Biogency
Jimmy Tang, Sales and Marketing Director, Biogency
A healthy partnership: Laava’s strength is Biogency’s protection
Laava® is about to enter the third year of its commercial partnership with Australian premium nutraceutical manufacturer and exporter, Biogency Pty Ltd, with Laava Smart Fingerprints® featuring on seven products in the Biogency range.
The partnership began as a way to help protect this premium brand and patented product formulations from copycats and fakes. It evolved into an integrated consumer engagement strategy supported by influencers on social media platforms in Biogency’s target markets. And when a counterfeit inevitably did appear? Thanks to Laava’s technology, Biogency was able to shut down the counterfeit attempts and quickly warn consumers that their product may not be authentic. Read our case study to learn more.
Biogency approached Laava in 2020, looking for a brand protection solution that offered stronger security than the QR codes used by their competitors and emulators. The aim was to protect the innovative business from counterfeiters and establish a visible mark of trust capable of readily distinguishing the genuine article from fakes. At the same time, Biogency wished to highlight to consumers its commitment to authenticity and safety, as part of a strategy to continue to strengthen consumer loyalty.
Sales and Marketing Director, Jimmy Tang, was also dealing with a challenging economic and political environment, including issues with supply chains and rising costs. It was essential that Biogency stand out from the crowd, with an integrated solution that would drive a clear return on investment and build brand value. “Our counterfeit issue now is minimal as a result of our partnership with Laava,” Jimmy said.
The presence of a secure brand protection strategy acted as a strong deterrent to counterfeiters. However, when a counterfeit product did inevitably appear, Biogency was able to move quickly to protect its customers – and its brand.
“A customer who had seen the Biogency posts about our work with Laava noticed that two of their bottles had the same Fingerprint and the same serial number. The customer got in touch,” Jimmy said.
“Laava immediately shut down that Fingerprint so that anyone scanning it would be notified that the product was not genuine. That single Fingerprint had been reproduced and used multiple times on more than one product.
“Our actions prevented consumers from using those fakes, which could have been dangerous. Who knows what was in the tablets in the counterfeit bottles?”
Moving at pace to get results fast
Before Biogency contacted Laava, they had read case studies showcasing the Laava technology in real world applications. They went on to conduct their own tests from their Sydney headquarters, printing sample Smart Fingerprints from our website to test various size and layout configurations.
“Biogency approached our first meeting knowing exactly what they wanted and confident in Laava’s ability to deliver. From the time of the first meeting to the first sample Fingerprints on Biogency’s new bottle labels was only a few short weeks.”
- 2020: Laava Smart Fingerprints and a strong CTA were incorporated into the existing label design on bottles of Synext, shortly followed by Piliant and VMan.
- 2021: Biogency continued to protect Synext and Piliant, with re-orders for new product batches. Fingerprints were also printed digitally directly on boxes containing Synext sachets. The Biogency range was expanded to include Beauty Skin, Synext Lite and Bonefits, all of which featured secure, scannable Fingerprints.
- 2022: Biogency re-ordered Fingerprints for all products, after seeing a demonstrable increase in sales as trust for Biogency products flourished with the Smart Fingerprints.
- 2023: Biogency launched further products featuring Laava Smart Fingerprints and introduced further Laava features. Together we identified grey market activity and counterfeit products in the marketplace and consequently warned consumers.
Biogency’s initial objective was to deal with copycats and counterfeit products in its major export markets.
Consumers who were loyal to the Biogency brand had been unwittingly buying copycat products: the bottles looked to be Biogency branded, but there was no way for consumers to distinguish the real items from fakes, or to know the ingredients were effective or even safe.
What started as a brand protection exercise evolved quickly into a unique sales proposition for Biogency. “We became aware that Laava’s reliable and special authentication technology added extra value to our brand,” said Biogency Sales and Marketing Director, Jimmy Tang.
“Laava helps us build a stronger, more reputable image. Our customers find it interesting to scan the Laava code – it’s a great experience with a great outcome for them. We prefer to provide our customers with an authentication tool that is safe and secure.”
Biogency customers can choose to scan their products from either Laava.id or Laava’s WeChat mini-program. Laava also offers customers the ability to scan from the brand’s own website – something for later consideration at Biogency. For now, Biogency prefer the independent and secure feeling that comes from being connected with the Laava authentication brand.
