Marketing
What is The Gray Market, and How to Protect Against it?
The gray market, gray economy, and gray securities. Here we are talking about gray market products rather than gray securities or the gray economy.

Three things could be confused with one another: the gray market, gray economy, and gray securities. Here we are talking about gray market products rather than gray securities or the gray economy. Gray securities are shares of a corporation traded before being publicly distributed. At the same time, the gray economy is made of assets and services that elude state taxation.
1. So, what is the gray market?
Anti-counterfeit items that are sold legitimately but outside sanctioned distribution ways are called gray market goods. It hurts the brand and violates the intellectual property protection of any business. The gray market includes everything from vehicles and cameras to software and medicines. The gray market has been running for a long time. To quickly explain it, let’s take a more straightforward example.
The first thing that a manufacturer or brand does is sell a product to a distributor. After that, the distributor sells it to accredited retail shops. Subsequently, those outlets sell the product to buyers. Although this might be a way to sell anti-counterfeit items, it still hurts a brand. In a perfect system, the precise quantity of products would be produced and put up for retail, hoping that the public would purchase all of it.
Nevertheless, the reality is a bit different. If a merchant or retailer is left with surplus or old stock, they can sell it at slashed rates to other traders. This violates intellectual property protection, but some merchants still chose to sell surplus stock to such dealers.
These traders later market the store to the public at further discounted prices. And it is way easier to fool the public because unauthorized sellers often look the same to customers as authorized sellers. The only noticeable contrast is lower costs. But these traders can’t provide company warranties. And some of the products might not satisfy regulatory criteria for the country in which they are being sold.
Sometimes the brands or distributors supply the gray market themselves. However, brands usually refrain from doing so as it hurts their reputation and helps those retailers who sell counterfeit items.
2. How to protect against the gray market?
The first step is to identify unapproved dealers. Knowing who is running the gray market is the key to stopping them. And the best way to monitor the gray market dealers is to look for the products at lower prices than the official retailers or sites. For brands, they must watch the MAP of the products. Most of the MAP violators are often connected to the gray market.
Secondly, the brands must educate their consumers about the official stores’ sites. While advertising and marketing products, the brands can easily throw in the knowledge and importance of buying the products from original and authorized stores and locations. Consumer education helps offline and online brand protection, allows customers to purchase anti-counterfeit and authentic products, and gives the customer a warranty.
If the brand spots gray market retailers, they can send a cease-and-desist letter. It serves as a prelude for the subsequent legal actions that the brand can take in case the dealer doesn’t stop selling unsanctioned products. The brands can take legal steps because they violate intellectual property protection and MAP violations, including many other offenses.
Business
How Music Can Impact Your Customers’ Experiences Grocery Stores
As people are heavily influenced by music, it is important that, as a grocery store owner, you get the type of music right in your store. Why? Read on to find out!

There’s a lot that goes into sales in any store. The people in the store, the store’s layout, the lighting, the color scheme, and, of course, the music.
If you were to walk into a grocery store and there was no music playing, it would be unnerving, to say the least, and there is a reason why. When most people think of music playing in a store, they think of the general type of music and link it to the products in the store.
As people are heavily influenced by music, it is important that, as a grocery store owner, you get the type of music right in your store. Why? Read on to find out!
Table of Contents
1. Increase Sales
Research has found that the right kind of music will boost sales. It is true!
The most successful grocery stores use familiar-sounding background music to promote sales, and there is a reason why- it works! Music for business is not a new area, and having a set playlist is better than simply putting it on the radio. When customers hear music that is familiar, they will feel relaxed, and when they feel relaxed, they are more likely to purchase items.
2. Reduction In Complaints
Nobody likes complaints, especially in retail. It has once again been found that those familiar tunes which you can play in your supermarket have been linked to a reduction in complaints being made.
It has also been shown to impact how customers assess their time in the store. For instance, one study found that customers who were waiting and were surrounded by unfamiliar music described the store as being dirtier, the staff being ruder, and the waiting times being longer. In the same market setting, a set of customers who had familiar music being played reported, well, the opposite!
3. Impulse Purchases
The tempo of the music can impact the behavior of the buyers in your grocery store.
Ever wonder why faster-paced music is played around the holidays? This is why! Studies have found that when it comes to playing faster-paced music, shoppers were more likely to make more impulsive buys, upping sales in the store.
4. Brand Promotion
There is a reason why when you go into a higher-end grocery store, they are playing more classically themed music. Or, when you go into a grocery store that is full of health-based products, there is a reason why they usually play more relaxed music.
They are trying to build an association with their brand. So, if you are looking for the right kind of music to play in your grocery store, think about what it is that you sell. For generic grocery stores, something like easy listening or happy music will usually work to help get customers feeling good and relaxed enough to buy produce.
5. Atmosphere
You want to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere in your supermarket. One of the easiest ways to do that is with music, as even if the customers aren’t aware of the type of music that is playing consciously, they will still hear it and be impacted by it. In short, softer, happier music prompts relaxation and helps up general purchases, and, as before, faster music prompts impulse buys.
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