Philips has launched a “Buy Original” campaign to highlight the existence of counterfeit products in Ghana and West Africa and to empower consumers.
The campaign, which kicked-off in Kenya in October 2014 and will move across West Africa throughout the month of June 2015, is an informative multi-year outreach aimed at protecting consumers, creating awareness about counterfeit products in the market and educating consumers in identifying an original genuine product versus a counterfeit one.
A statement by Philips revealed that in Africa, counterfeit products are posing serious concerns especially for local economies and brands who have worked hard to build reputation and consumer confidence in their markets thus “Philips wants to put consumers in a position that they are confident that they are purchasing an original Philips product,” the statement said.
Mr. Felix Darko who is the General Manager of Lighting, Philips West Africa said that the company wants to work with consumers, government authorities, and other organizations to enlighten and inform the consumers on matters relating to counterfeiting.
“We urge the public to become more vigilant…We would like to encourage consumers to shop from approved Philips distributors and retailers and look for the ‘Original’ security holographic sticker on our products,” he added.
The statement showed that per Philips’ internal research, the best performing products where consumer demand is high tends to fall prey to counterfeits including: dry irons, kettles, blenders, Philips AVENT baby bottles and certain lighting products such as TLD (tubes), starters, energy saving lamps such as Genie lamps, halogen lamps and fluorescent tubes.
According to the statement, a number of Philips lamps (lighting products) sold are counterfeits and this poses a threat to consumers in Ghana and other countries.
Through the campaign, Philips will introduce an innovative hologram security stickers (for lamps), provide a unique 16 digit code validation code for all Philips Lighting products, as well as the “original” sticker for their consumer lifestyle and lighting products to enable consumers to easily identify originals.
A comprehensive Point-of-Sale (in store) , media led customer education programme and an extensive print and radio advertisement campaign is supporting the “Buy Original” campaign.
“The Philips ‘Buy Original’ campaign will not only allow consumers to easily identify a Philips original but empower them to take the necessary steps in reducing counterfeit trading in the country,” added Felix Darko.
By: Selassie A. Amissah Mensah /citifmonline.com/Ghana