Those doctored logos you see online are funny...unless it's yours. A new digital brand management service helps you protect your eBiz image.
Lots of e-tailers never imagine doing business on a national or global scale when they set up shop on the Internet — but they don't call it the World Wide Web for nothing. While easy access to broad markets breeds success, it also increases your exposure, which in turn, may result in threats to your company's brand.
And, even if you're not selling to international markets, it's hard to monitor malicious activity by competitors who don't necessarily live overseas. To that end, NameProtect, a digital brand management company, just announced the availability of its Brand Aware Report. The new service provides a one-time snapshot of online activity posing an immediate threat to a company's brand.
For $1,000, the Brand Aware report uses NameProtect's proprietary technology to evaluate occurrences of online abuse such as trademark infringement, trademark dilution, domain name abuse, traffic diversion, brand disparagement, offensive content pertaining to your site and false affiliations and endorsements. The company's analysts then provide remedial recommendations.
"Cybercrime continues to escalate and become ever so sophisticated, endangering the very life of brands online. And Mom-and-Pop shops are now conducting business worldwide, which changes the scope of what they need to protect," said Malia Horine, general manager of digital brand management services for NameProtect. "Our new report allows any company, small or global, to receive a complete picture of how their treasured brand is doing and take immediate action if necessary. Why not let the experts do the leg work?"
The report is delivered online so Web shop owners simply log on and enter a password to view the results, which contain clickable examples of any malfeasance. It is conducted using NameProtect's proprietary Web crawling engine that indexes, mines and filters the information from a variety of sources. These include: visible and hidden Web page text such as HTML and meta tags, images and visual content, e-mails, UseNet discussion groups, online auction sites and global domain names.
Detour: Diverting Your Traffic
One classic example of foul play of which a Web shop owner may not even be aware, says Horine, is traffic diversion. Competitors can manipulate meta data so consumers think they are clicking to your site, but instead, get detoured to another one that will generally contain language persuading them to stay and check out whatever is being offered. "They're using your good name to divert traffic to their site," she says, "and you lose a sale." And there is classic domain-name abuse, such as putting a brand name in a title for a page with quite a different agenda. For example, the breakfast cereal Cheerios was used in a page posted by an anti-abortion group. Brand dilution also happens when people poke fun at your company title or products by posting doctored images. Be Aware of Affiliates
E-tailers also need to keep an eye on affiliates, says Horine. "There's been huge growth in this area and often partners are framing your site, logo or product incorrectly, are offering unauthorized promotions, may be using aggressive marketing tactics of which you're not aware, or they may even be connecting you somehow with unsavory or competitive content." When it comes to brand management, it is prudent to be pro-active, says Horine, in case you wind up in a court dispute. "You have to assert the rights to your image and company reputation, it's your responsibility to protect that, and it's good practice because if you wind up in a legal battle it shows the court that you've been holding up your end of the deal." Other services offered by NameProtect include trademark screening and research, for people who want to vet potential names for their business, ongoing brand and trademark monitoring and digital brand optimization for more mature companies, which involves re-launches, expansion to new brands and entering new markets. You can also sign up here for the company's free weekly newsletter "Trademark NewsWire" that covers current developments in trademark and domain name abuse as well as other industry-related news. Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
One classic example of foul play of which a Web shop owner may not even be aware, says Horine, is traffic diversion. Competitors can manipulate meta data so consumers think they are clicking to your site, but instead, get detoured to another one that will generally contain language persuading them to stay and check out whatever is being offered. "They're using your good name to divert traffic to their site," she says, "and you lose a sale." And there is classic domain-name abuse, such as putting a brand name in a title for a page with quite a different agenda. For example, the breakfast cereal Cheerios was used in a page posted by an anti-abortion group. Brand dilution also happens when people poke fun at your company title or products by posting doctored images. Be Aware of Affiliates
E-tailers also need to keep an eye on affiliates, says Horine. "There's been huge growth in this area and often partners are framing your site, logo or product incorrectly, are offering unauthorized promotions, may be using aggressive marketing tactics of which you're not aware, or they may even be connecting you somehow with unsavory or competitive content." When it comes to brand management, it is prudent to be pro-active, says Horine, in case you wind up in a court dispute. "You have to assert the rights to your image and company reputation, it's your responsibility to protect that, and it's good practice because if you wind up in a legal battle it shows the court that you've been holding up your end of the deal." Other services offered by NameProtect include trademark screening and research, for people who want to vet potential names for their business, ongoing brand and trademark monitoring and digital brand optimization for more mature companies, which involves re-launches, expansion to new brands and entering new markets. You can also sign up here for the company's free weekly newsletter "Trademark NewsWire" that covers current developments in trademark and domain name abuse as well as other industry-related news. Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
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