Bathmate against fake products sold within Russia and abroad

The articles published on such industrial portals as XBIZ, EAN, ETO say that the fake products were detected during a specific raid conducted within the open-sale sector in China. The illicit products were eliminated and the company that was selling them was imposed a significant fine. After the raid was finished, Tim Brown, the brand manager of Bathmate claimed: 'We are delightful to see the results the raid brought in and we are warning everyone who wants to profit using our brand's name: we will chase and catch you! This year, we are going to spend more than £100 thousand in order to jail you!'

Igor Gerasimov is now telling about the state of affairs in Russia.

I can tell you about the our practice to fight counterfeiting here. The first method implies making undercover buys. We've got some mystery shoppers: all across Russia, Ukraine, the CIS. Nowadays, it is not so hard to find people who can make a purchase. Besides, I myself travel to visit the countries of the CIS telling about our goods. If I come across a fake product (or the data about the latter are reported by the mystery shoppers), so, first of all, the company turns to the directors asking them if they are informed or not of the fact that non-original items are sold in their shop.

I tell them about the difference between the original and the fake goods. As a rule, the original appearance is copied with high mastery. But in other respects, the toy is not able to fulfil those functions the original product can fulfil, so, the clients who happened to buy this non-original pump will not be able to enjoy any good results. We've got feedback client service. They presumably buy an original piece, at the original toy's price, use "our product" during about nine months, but in conclusion they can't get any good results. Then, the clients write at our official website that they found no effect while using the hydro pump. We ask them to send us some photos of the latter and we immediately notice that piece is far from the original one. We tell the clients they had bought a fake product, providing a list of the stores that sell original products only.

If their receipt is not lost, we make either undercover buys on our own or turn to our mysterious shoppers. The choice between the two options depends on whether the product had been bought online or in an offline shop.

If the fake selling is confirmed, at first the management receives a warning about the counterfeiting. At times, the managers are unaware of the situation, they could have got this merchandise labelled as an original item. The director is then acquainted with the original item's advantages and its difference from a fake item. First, the original piece is provided with a service guarantee of two years. Second, the result is guaranteed if the product is used regularly. Third, to make original hydro pumps, a specific stuff is used-a high impact plastic by Lexan. It can't get broken or cracked, it serves to make bullet-proof panels, aircraft windows and other highly-resistant things. Finally, a fake pump is not able to provide the same amount of pressure the original one can.

In case the store's management decides to continue selling the counterfeit products, a warning about copyright infringement (patent) and the following appeal to the Court based on the undercover buy's report. At the Moscow office of the company, a group of lawyers is joined together, they control the brand and all the data for solving the issue in court are passed on to them. However, more frequently, the stores don't let the situation come to the point of requiring legal proceedings and they just stop working with fake items, they either start selling original ones or simply refuse to deal with that particular range of goods. If a shop was once caught selling fake items, it is inscribed in the list for repeated control in a while.

Next step to fight the counterfeiting is the product re-branding. It has a number of aims. The first one is to make the product name look and sound easier for the consumer. For example, the former product name was Hydromax X 20, X 30, X 40, these numbers didn’t use to bring any significant information to the customer. From now on, Hydromax X 20 will be called Hydromax 5. Here, the number 5 means ‘five inches’, so to say, it indicates the maximum penis' length this model is suitable for. If a hydro pump is called Hydromax 7, it is also equal to the maximum length in inches. It will be easier for a client to select a pump's size when its name includes some information about the erected penis' maximum length.

The second aim is to make the counterfeit manufacturing more difficult through changing the package design. From now and then, the color of the package’s inner side will correspond to the amount of pressure the pump creates. For example, the box of the weakest baseline model will be yellow inside, that of a more powerful model will be orange, and that of the strongest one will be red. The companies making fake items are unlikely to notice such details. In any case, this policy will save some time before the details are discovered and used making fake pieces.

All Bathmate ‘s distributors should test their origin in case of any doubts. The company will be grateful for any help to fight the counterfeiting.

Everyone who desires to start working with our products is invited to the free trainings, and every shop that orders six or more pumps from any of our distributors will get the videos on how to use the product and some specialty displays to be installed at the cash desk zone-a good tip to boost sales.

For any questions you can write directly to my e-mail address igor@bathmatedirect.com