Defending the Brand

By Brian Murray

The Internet has opened a whole new series of opportunities for companies to find different and innovative ways to market their brands and to find new ways to reach increasingly elusive customers. This means not just setting up Web sites but also the development of e-mail campaigns and other media that use the Internet as a channel. However, this has also opened up a can of worms with a whole new series of issues impacting on brands. These range from brand names being misused, unintentionally or otherwise, or other ways in which companies can lose control of their brand names or image.

Brian Murray's new book Defending the Brand looks at the issues that affect brands in this new environment. This is not a book about how to undertake Internet marketing nor it is a legal book. The focus is on the problems faced by brands and ways in which companies can look to resolve them. As such this book is aimed at business and marketing management. An in-depth understanding of different Internet-based applications is not necessary. This is your guide book once you are on-line. 

There are five sections to the book. The first deal with digital brand abuse. This is probably the most visible way in which brands can be abused. Issues covered here include where somebody uses a well-known brand to help divert customers to their site. This could be through including a brand name in a url that enables the "rogue" Web site to be more visible in search engine listings or even "suggest" an association with the brand. This extends beyond sites such as pornography or gambling to sites such as travel agents that may include an airline brand in their url. Clearly this is an area that companies have to police. Also in this section there is much about how to spot and handle rumours that are circulating in chat rooms and through e-mail, handling "hate sites" and other ways where your brand may not be portrayed in the way you would like. 

The second section covers distributors and partners. In this case a company will wish its brand to be portrayed in a consistent manner that does not conflict with the intended positioning and image attributes. There may be issues where the portrayal of a brand on the company's and the partners' sites are out of step. Equally, it may be that a distributor is promoting competitors' brands as well. Are partners or distributors taking sales from the manufacturer? How can the sites be made to work better together so that brand positioning is consistent and sites are supportive of each other rather than competitive?

Sections three and four cover grey market activity and piracy respectively. This is about defending sales directly rather than brand image (sales indirectly). The cross-border nature of the Internet makes it relatively easy for consumers to buy outside their own country. Both GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer are currently targeting Canadian Internet pharmacies that are selling prescription medicines direct to US consumers. In this case manufacturers are looking to protect their local distributors. In addition, they are frequently unable to provide guarantees or support for products that have been purchased in another country so it is also about protecting the consumer. Piracy refers to illegal downloads of items as well as fake items masquerading under a brand name. Again, this not only protects the manufacturers' sales but also provides consumer protection. 

The final section is a plan of action for companies in dealing with on-line brand abuse. this is based around setting up a system for monitoring your brand on-line. Some larger companies may have a specialist department dedicated to this while smaller companies may rely on all staff looking for abuse of the brand and other trademarks. Once an incident has been identified then companies can follow a multi-level procedure for dealing with it. 

Each section of the book has a summary as well as a business case. This shows a way of "dollarising" the impact of brand abuse. This shows just how much damage can be done to a company's sales through even a small misuse of the brand. Overall, the book is immensely readable and even entertaining with a plethora of examples of problems faced by well-known brands. It is an eye-opener into the tactics of "spammers" and can even help you to understand why your computer behaves in certain ways when a Web site operator has built in features that attract you to the site but also keep you there when you want to leave. Have you ever heard of mouse-trapping? Many of these tactics are quite ingenious and they may keep you on a Web site but are they going to make you buy?

Review by Martin Payne