Authentication technologies play a pivotal role in protecting brand reputation, value, market share and above all trust of customers. As counterfeiters use new methods and technologies for duplication it has become highly critical for legitimate manufacturers to utilize the power of digital authentication.
Digital authentication technologies are being widely used by companies across the globe to tackle the problem of counterfeiting. Some of the widely used digital authentication technologies comprises of bar codes, QR (Quick Response) codes, RFIDs, taggants etc.
Among these authentication technologies bar codes and QR codes are being massively used by organizations to secure their products and safeguard and manage their supply chains.
As per a trade report, “The barcode sector of the technology segment constituted the highest share in the anti-counterfeit packaging market; and is projected to grow at a second-highest rate during the forecast period as it is highly preferred for brand protection in almost all industries but especially in personal care & cosmetics products. This is due to the information and code embossed over the barcode and does not allow the covert data to be displayed on the label, making it difficult for counterfeiters to copy. A barcode helps companies to integrate product lines and reduce the total cost of ownership.”
QR codes or 2D bar codes are not much different from bar codes except that they can store much more information compared to a normal barcode. Both these machine-readable codes can be scanned with handheld devices and mobile phones. Perhaps, one of the biggest advantages of these digital authentication technologies is that they provide quick and convenient authentication in real time.
Here are some benefits of digital authentication technologies:
1.Real-time authentication: Digital technologies like bar-codes and QR codes offer instant authentication of the product in real time. This means that you don’t have to wait much in order to check the genuineness of the product.
2.Stores large amount of information: From the name of the product to manufacturing and expiry date, nutritional value and much more, bar codes and QR codes can store a large amount of information which reflects on the screen once scanned. It helps the consumer and other stakeholders in the supply chain to know about the necessary information related to the product.
3.Unique for every single product: Bar codes and QR codes are unique for every single or individual product manufactured by the company. Thus, these solutions give a unique identity to each product in the supply chain and ensure their comprehensive and detailed monitoring.
4.Can be amalgamated with physical authentication technologies: Holostik which is a pioneer in anti-counterfeiting technologies in India offers a unique smart security hologram which includes a QR code and a hologram for two-phased authentication of the product. Quite evidently, one can’t deny the great quality of digital technologies to easily amalgamate with physical technologies.
