Kodak Addresses the gray Market ….

[Anonymous]

Kodak Addresses the gray Market
Gray market can be considered a fraudulent means of inflating profits for distributors, while reducing revenue from brand owners.

It has been estimated that as much as $63 billion per year in revenue is lost to Gray market diversion in the U.S.  Within the IT industry alone, nearly $5 billion in profits is lost to Gray market activity each year. The problem is more prevalent in other countries, potentially costing hundreds of billions of dollars per year in lost revenue to thousands of companies worldwide. Considering that manufacturers could be losing as much as 4.5% of sales or more to Gray marketers, it is no wonder that companies are now taking a hard look at their Brand Protection Strategies to combat this ever increasing problem.

The net effect of Gray market is two-fold:
First, the local distributors are forced to compete with artificially lowered prices by the Gray market activity, causing significant conflict and supply chain demand issues within the authorized sales channels. Second, product revenue streams for brand owners become unbalanced, causing inflated sales metrics in some regions, while incurring reduced sales in other regions. In many cases, well-known retail stores may acquire Gray market products through non-traditional channels, bypassing the brand owners distribution network altogether.

KODAK BRAND PROTECTION ADDRESSES THE GRAY MARKET
Kodak Security Solutions can help global enterprises reduce or potentially eliminate the issues caused by Gray market activity.  Kodak uses best-in-class consulting and technology solutions to monitor, detect and defend against this ever growing problem.  Kodak’s approach to developing an end-to-end Brand Protection Strategy includes five steps:

As a global enterprise and with experience in analyzing, developing and implementing Gray market solutions, Kodak offers companies expert consulting coupled with the application of advanced security and tracking technologies.

One example of Kodak technologies is KODAK TRACELESS AntiDiversion (AD) System.Traceless AD System is a truly invisible, antidiversion system  for pharmaceutical, consumer and industrial goods, labels and packaging, and secure documents   TRACELESS AD System can be applied by end-of-line thermal transfer or inkjet printing and provides invisible and high security serialization in the form of patterns, alpha-numerics and barcodes

http://www.graphicrepro.co.za/asp/news_long.asp?nid=18655
Kodak debuts Traceless AD System at Labelexpo
Kodak has announced the Kodak Traceless AD System for Antidiversion, a proprietary solution for manufacturers to defend against grey market activities, reported by Deloitte LLP to cost businesses billions of dollars in revenue each year. The Traceless AD System combines an invisible ink and proprietary detection system to help brands track products and prevent the creation of illegitimate distribution channels and unauthorised resellers.

Kodak’s Security Solutions product experts will demonstrate Traceless AD System at industry events, IQPC Anti-Counterfeiting & Brand Protection Conference in New York, 26 – 28 September, Pack Expo in Las Vegas, 26 – 28 September and at Labelexpo in Brussels, 28 September – 1 October.

‘Grey market activities disrupt manufacturers’ distribution channels and create artificially lowered prices, supply chain demand issues and unauthorized sales,’ said Dr. Myra T Olm, director, brand protection research and product development, Security Solutions, Kodak’s Business Solutions and Services Group. ‘These practices dilute the marketplace with fraudulent resellers and distributors that erode profit margins.’

Kodak’s Traceless AD System can be implemented for a variety of applications, including pharmaceuticals, consumer and industrial goods, labels and packaging and secure documents. Traceless AD System uses an invisible ink, formulated for most major solvent-based continuous inkjet printers. Once applied, the ink has a long, stable shelf life to ensure that the invisible code remains on the product.

‘The Traceless AD System enables manufacturers to aggressively block grey market activity through an invisible and highly protected system,’ said Olm. ‘Simply put, diverters cannot remove what they cannot see or find.’

Codes and markings are made visible only with Kodak’s proprietary viewers, readers or scanners. The system reveals specific alpha-numeric codes, barcodes and data-matrix codes chosen by the manufacturer. The special markings are not visible under any type of ultraviolet (UV) or visible illumination.

The Traceless AD System can be independently employed or used with visible serial numbers or codes and integrated into existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) or warehouse management (WMS) systems to enable track and trace capabilities. Manufacturers can also bring brand protection in-house by allowing end-of-line serialization on existing production lines.

To read more about Kodak’s Security Solutions Products and the Traceless AD System, simply Click on this link to take you to the Kodak Gray Market Security Solutions Website.

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September 29, 2011 at 8:44 AM