Online Brand Protection
Online brand protection combats the loss of revenue, reputation and customer trust that occurs when someone else exploits your brand for their own gain.
The web’s tremendous reach and economies of scale have revolutionized the way brands engage customers and drive revenue. But the very qualities that make the web so attractive to legitimate business make it extremely lucrative for brand abusers to hijack powerful brands online.
In this anonymous, global medium, threats to your brand can come from anyone, anywhere. A counterfeiter can set up an eCommerce site, download some product images and compete with you for customers. A misguided affiliate can purchase your branded search terms and compete with you for traffic. A pirate can upload a digital version of a film—or any other type of digital content—and steal your revenue. In the digital world, any enterprise with a recognized brand is a potential target for a sophisticated and evolving array of attacks.
Brands Lost Over $350 Billion to Online Brand Abuse Last Year
The financial impact of online brand abuse is substantial and pervasive, resulting in revenue loss, increased customer service costs and exposure to legal liability. Other impacts of online brand abuse are more insidious, leading to significant erosion of margins, brand reputation and customer trust. For example, brand saboteurs can hijack search engine marketing, infiltrate social media and impersonate trusted brands to steal web traffic and peddle fake and pirated goods. Brand abuse in the digital world occurs across channels and leverages best practices to cause tangible harm.
Online threats to brand revenue and reputation are significant—and growing:
- 28% increase in domain squatting in 2010
- 53 billion visits to rogue sites in the last 12 months
- 14% of branded paid search traffic is hijacked
As brand threats evolve, so must brand protection strategies. Companies invest time, money and resources to build value both online and offline. Smart brands are recognizing that in the digital world, safeguarding this investment demands a proactive, strategic approach, and an experienced partner to deliver cost-effective solutions with immediate impact. Over half of the Fortune 100 has chosen MarkMonitor. See what we can do for you.