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McDonald's has lost the EU trademark Big Mac for products containing poultry meat
So what can we do to convince retailers and the largest distributors? It is worth investing in solutions and technologies that show that a given store or store chain can reduce the costs of its operations. These may be operational costs, such as the possibility of automated inventory or the costs of anti-theft protection, which are already "built-in" to the product. Interestingly, there are already situations in which stores even demand that suppliers use specific solutions – otherwise they do not appear on store shelves. This policy was adopted by, for example, the American Wallmart. Another value that can convince retailers to choose our products is, for example, the guarantee of authenticity, origin and composition of the product, which can be easily verified at every stage of logistics processes.
Guaranteed authenticity
The fact that an original product ends up on store shelves is of great importance to all parties to the transaction. A customer who bought a counterfeit will resent the store, and the store that received the counterfeit goods will resent the distributor or manufacturer. Counterfeiting food products may pose even more threats – unknown composition, uncertain quality of raw materials and lack of guarantees of appropriate storage and transport conditions may have devastating consequences for the health and life of consumers. This is why manufacturers must ensure that their goods are clearly identifiable as original. Graphic design and packaging don't always help. A perfect example here are caviar producers who have used a new type of packaging aimed at limiting the trade in counterfeits. This did not bring the expected results, because specialist research showed that there are still goods available on the market that look like the original ones, but have nothing in common with them. The situation is very similar on the tobacco products market. In the USA, a person was detained who alone contributed to losses of $1 million. The practice involved counterfeiting labels and boxes of luxury cigars.
What can producers do? They should start using RFID-based source marking. In this way, they will protect their goods and at the same time be able to guarantee the authenticity of their products to distributors and retailers.
Show that sellers and wholesalers will gain even more thanks to your products
From the perspective of retail chains, but also smaller stores, operating costs are an increasing burden. These are not only utility costs such as electricity or gas, but primarily personnel costs. In addition, there are growing expenses for security and the need to protect each product against theft. Manufacturers can meet these challenges and equip their products with special RF/RFID labels and tags already at the production stage. These are compatible with anti-theft gates installed in stores and effectively protect products against those who steal someone else's property. This is also an important argument in the hands of the manufacturer. Not only does the store not incur costs related to purchasing security, it also saves on labor costs – there is no need to delegate employees to secure each item separately.
Modern product labeling at the production stage gives producers another big advantage. Both retailers and wholesalers can save a lot of time and effort on inventory. RFID tags, because they are an information carrier, allow for completely automated inventory. This is a very accurate process that allows you to maintain full control over inventory levels. It works just as efficiently when receiving goods into the store.
– The largest distributors and retail chains usually set tough conditions and expect additional values. The technology of marking products at the production stage using RF and RFID tags offers great opportunities in this respect – comments Katarzyna Chapman, Business Development Manager Source Tagging at Checkpoint Systems Polska.
We have known for a long time that good packaging and label design can increase sales. However, the graphic layer goes to the end consumer, not to the merchant responsible for stocking his stores. What matters here is something completely different – the digital layer of the label, which opens up completely new possibilities for retailers, thus giving an advantage to manufacturers. You can even quote a famous writer: "What is important is invisible to the eye."
