Labels, which according to its report is ‘driven by a strong digital attitude and more than 25 years of experience in digital printing, reliable cross-market partner to support brand-owners to mitigate their brands’ risk exposure to counterfeit and to increase their sales and customers’ loyalty.’All4Labels has been investing in the expansion of its intelligent QR technologies and cloud services to provide its customers with a cost-effective and quick product for brand protection and customer interaction on an international scale.Welch gives the example of wine labeling, saying, ‘a singular solution could be a neck label on a bottle of spirits that has a smart label to detect if the cap has been tampered with - if the circuit breaks it will say bottle has been opened. This is unique in that there is really one point of entry. It also provides a form of authenticity since a unique idea could be attached to it.’When looking at the growth of e-commerce and due to the high volume of online retail shopping especially post-Covid, brand owners can legitimately be sending their products over to these e-commerce giants, but it’s simply impossible for consumers to know whether a product is legitimate until after it hits their doorstep. This is where QR codes and smart labeling can come into play.Allowing consumers to scan and authenticate the product A relatively simple yet effective form of security, VOID labels leave either a residue or marking to show that the product or packaging has been tampered withensures its legitimacy, and while, ‘if something is just printed with a QR code, its relatively easy to duplicate,’ says Welch. ‘A smart label using an embedded NFC inlay can store a unique identifer, so diffcult to work around the security.’These security features also allow consumers to engage with the brand, helping to garner brand loyalty and up the repurchase rates, while ensuring the reputation of a company’s brand.At the end of the day, what is the answer to brand protection?There is no single answer. Depending on the product, multiple layers of analog and digital protections may be required. For a single product RFID, holograms, security inks, and e-fngerprinting may be the answer. For another, a hologram may be all it needs. According to Welch, it is important to ‘invest in a solution that makes fnancial sense for the product you are selling.’For more information, visit the Label Academy bookstore: Layering different forms of protection, from inks to holograms to http://bit.ly/3gHG06ksmart features can ensure ample protection of a company’s brandlabelsandlabeling.com