For absolute confidence, we deployed a multi-layered approach incorporating a suite of tools:
- secure, scannable Laava Smart Fingerprints for every item of production
- the ability to match the batch number on the packaging with the batch number on the results screen
- the iconic Australian Made logo on the labels and results screens.
“Every time we demonstrate our Laava function to a new customer or distributor, it’s a ‘WOW’ moment. The uniqueness adds brand value and is a strong marketing sales point for us. Ultimately, Biogency stands out from other brands that use traditional QR codes.”
Jimmy Tang, Sales and Marketing Director, Biogency
Biogency knew that counterfeit activity was damaging their brand and putting their customers at risk. What they didn’t know was the origin and location of the copycat products. Using Laava’s intelligent rules engine, Biogency was able to quickly identify and shutdown the copied products. Consumers could scan the Laava Fingerprint on the bottles and be assured that it was a genuine Biogency product.
Biogency also knew they had a grey market problem but had no way of identifying the source. Laava’s data analytics tools and geolocation rules helped Biogency to identify the grey market activity. Knowledge of the source meant Biogency could quickly take action. In turn, the evidence empowered Biogency to protect its distributors and their network, ensuring the value of the Biogency products was maintained.
“With Laava’s brand protection system in place, we had a very straightforward way for us to identify the counterfeit, react quickly, and respond to protect our valued customers.”
Jimmy Tang, Sales and Marketing Director, Biogency
So far, about 2.7 million Biogency products featuring Laava Smart Fingerprints are in markets such as mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore and Malaysia. Biogency is also sold online from its own website, and via Amazon.
Because of its marketing strategy and ongoing education campaign conducted on social media platforms, Biogency’s customers began posting about their scan experience. The public WeChat campaign resulted in 40,000 views; the audiences also created thousands of likes, comments and shares across Instagram, Little Red Book and TikTok.
To see the engaging posts created by Biogency’s influencers in their target market, visit Laava’s Instagram profile and tap the Story Highlights button called Laava In Use.
Jimmy Tang, Sales and Marketing Director, Biogency
Customer and partner collaborations
Social media influencers
Biogency engaged influencers such as Jessie Li and Stephanie Hunt to talk to their audiences about the products’ benefits, as well as how to verify their authenticity by scanning the Laava Smart Fingerprint on the bottle.
“It’s more secure to use the Laava web scanner or the WeChat mini-program, as opposed to just using the camera on my phone to scan the codes. The results screen is also very informative. It helps me understand more about the products and the Biogency brand.”
Biogency customer
Australian Made
The Australian Made, Australian Grown (AMAG) logo supports growers, processors and manufacturers in Australia by helping businesses to clearly identify to consumers that their products are Australian. As an Australian Made, Australian Grown member, Laava was pleased to align and combine the powerful benefits of Laava’s digital on-product verification with Australia’s most trusted, recognised and widely used country of origin symbol, to bolster its assurance of quality to Biogency customers.
MCC Label
A global supplier of premium label solutions, Laava partner MCC Label delivered the engaging labels for Biogency’s packaging, expertly incorporating the Laava Smart Fingerprint and compelling call to action inviting consumers to scan. Laava Smart Fingerprints are seamlessly integrated into Biogency’s main bottle wrap-around label and carton, making production deployment easy, with no technology or production line changes required.
In the news
PKN Packaging News: Laava Smart Fingerprints fight pharma fakes
Play PKN Packaging News: Biogency and Laava at AUSPACK
7 News Australia: Supplement Synext and how to beat the signs of ageing
Read more on Laava’s LinkedIn feed – as it happened.
Announcing Laava’s partnership with Biogency
How Biogency, with TGA and Australia Made Campaign, protects its nutraceuticals
VMAN hits the shelves: how Laava is playing a part
Biogency partners with Laava to protect Beauty Skin
Laava helps protect Biogency’s nutraceutical product: Bonefits
Biogency advocates in Australia, China and South-East Asia have become champions of Laava as well
Laava Smart Fingerprints deployed to protect Biogency’s Synext Lite
Unique, scannable Laava Smart Fingerprints now appear across most of Biogency’s range
Ready to discuss your business needs with our team?
Would you like to learn more about how your business can actively combat counterfeiters in the health and wellness space? With Laava’s secure connected packaging solution, you can not only protect but also enhance your brand reputation (and your revenue!). For more information, read our blog post, Fighting the pharma fakes: Laava tackles a global problem.
Share
Still have questions?
Read our FAQs for more information. Start a conversation via our LiveChat or contact the Laava Customer Support team.
