Recently, Mrs. Ignis Okoro bought an insecticide she has been using successfully for years. The 100ml bottle of snipper had all the usual inscriptions and printings on the bottle.
She applied it overnight like she normally does but to her chagrin, instead of seeing dead insects the next morning, she saw very active ones. What happened? She wondered. Subsequent applications that week of the insecticide from that bottle with batch no F18001 proved abortive.
She made enquiries within her residence, College Rd. Abakpa Nike, Enugu, and discovered that other consumers around there were experiencing the same challenge. “The one currently being sold is not active,” most users said. “Most likely, the fake snipper is in circulation,” Mr. Joseph Odogwu volunteered.
Alhaja Jumoke said there was a time Baygon insecticide was her favourite and quite popular in Nigeria till unscrupulous traders infiltrated the market with the substandard ones forcing the loyal consumers to look for alternatives. “The same thing happened to Raid and other good ones.”
Unfortunately, the adulteration does not stop with insecticides alone. It has permeated every facet of our market. As long as the brand is popular and in high demand, unscrupulous traders and manufacturers look for a way of churning out the substandard one to reap from the good name they did not build.
Nigerians were all shocked when recently, in April this year, police uncovered an illegal brewery where fake Malta Guinness and Stout drinks were produced at Egbe-Afa, Igbobo area of Ikorodu in Lagos.
It was discovered that the illegal brewery produced malt drinks, stout and ethanol which they pump into trucks to bottle at another location.
Also, a fake wine factory was also recently discovered at Mushin. The story is endless. We have published stories of Always sanitary towels, HP products etcetera on this page. There have been complaints from consumers of buying fake LG television even from a major on-line shop.
The only products that are not adulterated are ones that are not successful, relatively unknown brands that are not in demand.
With all the fight against substandard products from the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, (SON), and other government regulatory agencies, instead of reducing, the incidence of fake and adulterated products seems to be on the increase.
When a company’s product is blatantly adulterated and openly sold without the company seemingly doing anything, it points to three things: a company which does not care about the safety of its customers; a company that cares less about its reputation and brand name.
Major manufacturers do not fight this menace the way it should be tackled. Most of them hide the fact that their products are being faked. In an interview with a management staff of a leading electronics brand, he said that admitting openly that traders have infiltrated the market with fake copy of their product will amount to discouraging and frightening consumers off their brand.
Speaking, he said, “Customers will be afraid of purchasing our brand for fear of falling prey to counterfeit.”
So how do you fight counterfeit? The reporter queried. “We engrave our trade mark on products. We urge consumers to patronise our brand stores instead of the open market. If by chance any customer contacts us with tales of purchasing a fake of our products, we do everything to resolve it amicably.” But is that good enough?
On this page, we ran a story about a consumer who bought fake sanitary towel under a very reputable brand name. We tried to contact the company through their customer toll free care line but the response was always “sorry, the person you are trying to reach is unavailable at this time and the system cannot take any more message because the message box is full.”
After three of such responses, we contacted the company’s public relations firm for response then, we published the story even offering them advice.
After that publication, we thought the company would try to reach the victim, at least to find out where she bought the product and apprehend the people involved but unfortunately nothing like that happened.
The manufacturer of a product is the main party responsible for protecting its reputation, brand name and its customers from losing money and being exposed to contaminated products.
No wonder, some popular brands like Nigerian Breweries and Guinness change the shape of their bottles and caps from time to time to discourage adulteration which will damage their reputation.
It costs millions to build global brands, yet they are highly vulnerable to attacks which can severely undermine marketing investments while putting brand reputation, customer trust and revenues at risk.
These attacks make unauthorised use of trademarks in deceitful ways. It enables fraudsters to claim affiliation where none exists, link legitimate brands with undesirable content or steer consumers to sales of unauthorised, pirated and counterfeit goods.
If left unchecked, attacks can permanently tarnish a brand’s integrity and in some cases result in health-related problems depending on the nature of the product involved.
Counterfeit products do not comply with international standards or go through strict management controls. Counterfeits are generally made of cheap and unsafe materials such as flammable plastic or poor plating. It reduces production cost by not respecting quality and safety standards.
Apart from government regulatory agencies and consumers who are supposed to be on alert, once a manufacturer starts getting complaints of adulteration, he should carry out campaigns warning consumers and publish pictures of the original products and fake ones side by side.
It is the sole responsibility of the producer of the product to also enlighten consumers on how to differentiate the original or authentic product from the fake one. He should endeavour to bring the perpetrators to book while ridding the market of the fake products.
While doing all the above, the manufacturer should get the attention of the government regulatory agencies, in this case the Standard Organisation of Nigeria[SON] that is empowered by law to seize such products and get the people behind the nefarious activities arrested.
