When things are not what they seem.

When globalisation started to ramp up three decades ago, we created a whole new brandscape. When we offshored capability, our relationship with products and services changed. Brands acted as though nothing much had changed. The Mac I am typing this on still carries Western branding messages, even though it is manufactured in the East, and the same is true for most of the consumer products we buy. There is nothing wrong with this, as long as brands are honest and we are aware of the choices we make.

Twenty-five years ago, my job involved designing and producing devices that prevented counterfeiting by making provenance and authenticity visible. One of my abiding memories was when we were prosecuting a counterfeiter in the luxury goods sector whose defence was that his product was perfect; it was the brand that was counterfeit. I remember thinking at the time he may have had a point.

Counterfeit Goods represent around 3.5% of global trade (nearly double that for the EU). If counterfeit we…