What is Brand Protection and Why do You Need it?

Chances are that if you’re reading this article then you probably know what brand protection is. Brand protection means protecting your product from getting plagiarised. It takes people ages to build up a business. But all it takes to lose all that fame is a counterfeit product of the same name. Join us in this article as we discuss What is Brand Protection and Why do You Need it?

People interact with advertisements of products every day. Brand names are everywhere. Among thousands of brands, well-known brands are easily identifiable.

Consumers are likely to buy products from names that are well established. A stat report from Adweek solidifies this claim, as it states that about 91% of consumers buy products from an authentic brand. In another survey done by Reuters, we can see that 82% of investors look for a strong brand while investing in companies. Therefore, it can be said that counterfeiting not only harms the financial side of your business but also the marketability of your business.

In today’s article, we are going to discuss Brand protection and its importance. So, without any further delay let’s delve into today’s article.

Table of Contents

What is brand protection?

Brand protection can be described as a security measure that safeguards your brand copyright pirates, counterfeiters, and infringers of other types of intellectual property. It provides your brand protection from not only loss of revenue but also protects your company’s image, reputation, and overall value. Ultimately, brand protection averts brand abuse.

Brand exploitation

Brand exploitation is a blanket term. This refers to an outside group exploiting a brand’s intellectual property to take advantage of its reputation. Brand exploitation has many forms such as:

Fake websites.
Patent thievery.
Social media impersonation.

A company needs to be on the lookout against any kind of brand exploitation which they may become a target of. Nonetheless, the most troublesome thing for a brand or a company is counterfeiting.

Effects of counterfeiting

The issues caused by counterfeiters targeting an established brand are far more than many brands take notice of. Counterfeiting is not only the sign of a few people making money by exploiting a brand’s intellectual property. Rather, the impact counterfeiting has on brands are quite severe:

Sales plummeting: If your products are reproduced, the counterfeiters might offer them at a lower price than your brand. This will suffer your brand to have a considerable hit to your brands’ sales.
Reputation: Any kind of brand whether it’s big or small works hard to set up a reputation for themselves in the public eye. But, if the brands are targeted by counterfeiters, that reputation has a risk of being put into jeopardy. For this, potential customers might avoid your brand for brands that are more reliable, trustworthy, and, high-quality.
Losing the trust of partners: Counterfeiters can damage the trust between business partners that can take years to develop. Distributors will see counterfeiters as a replacement as they offer products cheaper than the least price agreed upon with the authentic brand. They might think that the brands are being disloyal with them and will end up blaming the brand they’d been working with.
Consuming resources: Fighting back against counterfeiters is a lengthy and expensive process that costs resources that could’ve been used in other departments of a business. Large sums of money need to be paid to lawyers in an attempt to keep the counterfeiters at bay.

Protecting your brand

Keeping a brand’s intellectual property protected is essential. Every brand needs to have their strategies in place that rids of counterfeiters. Counterfeiters are very persistent when it comes to targeting companies they think of profiting from. Counterfeiters won’t stop at anything and will use every tactic in their inventory to stay in business.

There are quite a few strategies that brands can use to fight against infringers. We have provided a few tips on what are some of the best techniques available. Techniques that can be used in both the virtual and real worlds.

Registering intellectual property: Very little action can be taken legally if your brand isn’t registered formally. A product without a registered trademark is taken as copyright-free and can be used by anyone. Thus, Getting intellectual property registered is the first step towards creating a brand protection system.
Non-disclosure agreements with partners: Having a Non-disclosure agreement is essential for brands that operate with patent-protected designs and processes. Working with other companies while not having any kind of protection for confidential information might put your brand at risk.
Being active on social media: Social media is the platform where counterfeiters are most active. So, brands need to have a strong presence in social media to prove themselves as authentic. According to a study, Using methods like on-site reporting tools, undercover accounts can act as the detox kit that removes duplicate brands.
Creating customer awareness: Creating customer awareness can be utilized as a great effect on brand identity. If customers can recognize the differences between legitimate products and fakes themselves, then they are most likely to remember the legit brand which is yours. Educating consumers of the harmful counterfeited products will also make them seek out authentic products.

The need for brand protection

Selling a trademarked product puts your brand at the risk of counterfeiting, thus you need to install a brand protection strategy before any damage occurs.

There are three kinds of organizations that are at the risk of being targeted by counterfeiters: product innovators, brand value companies and design-focused companies.

The reason for these companies being on the verge of being counterfeited is the amount of time and money they put in. Products that sell more attract counterfeiters. Not having brand protection puts your brand at the danger of losing all your time and money invested in your brand.

Investing in brand protection will solidify your product’s status in both the industry and the market. benefiting you and your brand in the long run.

Conclusion

Your brand is your identity. Random people infringing it will only cause harm to both you and your brands’ image. Even though brands can be exploited in various ways, there are also various counters to it.

Protecting your brand and everything related to it will allow your brand to be prominent on the elite circuit of the industry.

Having regular searches of business listings and the trademarks database will keep your brand exploitation free. Taking the help of professionals is always recommended.

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Author Bio
Kathrin Garner is an enthusiastic journalist and writes article on social issues. As an activist, she takes part in FV KASA program, which is a discussion platform on the relevant cannabis topics. So, if you want to know the best how to cleanse your body, feel free to contact her. Also, she is a volunteer at Marijuana Detox. She searches for current issues, and writes about it to a wide range of readers.