Why is my brand identity a valuable business asset? How do I protect my online brand identity from theft? In this article, Net Branding’s digital marketing specialist answers these questions and provides 5 tips to help you protect your online brand identity against theft.
Most businesses work hard to build a unique identity for their brand – one that adds value to their portfolio of goods and services, resonates with their customers and builds a relationship of trust with them. Are these the sort of characteristics that are reflected in your brand identity? If so, then it’s a brand identity that’s worth its weight in gold and something that any business, including yours, should fight tooth and nail to protect and enhance.
Unfortunately, some businesses follow a more duplicitous path when building their brand ‘identity’ – they simply steal someone else’s. Rather than working hard to create something of their own, they choose a parasitic course instead, by seeking to catch a free ride on the back of another company’s brand, with potentially catastrophic consequences for the genuine brand. We’re all familiar with the knock-off high-end watches, handbags, sneakers and more that have plagued the world for years, doing serious damage to the real brands they represent.
In the digital age, however, it’s not merely individual products that are being ‘stolen’ by counterfeiters – with businesses now online entire brands are susceptible to identity theft. We’ve no doubt all heard the stories about entire websites being created that look just like that of the original business, but aren’t. Even worse, as the fraudsters get better at their dark deeds, customers – your customers – are finding it more and more difficult to tell the difference between your genuine website and the fake one. Fraudsters are even adding injury to insult by creating supporting channels for their fake websites, with social media pages also claiming to represent your brand.
This is all serious stuff – and if you’re an online business then it’s doubly serious. That’s because these days most customers use online search and social media to help them make buying decisions. If they are being duped by these fake representations of your brand online, believing that they are interacting with you, and maybe even buying something from a website that they believe represents you, then you’ve got a very serious problem. But what to do?
How do I protect my brand identity from theft online?
As we said earlier, your brand identity is something you should defend at all costs. The good news is that with a bit of careful planning and some diligent monitoring, you can protect your brand identity from theft online. Here are 5 tips for protecting your online brand identity from theft.
1 Build a strong brand presence
The more you invest in creating a top-notch consumer experience across all of your brand’s touchpoints, especially online, the harder it will be for an imposter to imitate. When people get to know the sort of responses they can expect from you online, especially the way in which you conduct yourself on social media, the easier it will be for them to spot something that doesn’t quite add up, and raise the alarm.
2 Develop a set of brand guidelines
Consistency in communication with your customers is important for protecting your brand against identity theft. Ensure your digital strategy includes the development of a set of guidelines aimed at keeping all of your brand’s communications consistent across your online platforms. Fraudsters seldom have the same level of commitment to their crime that you will have in building your brand – so they will make mistakes. Having a set of brand guidelines that enable you to represent your brand consistently to customers will help both you and your customers spot something online that isn’t what it claims to be.
3 Use your brand’s visual elements consistently
Closely related to having a set of brand guidelines is how you use your logo and the other visual design elements of your brand. Think of these visual elements as very important identifying marks of your business and the message(s) you convey to your customers about your brand. Use these visual characteristics consistently and stamp them on everything you can, from your physical products to your online collateral and social media pages.
4 Stay in touch with your customers
Having an active and verifiable presence on social media as your business grows can do wonders for building and maintain your customers’ trust in your brand – and keep fraudsters at bay. Make keeping in touch with your customers via social media a key component of your digital marketing strategy, always doing your utmost to respond to their queries or complaints promptly and professionally. Having a public Facebook page for your brand and frequently posting content is a great way to earn a checkmark that certifies these pages have been verified as belonging to you, the original owner of your brand. A similar level of certification is also possible for other social media accounts. Want to know more? Talk to your Net Branding social media specialist about including similar identity-enhancing social media tactics in your digital marketing strategy.
5 Keep an eye on the market and your competitors
Every now and then it pays to hop onto the main search engines and do a search of your business taglines and other key words for any signs of others using these to infringe on your brand. Visit the websites of your competitors to see if they are copying any of your brand’s visual design elements. If you find someone is copying your brand identity, find out where they are located and get your legal advisor onto it as quickly as possible. Not all countries take intellectual property seriously, so you could face a bit of a slog to get the matter sorted. Fortunately, countries like New Zealand and a number of others are very strict about intellectual property rights.
Why is my brand identity one of my most valuable business assets?
Never underestimate the significance of a well-recognized and respected brand – it’s probably one of your business’ most valuable assets. So you should take every step possible to ensure you defend your brand identity from being stolen online by unscrupulous operators.
If you would like help with creating a digital marketing strategy that builds trust and loyalty among your customers and defends the identity of your brand from theft online, then talk to the online brand specialists at Net Branding – Auckland digital marketing agency . Our digital marketing consultants have been specialising for years in planning, developing and growing online assets for businesses just like yours.
