Brand Protection Alert! Black Friday & Cyber Monday Raise Threat Level

Two of the busiest days for online shopping are almost here. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 28th and Cyber Monday, Monday, Dec. 1 are always good days for deals from some of the biggest brands in Cyberspace.

For this reason, buyers must be aware of online scams. You must be aware that consumers that are ripped off when shopping for YOUR brand only damages your reputation and credibility. A sound brand protection strategy for brands isn’t just a nice to have anymore. It is a must!

On that note, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up QUICK, let’s take a look at some of the things brands should be taking into account when deciding on which brand protection tool is right for them.

• As a brand marketer, you need to have a clear picture of all the threats your brand faces. When you have this picture, you will know what you need as far as a brand protection strategy. Prioritize. Some threats are greater than others. For example, you might have a large amount of your traffic diverted by violating PPC ads, while having a bad review of your product on a not so well known blog
• With online counterfeiting proliferation at an all-time high, brands need to be aware of the costs due to the theft of intellectual property. In the United States alone, the amount runs in the hundreds of billions of dollars. $300B to put a more exact amount on it. This is based on assessments by the FBI
• Higher than half of that 300 Billion Dollars (I have to mention it again. It is a staggering amount), is directly tied to this proliferation of counterfeit goods. On top of all this, we have the gradual release of over 1400 new Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs). This never seen before development will only contribute to higher instances of trademark and brand infringement which will make it impossible for brands to protect themselves with anything other than a brand protection tool.
  What brands need to do is come to an approximate figure regarding how much money your brand could be losing due to this cyber form of thievery. These illicit actions only infringe upon your brand’s good name by sending those who are looking for your brand to counterfeit sites
• While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the perfect times for these threats to your brand to be at the highest levels, they are always out there, usually targeting demographics with the highest income level
• Gain a solid overview of all your digital assets such as your website, your social media profiles. Many smaller brands might get away with having a few members of their staff monitoring keywords using such free tools as Google Alerts. However, even the smaller brands can be targeted and with all the nooks, crannies and dark corners on the Internet, the chance you’ll miss something is highly probable. And given the lightning speed with which the internet operates, that SOMETHING could be Something HUGE. A brand protection tool as I said is not something that is a nice to have, but should be an intrinsic part of any brand protection strategy
• Be aware of all the threats out there. Up to this point, you must be aware of all the threats your brand has faced online. Do you know if your brand is susceptible to domain squatting where a cyber scammer uses a variation of your brand name and diverts traffic to their site. For example, you might sell vintage Adidas on a site called vintageadidas.com, one example of a domain squatter known as a typo squatter might just register a domain called vintageaddidas.com, or with all the new gTLDs, a domain squatter might register a domain called Adidas.sale. However, this is a lot less likely because a big brand like Adidas has a solid brand protection strategy in place to combat such threats

Conclusion

The above points I hope will help you in determining which brand protection tool you should choose. Do your research. If you take a look at what your brand might be losing from just any of the threats mentioned above, you will come to the decision, hopefully sooner rather than later to implement brand protection and realize higher ROI for your brand. Remember, you don’t need to wait till something big hits your brand on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Don’t wait.

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