New campaign against counterfeiting

As you can well imagine, counterfeiting in just about anything is a huge global business that rakes in hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Counterfeiting is popular because it caters to people who want to save money. That in itself isn't a bad thing; don't we all want to buy cheap things?

 

The problem with counterfeiting is that it's illegal and the main issue counterfeiting has against it would be safety. Legally made products often adhere to national standards about materials that are acceptable for human use. For example, if a watch had lead in it, it wouldn't be safe for you. Counterfeits are not subject to such rigour, meaning that they could be dangerous in addition to being illegal.

 

However, the prime target of the new campaign launched by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie and the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry is the consumer. There is an understanding that counterfeiting is an old problem and will probably not be eradicated in our lifetimes, but efforts can be made to dissuade people from buying fake watches.

 

The premise is that counterfeiting is bad for the real watchmakers because they have to spend money and resources defending their brands against cheap knockoffs that leech away some of their market share. In turn, this distracts them from their real job which is to make quality watches.

 

While the new campaign is laudable, price will always be the principal consideration for most buyers. The sad reality is that most people who buy watches do not do so because of the skill that has gone into the watchmaking; the price is simply right. As a result, if an ordinary person on a budget had to choose between an authentic Rolex Submariner and a fake one that looked identical, the individual would probably buy the fake without hesitation.

 

For this reason, it is doubtful that a campaign aimed at making people feel bad about themselves if they buy a fake will work. Watchmakers who pride themselves on being exclusive should focus some attention on coming up with value brands that will appeal to the demographic they are trying to reach. Only through economics will they achieve their objective of reducing counterfeiting.