Terrorists, product tampering

What was once a terrorist-style, random crime led to innovative and effective product protection. Not only is safety of a product important when reducing products liability, so is the design of packaging. Designers must consider ways in which someone can access edible or other kinds of products and prevent tampering before the products reach consumers. 

The pltysical security measures taken by firms to secure their operations are often cited as an effective method of not only reducing the threat of terrorist incidents, but also reducing theft. Theft is a major concern for firms for many reasons. First, theft obviously represents an opportunity cost in that the firm is robbed of the ability to sell the stolen product to customers. However, firms should also be concerned about the brand equity imphcations of product theft. Stolen product can be tampered with and then resold. This is a significant problem with food items that are subsequently ingested by consumers. Should this tampered product be resold and consumed, the producing firm is likely to be held liable. Further, stolen product can be resold for below market value. This may lead the consumers of that product to perceive it as cheap, thus damaging a firm s ability to market its product as a premium good. 

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