Every year, many organisations lose millions of money due to warranty claims processing issues. There is a dire need for effective warranty management that can reduce warranty spend, improve the quality of products, increase supplier recovery and enhance end-customer satisfaction. Holostik provides an effective management process through which one can track all warranties throughout the lifecycle of the product. The process not only ensures improved customer satisfaction but increased product quality and reduced service costs.

Over the years the definition of warranty management has evolved and today it is a cost-effective and consumer satisfying measure. As per managementstudyguide.com, “Warranty Management had been traditionally viewed by companies as a cost of doing business. The costs of warranty management were found to be costing between 4 to 5 per cent of the total sales revenue of the company per annum and were considered to be the cost of providing customer satisfaction and as an opportunity to building a customer relationship.”

Through Holostik’s automated warranty claim systems and installed base asset tracking, the service organisations will be able to create, administer, and track warranties, claims and assets through their full lifecycles. This would serve as a three-in-one process. It will allow the third parties to submit valid claims and receive credits. Secondly, the customer service can verify coverage and initiate recovery, and thirdly the field technicians can track asset history and replace in-warranty parts.

The process of warranty management

On purchasing the product secured with a holographic label with a QR code, the consumer authenticates their product by scanning it.
On authentication, the information of the user and the product (manufacturing date, expiry date, warranty period etc) feeds in the database of the manufacturer.
Whenever the consumer wishes to get their product replaced or exchanged, they just have to go to the retailer from where they bought the product and they will get all the details.
This will save the pain of keeping the warranty cards in possession for long periods.

Marketing campaigns are useful to promote a product through different media, including print, radio, television and online platforms. Campaigns do not have to exclusively rely on advertising and can also encompass word of mouth, viral and other new age techniques for promotion. Due to cut-throat marketing competition companies regularly engage in launching new marketing campaigns to generate brand awareness and sales.

Effective marketing strategy separates big growing companies from the slow-growing companies. In order to grow one’s business one must become an effective marketer, advertiser and promoter.

An integrated and effective marketing campaign is one that delivers the right message to the right audience at the right place. A unified marketing strategy can get you numerous benefits. Apart from boosting sales and profits, it also helps in increasing brand loyalty, saves money and increases the company’s competitive edge.

Holostik has set an international benchmark in not just catering the best anti-duplication solutions but also in advanced IT-enabled solutions which serve a different purpose in a supply chain. Holostik creates a customised system or database wherein the information of product user feeds in. The database will be updated with every user added to the list. Whenever one’s company comes out with a new product or any new offer or any discounts, they can use the database and send messages to them so that they keep informed about the latest happenings and developments at the company.

Let’s discuss the process of customised marketing system provided by Holostik.

Customised software is developed according to the needs and requirements of the client
On purchasing the product, the QR code is scanned by the customer.
The contact details of the customers get stored in the database of the manufacturer.
Promotional messages or emails are sent to the customers to increase the sales volume.

In today’s market scenario, online shopping trends are taking over the minds of the consumers. With the deep penetration of internet and wide availability of smartphones, people have become addicted to e-commerce apps. Perhaps, the biggest advantages of online shopping include convenience, a vast amount of choices, offers and discounts.

According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, “India is the fastest growing market for the E-Commerce sector. Revenue from the sector is expected to increase from US$ 39billion in 2017 to US$120 billion in 2020, growing at an annual rate of 51 per cent, the highest in the world. E-Commerce industry in India witnessed 21 private equity firm and venture capital deals worth US$ 2.1 billion in 2017 and 40 deals worth US$ 1,2

Lately, online shopping is facing the menace of counterfeiting. Counterfeiters and forgers are selling a huge amount of fakes on popular e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal among others. A recent survey by Local Circles a citizen engagement platform everyone in three online shoppers has received a fake item.

According to an article published in ET Now, “Most consumers are able to identify counterfeit products by either recognizing that the product is different from what they had ordered or through the packaging or colour, the Velocity MR survey showed. Industry members said that often consumers may not even identify counterfeit products, which would otherwise take the number of such cases much higher.”

Due to the sale of fake products, e-commerce players are facing a tarnished brand image, loss of consumer trust and most importantly sales and profits.

In order to secure their products against counterfeiting e-commerce players can take the following steps:

E-commerce should make the use of anti-counterfeiting packaging mandatory and must ensure that all third-party sellers abide by this.
The combination of digital and physical anti-counterfeiting technologies can ward off duplication to a large extent in e-commerce.
E-commerce players must ensure proper and timely monitoring of third-party sellers for the presence of any fake products.

