Pop-culture print pioneers find their brand-protection hero

“If you want to have the ultimate protection of your brand on Amazon, get Project Zero.”

Jamal Aoun
Marketplace Director, Popfunk

Going where the fans go

Popfunk has been satisfying the pop-culture penchants of customers across the globe with a super-star line up of on-demand merchandise since 2007. With over 1,000 licences under their belt, they’ve adorned items such as T-shirts and hoodies with a staggering array of fan-favourite images, logos and more. From Friends and Harry Potter to Pink Floyd, Jurassic Park and Sesame Street, they’ve licensed some of the biggest names in pop-culture and sports.

Though initially only selling to brick-and-mortar retailers, the brand made the decision to open up their sales channels, adopting the mantra “to go where the fans go”. That meant finding hot new franchises and old favourites and bringing them straight to the people.

And that’s just what they did—harnessing Amazon’s incredible reach and technology to connect customers with the worlds, characters and stories they love most through authentic and high-quality products.

Great licences, great responsibility

Where there are heroes, there will always be bad actors. Licensing some of the biggest names in television, film, comics, music, sports, collegiate and more makes Popfunk’s products prone to counterfeiting of their registered trademarks and those of their licensing partners.

Protecting their intellectual property was a priority for the business. Popfunk was concerned that the low-quality counterfeits would generate poor customer reviews, potentially turn customers away from their products, or hit their bottom line.

“At the end of last year, there was a spike of other sellers using Jaws and Jurassic Park designs that weren’t our listings but had our exact content. They were bad actors using our listings and trademarks for half the price,” says Jamal Aoun, Marketplace Director at Popfunk.

Fortunately, there was a solution to help Popfunk as brand owners strike back.

Resolving issues in an instant

Protecting its brand from counterfeiters has been a priority for Popfunk since day one. When the company first started selling on Amazon, it used the Report a Violation tool. After the business became eligible for Project Zero, it began reporting claims through the self-service counterfeit removal tool.
LOCATION
Madison Heights, MI, US
INDUSTRY
Apparel, Fashion
AMAZON LAUNCH
2016
BRAND PROTECTION TOOLS
Amazon Brand Registry

Amazon Project Zero
Project Zero has made our lives easier by giving us the power to take down infringing products ourselves. Within minutes of reporting the bad actors, we would receive a notice of successful takedown.
Jamal AounMarketplace Director, Popfunk

Flagging fakes

The first step Popfunk took was to enrol in Amazon Brand Registry and use the Report a Violation tool to search for counterfeit listings. While Amazon swiftly investigated and removed infringing content reported, the Popfunk team still had to wait for Amazon to finish its investigation and provide a decision on their submissions after Popfunk had already invested time and resources to effectively monitor their vast catalogue.

“Our team would use their downtime to check the first few pages of results and determine who was counterfeiting our products then report them.”

Credits roll

Project Zero has proven to be a real game-changer for Popfunk’s business. By eliminating listings from unscrupulous counterfeiters, Popfunk ensures that their customers receive authentic products, have a great experience and can trust that they’re receiving the real deal, every time.

It’s also giving the Popfunk team more time to focus on growing their business, instead of just chasing down counterfeit listings.

And, for a business focused on growth, it’s also providing another major benefit: helping Popfunk win more licences and further expand their ever-growing list of products.

“I have to speak to our licensing partners. Having a perfectly responsive tool at our disposal to deal with infringement is incredibly powerful and confidence-building, because we have that level of responsiveness. Project Zero is a massive advantage.”

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