Secto Design sells light fixtures in over 80 countries. Protecting their brand and verification of authenticity are Secto Design’s ways of combating replicas. Customers can verify a product’s authenticity using Starcke’s hologram.
– My recommendation to all young designers is to protect your products, says Tuula Jusélius.
She knows what she’s talking about. Jusélius built Secto Design into a successful brand together with designer Seppo Koho. During the past decade or so, Jusélius’ team has pulled over 20,000 Secto Design replicas from the market, won over a dozen lawsuits and received hundreds of tips from consumers who have found replicas of Secto Design’s products all over in the world.
– We are doing our part to fight forgery. We cooperate with international organizations that protect brand rights and support genuine design. It is important to us to speak on behalf of Finnish craftsmanship, says Jusélius.
Protecting brands with Starcke
Secto Design’s light fixtures are efficiently protected against forgery. Since 2017, each genuine Secto lamp has been marked using Starcke’s hologram. Products that don’t have one are not authentic.
– Our products already had various protective measures. Thanks to Starcke, we were able to provide consumers a way to recognize genuine products. This was an essential addition to protecting our brand since it’s important for consumers to be able to verify a product’s authenticity for themselves.
Forgers can copy everything else down to the typos in our manuals, but not our unique hologram.
The hologram also enables customs control.
– Forgers can copy everything down to the typos in our manuals, but not our unique hologram. The hologram allows customs to verify if a product is a genuine Secto or a replica.
Jusélius admits she was not aware of the possibilities of tracking products before beginning cooperation with Starcke.
– We were fortunate to have Starcke contact us and explain these things to us. Even though we had already protected our brand well, we didn’t have a way for consumers to verify authenticity. That’s when Starcke stepped up with an excellent solution.
The cruel reality of forgeries
During her career, Jusélius has seen all kinds of attempts to copy and replicate products.
– One time, I hired a Chinese-speaking student, whose job was to browse Chinese websites. Various sites had used our pictures and one description said that the light fixture might look different from pictures.
We consider it important to inform customers that a real Secto product can be recognized from the hologram.
We consider it important to inform customers that a real Secto product can be recognized from the hologram.
At worst, scammers steal the original products’ pictures and use them to market their replicas illegally.
– Even if the pictures were their own and the product looked good in them, the customer will nonetheless receive a light fixture whose quality is not up to our standard. If the customer doesn’t realize that the product is a copy, our brand image suffers. That’s why it’s important to us to inform customers that a real Secto product can be recognized from the hologram, says Jusélius.
She has also talked to young designers about the risks of forgery, and how to protect one’s products and brand.
– Forgers might visit trade fairs and show great interest in a new product. They take pictures and might even order a copy. This is exciting to a young designer, until a cheap copy of their product appears on the market. The copy is almost impossible to compete with unless the original product has been protected. Unique designs and careful quality control are not enough. You also need official protection for your models.
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