Pro Original – „Choose the Original – Choose Succes“ – A new VDMA campaign

Original technology pays off: That’s the core message of a new VDMA campaign presented at the opening of Hannover Messe. With the slogan “Choose the Original – Choose Success” the Federation and its member address potential customers in order to fight the counterfeiting industry and the violation of intellectual property rights

IThe campaign makes obvious that it is in the very interest of every buyer to invest in original technology. In cooperation with Marianne Friese Consulting ( MFC – a strategy and communication consulting agency) in Beijing, VDMA developed a campaign focusing on the advantages of original machines which on the one hand affirms customers who already took a purchase decision and on the other hand convinces potential buyers. The campaign logo, showing three interwoven Cs, stands for copyright, the protection of intellectual property. It symbolizes a finger print representing the individual and distinctive character of the original.

The campaign is based on five main arguments for original machines and equipment: quality, innovation, efficiency, experience and safety. VDMA, its members and its branch associations integrate the campaign logo and the slogan as well as the main arguments in their daily communication in order to spread the campaign to a broad scale. VDMA member companies are invited to get access to campaign material via www.vdma.org/original and to use it for company specific-purposes.

The mechanical engineering industry is driven by technology which makes the protection of intellectual property vital for existence. It is only by rewarding company investments for innovation that a fruitful economic base for investments can be offerted.

A recent VDMA study has revealed that counterfeiting affects two thirds of all German member companies and that all sectors and production levels of the mechanical engineering industry are involved. Sixty per cent of all participants in the study indicated the complete machinery had been counterfeited, 42 per cent declared that spare parts were copied and 41 per cent said the same about single components.