In your endeavor to devise a MAP policy (see Amazon MAP pricing and best way to protect your brand on Amazon) for your brand or business, you might be tempted to take the easy way. That means Googling “MAP pricing policy template”, and making use to the conveniently available resources you’ll find. You’ll basically find hundreds of real-world MAP policies published by manufacturers and brands online for their resale partners to access. In the same way, you’ll also come across a plethora of MAP policy jargon to be able to draft yours.
It’s actually very tempting to just snatch one of these ready-made or Map pricing policy templates, modify it a bit and then drop the name of your company and other pertinent info. You might think it’s a great and less complicated option to copy-paste existing sample blurbs from the various minimum advertised price policy templates that you can find on the Internet. Then voila! With very little effort, you are able to devise your company’s minimum advertised pricing policy!
If you go by the longer route of drafting your MAP pricing policies from scratch, you initially could feel daunted. That’s why you might find it appealing to simply copy or get excerpts from the most accessible minimum advertised pricing policy templates. However, tempting and convenient as it may seem, it is not a very smart move to copy and paste content from MAP pricing policy templates or else put together a policy from a collection of MAP policy samples. It is very risky, and it could undermine your brand or business.
Why Should You Not Copy An Existing Map Pricing Policy Template?
These are the 3 fundamental reasons:
You might skip guidelines and clauses that are important and applicable to your company.
Minimum advertised price policies are typically short as documents, comprising only of a few pages. Then again, much of its content is indicated in dense legalese language, and it can be difficult to read. Because of this, you might be tempted to merely skim over the document and proceed on to utilizing it as your Map policy. It can be a major blunder because you could have the tendency to not read it carefully.
For instance, you might have just skimmed through a price Map policy of a manufacturer that solely focuses on online selling. The glitch here is that the policy might not state it clearly, or “out loud” that they are predominantly concerned about selling through e-commerce retailers because the clauses mainly signify about sales web pages and advertisements online. Chances are, the policy would not have a single reference about how it affects owners of physical retail stores.
In this case, if your business happens to deal with online stores and brick and mortar outlets, your Map policy would come out to be inconsistent (if you merely copied a minimum advertised price template) wherein guidelines and incentives to physical store owners will not be included. A lot of times, this happens.
The contrary is also true because copying and pasting the wrong minimum advertised pricing policy template can turn away potential retail partners, especially if they disagree with some clauses in it. The irony is that these clauses are not applicable to your business, either. In the same way, this scenario could attract the wrong retail partners who will sell your brand.
Suffice it to say that your Map policy has to be specifically drafted for your company, instead of creating it with various clauses from other manufacturers’ documents.
You might legally jeopardize your company if you publish a MAP pricing policy template.
You have to be wary because reseller pricing policies can be very confusing, particularly about where the antitrust legal aspects are indicated. Numerous policies found online include language that are considered to be unenforceable, or even contain illegal contents about fixing prices or coercion.
In the US, some states would blatantly view a number of reseller retail price policies as illegal, while there are those who are lenient about them. Nevertheless, there are certain types of clauses in a manufacturer’s advertised prices policies that are deemed as illegal and can have them charged with an antitrust suit.
Thus, you ought to be aware that grabbing templates of Map policies from the Internet and simply substituting your company’s name on it renders you with a decent probability of placing your business at an increased risk of getting yourself caught on the wrong side of federal, or else state antitrust regulators.
An even greater legal risk endangers your company if in any way, you try to enforce a copy-pasted advertised prices policy from a template found online without first consulting an expert. You primarily have to ensure that your policies for enforcement adhere to the laws of your state.
It is of vital importance that you work with a reliable antitrust legal counsel or a group of experts in brand protection in this regard. Consider that your own reseller pricing program has to be accurate, relevant, and legitimate. You have to be keen and careful, and not take any chances.
The policy template that you copy and paste online could be altogether wrong and inaccurate.
Generally, the term “Map policy” is used to as a standard to describe the guidelines of manufacturers for protecting the resale pricing of their products. Nonetheless, you should know that aside from the Map, there are other types of reseller policies.
For instance, if, as a manufacturer, you are concerned about the advertised pricing of the products of your brand, and at the same time the actual resale prices of them by your retail partners. The applicable policy for this is the MRP, or the minimum resale price policy that regulates the advertised and sale prices of your products.
Another case is the eMap or the electronic minimum advertised price policy which is in itself a Map policy that comprehensively protects the advertised prices of your merchandise. The eMap actually goes further by limiting the way retailers promote your products in the text messages and emails that they send to their prospective customers.
Conclusion
To sum up this article, you fundamentally have to be aware that many hitches can ensue if you go by the convenient route of copying and pasting a price MAP template. For one thing, you could end up implementing a set of guidelines for your reseller that are conversely not a strategic fit to uphold the goals of your company. Note that your MAP policy should work accordingly with your resale channels.
All these said, nevertheless, you ought to know that creating a MAP policy for your company is not that complicated a task. It should not be difficult because at the least, you need to think the details through as you draft its particulars. Take into account the needs and goals of your company, along with the realities that beset your resale channels.
A MAP policy is a major necessity for your business because it will protect the image of your brand, and in turn attract quality customers to purchase your products. It will affect the profit that you obtain as well, so you should take careful steps and conditions, especially with your resellers pertaining to the manner of selling your goods.