A system (100) and a method for marking a product (10) utilize an encoding that specifies the presence or absence of each of a plurality of luminescent materials, at least one of which exhibits a predetermined decay behavior. The decay behavior of a plurality of different materials is detected, and based thereon the presence or absence of the luminescent materials is inferred. A corresponding encoding specifies whether or not the respective materials are present. In this way, different encodings can be associated in advance with different properties of the product (10). The luminescent materials that specify the associated encoding can be applied to the product (10) as a mark (20) in accordance with a determined property of the product (10).