PROTECTING YOUR BRAND ONLINE
total trade in the world*. Certain types of goods are more affected by this issue than others. Digital piracy, for example, is a $75 billion business and research has shown that one in every three CDs bought today is pirated. With very low barriers to entry, low production costs and portability of products, pirated DVDs and music CDs are still the most frequently faked items that will end up in Christmas stockings during the festive period.
For youngsters, sporting a pair of Dunlop Green Flash trainers in the playground simply doesn’t cut the mustard these days. Teir Christmas lists have to include brands like Apple, Beats by Dr Dre and Abercrombie & Fitch. Te pressure on parents to buy branded items has never been greater, and this is why the counterfeit market is burgeoning. Some shoppers will knowingly buy fake products lured by the heavily discounted pricetag, and willing to trade quality for exterior branding. A simple search online for any major brand can produce completely different results by prefixing the words ‘fake’ or ‘not real’ to it.
You may think that counterfeiters would want to keep a low profile—aſter all, counterfeiting is an illegal activity. However, the rewards are high and in most cases, the websites sit outside the jurisdiction of the UK authorities, meaning that the risks appear worth taking.
Te saying ‘too good to be true’ applies perfectly when it comes to buying well-known brands that are heavily discounted online. Assuming the products are actually delivered (since many websites are simply portals that take customers’ cash and then disappear off the face of the earth), they may look the part but rarely will they act the part. Last year US Customs officials confiscated
“COMPANIES MUST HAVE A ROBUST BRAND STRATEGY THAT COVERS THREE BASIC PRINCIPLES: PROTECTING THEIR CUSTOMERS, DEFENDING THEIR ONLINE REPUTATION AND SAFEGUARDING THEIR BRAND REVENUE.”
for 10 percent of worldwide drug sales*. Last year alone pharmaceutical companies spent more than $46 billion dealing with fake medicines— money that could otherwise have been used for research and development to find cures for illness and disease. Anyone who purchases these fake drugs could potentially become seriously ill, which can damage the reputation of the counterfeited company simply by association.
Consumers have a choice when deciding where they want to spend their hard-earned money. Te Internet has been the greatest invention known to consumers, offering the ability to move from retailer to retailer at a click of a button. Barriers to entry are low, which means that competition is high and pricing aggressive. But add counterfeit products, sold at unrealistic discounts, to the mix and the dynamic begins to shiſt. Our natural instinct as consumers is to hunt out a bargain, and while on the face of it, buying a counterfeit item may satisfy that natural itch, the damage is already done.
25,000 shipments containing counterfeit electronic items with a street value of more than $100 million*. Tese are only the items that they managed to intercept—hundreds of thousands more made it on to the high streets and online market places.
While on the face of it, counterfeiting seems like a victimless crime, it does significant damage if leſt unchecked. Fake goods are nearly always of inferior quality, and in some cases dangerous, such as fake medicines which currently account
Every time a pirated Disney DVD, a fake Ralph Lauren polo shirt or a bootleg JLS CD is bought, anywhere in the world, those brands are inadvertently damaged. Not only do the brands not receive the revenue for their original products, but the end user of the product also receives a poor brand experience. Brand reputation is damaged and sometimes organised crime or terrorist organisations benefit.
So what can businesses do to combat the growing problem of brand abuse? Companies today must have a robust brand strategy that covers three basic principles: protecting their customers, defending their online reputation and safeguarding their brand revenue.
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Trademarks Brands and the Internet Volume 1, Issue 4
www.worldipreview.com
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