Exploratory Missions
Exploratory missions: understand markets before acting
Expanding into a new country, assessing risks, strengthening an anti-counterfeiting strategy, or understanding local realities requires more than assumptions or fragmented information.
Before committing significant resources, rights holders, institutions, and economic stakeholders increasingly need a clear understanding of how markets function, who the relevant actors are, what risks exist, and how operational realities differ from one jurisdiction to another.
ACTA-GM develops exploratory missions designed to provide rights holders, institutions, and partners with a practical, operational, and strategic understanding of markets across Africa, the Greater Maghreb, Europe, and the Mediterranean region.
These missions are particularly valuable when a company identifies an increase in suspicious products, considers entering a new market, experiences enforcement challenges, seeks to better understand local distribution channels, or wishes to assess the broader market environment before launching operational actions.
By combining market intelligence, regulatory understanding, stakeholder mapping, and operational analysis, ACTA-GM enables organizations to move from uncertainty to informed and actionable decision-making.
Why conduct an exploratory mission?
Exploratory missions allow stakeholders to gain practical insights before deploying enforcement programmes, expanding business operations, or investing in regional strategies.
They help organizations:
- better understand local market dynamics and realities;
- identify counterfeit risks and illicit trade patterns;
- assess both physical and digital distribution channels;
- understand operational bottlenecks and enforcement limitations;
- identify relevant stakeholders and institutional interlocutors;
- evaluate consumer awareness and purchasing behavior;
- explore preventive and awareness opportunities;
- prioritize risks and actions according to business objectives.
Rather than relying on assumptions, exploratory missions provide a structured and evidence-based understanding of the environment, helping stakeholders define realistic priorities and next steps.
Areas of assessment
Depending on the country, sector, and operational priorities, ACTA-GM may assess:
Counterfeit Risks & Illicit Trade Patterns: Identification of key areas of concern, suspicious products, illicit trade channels, parallel imports, and emerging risks affecting the market.
Physical & Digital Distribution Channels: Analysis of retail environments, marketplaces, online sales channels, social media exposure, and distribution ecosystems.
Institutional Ecosystem & Stakeholder Mapping: Identification of relevant authorities, customs administrations, ministries, intellectual property offices, regulators, universities, and operational partners.
Enforcement Environment & Operational Bottlenecks: Assessment of local enforcement realities, operational limitations, procedural challenges, and potential areas for improvement.
Regulatory & Customs Challenges: Review of applicable procedures, compliance requirements, customs risks, and market access considerations.
Consumer Awareness & Market Behaviour: Evaluation of purchasing trends, awareness levels, consumer perceptions, and vulnerabilities related to counterfeit products.
Prevention & Educational Opportunities: Exploration of awareness initiatives, sector-based prevention strategies, training opportunities, and public-private cooperation mechanisms.
Indicative methodology
Each exploratory mission is tailored according to the country, sector, product category, and operational objectives of the rights holder.
Depending on the mission scope, ACTA-GM may follow a methodology including:
1. Preliminary Review & Information Gathering: Analysis of available information, market context, sector risks, and operational concerns.
2. Definition of Scope & Geography: Identification of the relevant target country, cities, sectors, and product categories.
3. Stakeholder Identification: Mapping of relevant interlocutors, institutions, enforcement bodies, and operational stakeholders.
4. Field Observations (Where Feasible): Collection of practical observations and market insights to better understand local realities.
5. Risk Assessment & Prioritization: Identification of priority risks, vulnerabilities, and operational bottlenecks.
6. Strategic Recommendations & Roadmap: Development of practical recommendations and possible next steps adapted to the rights holder’s objectives.
Deliverables
Following the mission, ACTA-GM may provide an executive report including:
- country and market context;
- priority risks and key observations;
- typologies of distribution channels;
- stakeholder and institutional mapping;
- preliminary findings and practical insights;
- operational recommendations;
- awareness and enforcement opportunities;
- proposed follow-up options and strategic roadmap.
Our objective is simple: understand before acting, prioritize before investing, and build smarter strategies based on local realities rather than assumptions.