As manufacturers such as Cisco and Pfizer know, it can take decades of delivering high-quality products and excellent service to build the type of brand equity that translates into customer loyalty and the reward of premium pricing.
But that hard-earned brand equity can be ruined overnight if poor quality, counterfeit goods with your company’s name on them start turning up in the market. The result is not only a devalued brand, but also lost revenue — lots of lost revenue. Counterfeit goods cost U.S. manufacturers about $250 billion annually, according to the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition trade group.
That’s where New Momentum comes in. The start-up company offers a SaaS-based tool that lets manufacturers search eBay and other Web sites in search of knock-off goods being sold under their label. Manufacturers, including Qualcomm, Cisco, and Pfizer, use the service to locate counterfeit goods and to track down sellers who threaten to undermine their indirect sales channels.
“The product pulls in information that can tell you what counterfeit products are being sold, where they’re being sold, and for how much they are being sold around the world,” says Mark Howlett, the company’s president and chief operating officer.
The service is based on proprietary search engine technology that is tuned to look for information such as product discount pricing. The tool also removes duplicates from returned information.
So far, New Momentum, which launched in 2005 but started actively marketing its service only nine months ago, has attracted 12 customers. They are primarily in electronics, pharmaceuticals, and apparel, verticals frequently hard-hit by counterfeiting. Cisco, for example, uses New Momentum to find and prosecute counterfeiters. It also uses the service to procure counterfeit products. It then analyzes those products and uses what it has learned to harden new designs against counterfeiting, according to Phil Wright, Cisco’s managing director for brand protection.
Other customers use information obtained through the New Momentum service to initiate product seizures and other enforcement activity by U.S. Customs, Howlett says.
New Momentum is now looking at addressing risks beyond counterfeiting. Soon the company will launch a search-based service that allows manufacturers to more thoroughly investigate potential suppliers with an eye toward reducing risk, Howlett says.
Data Points
Year founded: 2005