As companies constantly push to attain maximum sales, they implement new marketing strategies which are aimed at directly capturing the nerve of the consumers. Over the years marketing experts have been innovating and implementing new strategies to get new customers and retain the current ones.

Among the many alluring marketing concepts, loyalty management or reward management has shown effective results across different industries. In his book ‘The Loyalty Effect’ Frederick Reichheld says, “The greater the loyalty a company engenders among its customers, employees, suppliers, and shareholders, the greater the profits it reaps.”

What is loyalty management?

In simple words, loyalty management involves a set of activities for better serving its customers. It helps companies to acquire, engage and retain their customers. Moreover, the process also helps in better understanding of the relationship between the customers and the company’s business.

Loyalty management aims to fairly reward people by making and implementing strategies and policies that can act rightfully and consistently in accordance with their value to the company.

What’s behind an ideal loyalty management strategy?

A loyalty strategy should be formulated in such a way that it clearly defines the reward elements and the customer knows what they should expect to receive and why. Loyalty management is not just a way to reward loyal customers but, also helps in increasing sales drastically and generate profits.

Holostik’s loyalty management system

Holostik provides a unique code printed on a smart holographic label/ smart hologram to its clients by which they can effectively monitor their reward management systems. It will not just keep track of all the loyal customers and rewards to be given but will lead to increased customer satisfaction and fair distribution of rewards.

The process

The products are secured with a smart holographic label/smart hologram printed with a unique QR code.
On purchasing the product, the consumer authenticates the product by scanning the QR code.
On authentication, the user gets alerts for various rewards and other important notifications.
The database is updated regularly, and the customer gets regular updates pertaining to rewards.

Product authentication is important to determine the genuineness of a product. Authentication is a process through which a human or system verifies the originality or duplicity of any product. Authentication is essential to effective security as it equips the user to check the originality of the product. Holostik has been a pioneer in providing its clients unique and secure holograms which are impossible to copy or duplicate.

The holograms work as a unique identity of genuineness. The scanning of the hologram will immediately tell the customer if the product purchased by them is genuine or fake. The holograms reflect a unique identity of genuineness. A hologram can incorporate overt, covert, forensic or digital features for authentication.

However, among the many authentication features the most used authentication feature is digital which includes barcodes, QR codes, RFIDs etc. According to 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 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.”

The customer can also ensure the security and validate originality by scanning the QR code using a scanner, sending the display number via SMS, or through the website. The customer can ensure security and authenticate the product by scanning the QR code using a scanner, sending the display number via SMS, or through the website.

In order to understand the overall process of product authentication let’s understand the complete process in detail:

First, the customer purchases the product enabled with the smart hologram or smart label that has a QR code or barcode.
At the time of purchase, the barcode or QR code is scanned to check the authenticity of the product.
Post-scanning, the customer receives the message about the genuineness of the product.
Simultaneously, the manufacturer also receives the message about the scanning of their product.

Holostik not just provides real-time authentication but also moves a step ahead by equipping manufacturers with the track and trace technology through which one can keep a tab of his or her products in the supply chain. The technique provides a unique identifying QR code or barcode onto each product after it has been packaged. This enables individual products to be tracked from production to the end consumer and helps manufacturers significantly reduce counterfeiting by ensuring products can be easily identified. Holostik’s track and trace systems have been designed to ensure the best print quality and the highest level of efficiency.

With counterfeiting making its footprints deeper and marking its presence everywhere, the solutions to combat it have not only become necessary but mandatory. This is where the role of anti-duplication or anti-counterfeiting technologies comes in.

Product authentication’s role is to ensure that a given product is genuine or counterfeit. The product authentication process during the entire supply chain should be exemplary as manually it is very difficult to identify a counterfeit. The initial point of automated non-destructive product authentication is to insert a special security feature into products like the barcode, QR code, serial numbers etc.

Product authentication can take place at a single piece or at pallet formation or at higher aggregated levels also. As every product has different security requirements, therefore different solutions are needed to secure different products.

All the anti-duplication technologies can be categorized into Overt, Covert, Forensic or Digital.

Overt Technologies: These technologies do not require any additional tools; they are visible and apparent with naked eyes. This is the best way for on the spot visual authentication. They can be used in labels, documents and packaging.

Covert Technologies: These technologies are not instantly recognisable. They require special tools or equipment to identify authenticity; not visible through naked eyes e.g. ultraviolet and infrared inks, micro text, unique synthetic tagging etc.

Forensic Technologies: These technologies being covert require detection by specialised technologies and are usually taken to laboratories for validation.

Digital Technologies: These technologies may be either covert or overt and require electronic means of authentication. These are mostly used in RFID tags or in reading a serialized number and comparing to a database.

