What makes up digital brand protection?

Digital brand protection is an important component of any company that generates all or some of its revenue online. As well as potentially damaging your brand’s image, anyone with the capacity and inclination to could easily profit from your brand or product if you do not protect yourself. Some companies may not even operate online, but this does not mean digital brand protection can be ignored. Even the smallest of companies now usually have a social media presence. Even if a company has no digital presence itself, that does not mean that people cannot talk about it online. Would you be comfortable knowing nothing about what people are saying about your brand or service?
The “digital age” has made access to information a lot quicker and easier, but at what cost? If you are looking to implement a robust digital brand protection strategy, there are quite a few bases you need to cover.
Domain Monitoring
If your online business was a physical store, your domain would be your reception. Your domain is usually the first thing customers see and in some cases it is incorporated into the brand name itself (think of how well-known “Booking.com” has become). Unfortunately it is all too easy for “bad actors” to register a domain in your company name, often just changing one letter so users do not notice they are not on the real site. This is not only bad for your brand image, but it also means that your customers may be being duped out of their money paying for what they think if your product when it is actually a fake or isn’t coming at all. Fake domains have such a quick turnover, which is why they are so hard to monitor. Constant domain monitoring is vital to a good digital brand protection strategy.
Online Monitoring
Setting up effective online monitoring is something that can help you to track what is happening to your brand online. If you make a product that can easily be sold by third-party sellers or have counterfeits made of it, then you will need to have online monitoring as part of your digital brand protection strategy. A good online monitoring service will be able to tell you who is selling your product on global marketplaces like Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, or smaller, emerging markets like Wish, Shopee and Lazada. If you operate internationally you should activate an online monitoring procedure that monitors international markets. Important information like where your images and product names are being used can help you to quickly identify anyone trying to profit from your brand when they do not have the right to. There are also ways that you can track authorized resellers to ensure they are using up to date images and product descriptions. Compliance of third-party sellers is something that can be monitored by digital brand protection methods.
Social Media Monitoring
Social media is a huge part of everyone’s daily lives. Even if you do not sell products online as a company is is likely you will have a social media presence, and even if you don’t, is important to monitor what is being said about your brand. If there is content damaging your reputation, you should know where is has come from and who to address about it. This is where social media monitoring comes in as a digital brand protection cornerstone. It’s also very easy to set up ads on social media. Anyone wanting to counterfeit your product can set them up very quickly and easily turn quite a bit of profit before they are found out if you are not monitoring the social situation of your brand. There are also so many image sharing platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, which is great news for marketers, but this just gives companies more to monitor. Third-party sellers who are not monitored regularly may use old images that are harmful to the brand.
App Monitoring
It’s funny how quickly things progress. The desktop web is almost classed as “old-fashioned” now in favour of the mobile web and apps. As much as the Apple Store and Google Play Store try to protect their users, there are plenty of malicious apps falling through the net, and one of them could easily be harmful to a brand. Intellectual property can be stolen and people with nefarious motives can even use apps to cheat users out of their money, thinking they were giving it to the brand. The worst thing is, because apps are such a new medium it can be really hard to monitor them. App monitoring can give a brand the chance to find and takedown anything that is harmful to them.
globaleyez can help you fight problems with intellectual property topics with a wide range of services, including domain monitoring of all TLDs and as well with domain takedown services for domains hurting your intellectual property.
For more information, go to www.globaleyez.net
globaleyez GmbH — protect. brand. distribution. globaleyez is an expert service provider in Brand Protection, Distribution Control and Retail Monitoring. With a broad variety of services, including market monitoring, store-checks, test purchases, product authentication, surveys and consulting, we help our clients to have an attentive eye on their legitimate supply chain, on illegal or non-authorized distribution. Our network of globaleyez specialists spans all major and the most critical markets — with focus on Europe, The Americas and East Asia.
