Here’s Kellogg’s idea: Stamp our counterfeiters by literally stamping its logo onto its authentic Corn Flakes. According to Kellogg’s, the new technology enables the firm - which makes 67 million boxes of Corn Flakes every year - to burn the famous signature onto individual flakes using lasers, giving them a stamp of authenticity if you will.
And here’s the company’s plan: Kellogg's intends to produce a number of one-off trial batches of the branded flakes to test the system. And then company executives will consider inserting a proportion of branded flakes into each box to guarantee the cereal's origins and protect against imitation products. If the system is successful, it could be used on Kellogg's other well-loved brands, including Frosties, Special K, Crunchy Nut and Bran Flakes.
How does the technology work? Laser-etching food technology has been around since at least 2005, when Time magazine recognised the inventor of "fruit tattoos." In this case:
- The laser uses a concentrated beam of light which focuses the energy within the beam, down to a very small spot on the Corn Flake.
- Mirror galvanometers are then used to steer the beam creating multiple vectors that reflect the laser from different angles and ultimately make up the image.
- The energy density within the laser spot diameter is sufficient enough to give the surface of the flake a darker, toasted appearance without changing the taste.
The company has a lot of reasons to protect its Corn Flakes brand, not the least of them the significant rise in the sales of Kellogg's Corn Flakes in 2009 – a rise attributed to the fact that today’s shoppers with limited budgets are opting for recognized, reliable brands. According to a company statement, a staggering 128 billion bowls of Kellogg's Corn Flakes are consumed worldwide every year in countries as far afield as Guatemala, Japan, Argentina and India. An incredible 2.8 million bowls of Kellogg's Corn Flakes are eaten in the UK alone everyday - that's one billion a year. The firm's Manchester factory is also the biggest Corn Flake production line in the world and churns out cereals 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
With such a huge stake in the cereal market - and with the increase in the number of other brands trying to capitalize on the popularity of Kellogg's corn flakes – the company wanted to make sure that consumers know that Kellogg’s makes cereals only for Kellogg’s – and not for any other company. Thus, the “branding project” – an attempt to fire the first shot across the bows of counterfeiters and a step towards giving its golden flakes an “official stamp of approval.”
According to Helen Lyons, lead food technologist at the company, ''…We've established that it is possible to apply a logo or image onto food, now we need to see if there is a way of repeating it on large quantities of our cereal...''
Kellogg's Corn Flakes - the first cereal to land on the moon and the breakfast of choice for the crew onboard Apollo 11. Reason enough to protect the brand and pull out all stops to ensure that they’re not counterfeited.