All these technologies are applied in the three main areas of:

1.Anti-tampering technologies: These technologies are majorly used in the food and pharmaceutical industry where the product needs to be protected from adulteration or replacement. The anti-tampering feature gives assurance to the customers that the contents are genuine and not tampered or adulterated.

2.Anti-counterfeiting technologies: The common feature of anti-counterfeiting technologies is that they are extremely difficult to be counterfeited. These technologies help in differentiating a counterfeit product from an original product. Based on the authentication requirements, such technologies may consist of overt, covert and forensic features, or a mix thereof.

3.Track and Trace technologies: These technologies make use of mass serialisation and unique codes to provide a unique identity to each item/product. IT technology enables the manufacturer to keep track of the movement of the product through the entire supply chain. Besides, the location and other relevant information of people in the chain can also be traced.

Marketers across the globe consider packaging as the first communicator of the company. Effective packaging shows the brand i.e. logos, names, taglines and other product related information like contents, nutrition values, weight, MRP etc. The packaging industry has created many innovations in the past years and wide web films are one of the best among them. Holostik which is one of the pioneers and leaders in packaging and anti-duplication solutions manufactures holographic wide web films which provide an aesthetic appeal to the product and also secures it against any kind of duplication or tampering.

Holostik provides holographic films in different specifications and can be customised as per the requirements of the clients. Holographic wide web films are basically designed and manufactured using the best quality raw materials are widely used in flexible packaging.

Holographic wide web films are available in PET (polyethylene terephthalate -minimum thickness of 12 microns) and BOPP (biaxially oriented polypropylene -minimum thickness 20 microns). Apart from providing security, holographic wide web films increase the brand value by making the end product look completely holographic.

Holographic wide web films are known for their self-adhesiveness, clarity, quality and shine. Special care has been taken by experts at Holostik in making the product compatible with international standards and the latest market trends.

Some features of Holostik’s holographic wide web films:

The films are shiny and glossy with high brightness & high gloss holographic effects.
The films have a superior bonding strength and are also heat resistant and waterproof.
The films are available in different colours and patterns, plain, light beam and patterns. Many designs are available for selection and customer’s designs.
The films are used for toiletries, tobacco, flexible packaging, printing, wine boxes, gift boxes, books, magazines, boxes, printed products and other paper products laminating. suitable for high-grade imitation and pseudo carton laminating.

The world of packaging has different kinds of products which are meant for a wide variety of goods. Among the many packaging solutions, pouches hold an important place.

Pouches are the best solutions for flexible packaging which also provide effective branding and product information. Holostik is one of the leaders in the anti-counterfeiting and packaging industry which provides optimum quality holographic pouches which offer an authentication mechanism and also add visual appeal to the product. The pouches encompass high-quality printing technology along with diverse security features.

In the packaging industry, a pouch is also called as a doypack, stand up bag or a plastic pouch which is made out of multi-laminate plastic films. Undoubtedly plastic is the most commonly used type of packaging and pouches are having an increase in demand due to the flexibility, versatility and numerous environmental benefits over other methods. Holostik caters different types of pouches as per the product and industry’s requirements. Some of the types are gusset pouches, side seal pouches, centre seal pouches and standing pouches.

Among them, standing pouches have gained massive popularity especially in the food packaging and FMCG industries. This is due to its durability and convenient transportation. Moreover, microwaveable food pouches are made from laminated PET and LLDPE food grade materials and can withstand extreme temperatures and pressures.

High barrier food pouches also help in keeping the products fresh for a longer duration and keeps out moisture, dust, oxygen and UV light from entering the packaging. Using advanced printing technology Holostik makes it sure that manufacturers include all kind of product information and marketing information mentioned on their product’s packaging.

Security pouches are highly economical and instantly grab the attention of the consumer in the retail environment. With the help of security pouches, even small-scale industries can leverage their brand value in the marketplace. Security pouches allow manufacturers to print enticing high-quality custom designs and thus increase their product’s visibility.

How to check purity of genuine Mustard oil

Mustard oil or ‘sarson ka tel’ has been one of the favourite cooking oils in India. Of late, many other types of edible oils are also being used but, mustard oil is still consumed predominantly by a large population, that inhabits the rural India – particularly in the north. For years, our forefathers thrived on food cooked in pure mustard oil which was responsible for their great health. Time and again researches have proved that mustard oil has numerous health benefits that are hard to find in refined oils.

But, as expected just like other food items mustard oil is also being adulterated and sold as a counterfeit in markets. This leaves our health in jeopardy as the effects of consuming duplicate mustard oil can be fatal. The government of India has issued strict guidelines and there are specific laws to punish people who practice adulteration of food, though, little has been achieved to curb the same.

Recently, KS Pannu, Commissioner Food and Drug Administration Punjab said that unscrupulous dealers and manufacturers are using cheap palm oil, crude rice bran oil, crude soya bean oil, colours and chemicals as adulterants in mustard oil. Another toxic adulterant Argemone oil is also used which causes dropsy and has been the reason behind many deaths in the past. The spurious oil is packed in tins and packets bearing the branding of the original product which makes it difficult to differentiate between the fake and an original.

If you are buying mustard oil from the market, then you can perform some easy home tests to determine its genuineness. Let’s discuss some of them in detail.

Identify mustard oil is Pure or Fake

1. Freezing test: Take some mustard oil in a cup or bowl. Keep it in the fridge for a few hours. If the oil is freezing and having white spots, then there is something added in it and it is a counterfeit.

2. Rubbing test: Take some oil in your palms and rub it properly. If it leaves any trace of colour and smells like a chemical, then it has been adulterated with spurious substances.

3. Nitric Acid test: Take a tablespoon of oil and mix it with 5 ml of nitric acid. If the mixture turns yellowish orange or crimson colour, then it has been mixed with Argemone oil.

4. Barometer test: Pure mustard oil gives a barometer reading of 58 to 60.5. If the reading is more than this then the oil is fake.

5.Acidified petroleum ether test: In one millilitre of mustard oil mix 10 ml of acidified petroleum ether. After two minutes add one drop of molybdate. If the solution turns muddy then it has been adulterated with castor oil.

With advances in anti-counterfeiting technology, brands are utilising anti-counterfeiting solutions for their products and edible oil industry is no exception. Holostik – a pioneer in anti-counterfeiting solutions has successfully catered different kinds of anti-duplication solutions to the edible oil industry, which falls under the FMCG sector. It has secured one of the prominent players Gokul Refoils and Solvent Limited (GRSL) with the cutting-edge anti-duplication solution. The move not just stopped duplication of its products but also increased its profits.

Casio is the leading Japanese brand which has a legacy of manufacturing the most enticing electronic gadgets. One of its most popular products, that created a craze across the world has been the G Shock watch, which was first introduced in the year 1983. The USP of this watch is the use of sophisticated technology encased in a rugged yet modern body. The watch is designed to bear the most brutal shocks. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that it is amongst the toughest watch ever developed. G Shock is an ideal watch for outdoors, military and sports.

Counterfeiters are ruining the Casio brand name and trustworthiness by selling phoney low-quality replicas of G Shock in many countries. But, after reading this you will be able to differentiate a fake Casio G Shock from a real one. You can perform some checks by observing and executing the following points:

1.The packaging: Packaging is one way to identify a fake G Shock. A fake one will come in an aluminium box, but the original G Shock comes in an aluminium box which is encased in a cardboard box. Even though this may not verify a product’s authenticity, but it gives relief to the buyer.

2.The tag and manual: A two-page pamphlet, half written in Chinese can never be an instruction manual which comes with a fake G Shock. Original Casio G Shock comes with a complete instruction manual with intricate details about the product. More to it the original watch comes with a tag with a code which can be tallied with the one mentioned on the MRP sticker. The watch can also be verified by registering the code on Casio’s website.

3.Watch Buckle: You may find it difficult to distinguish between the buckle of fake and original G Shock but on closer inspection, you will be able to catch a duplicate product. The buckle of an original G Shock is quite shiny with ‘CASIO CHINA’ written on the back side whereas, the fake one will have a matte finish with ‘CASIO JAPAN’ written on it.

4.The Back Plate and Screws: This is another important differentiator. The real one is deeply engraved but in a fake watch, the case is not the same. Moreover, in the original backplate the model no. is written correctly but in the fake product, it is not written correctly-check for spelling errors and typos. In addition, the screws on the real watch are bigger as compared to ones in fake product.

5.Check the lights: The colour of watch light is the same in both the real and fake watch but, the intensity and colour temperature are different in fake and real watch.

6.Check the hands: This check is not applicable on G Shocks as some variants have single coloured shiny hands but the variants with different coloured hands can be tested. In the genuine products the ends of hands are painted with different colours but in replicas, the central portion is painted with one colour and the rest with another colour.

7.Function: This is a very important point. For example, the original G Shock camouflage series has a reverse lit display whereas a fake one has a normal display. Although other models may also have a normal display, so it is very difficult to spot the difference.

As counterfeiters now have more access to latest technology they are coming with replicas which are cloned copies of the original products. There are chances that even the above-mentioned checks may become futile in near future therefore, it is better to buy a G Shock from an authorised dealer.