Every manufacturer must have invested resources and time into building a brand. Protecting that brand, therefore, becomes a priority. If you have a vision for your brand, you would want to protect it by all means.
Perhaps, you have taken some steps to make your brand enticing to consumers. You might have great packaging, marketing campaigns, and other strategic moves.
However, there are several challenges when it comes to online marketing, and the competition is high. Amazon marketplace is a platform that has grown over the years and is thriving as one of the best places to sell products.
There are some challenges that brands face on Amazon. Each day you are exposed to new competitions as more people enter the market. But, you cannot leave your brand to go into extinction and your efforts to go to waste.
Therefore, this article becomes relevant for you. In online marketing, there is a new kind of competitive pressure: intrabrand competition.
What is Intrabrand Competition?
Intrabrand competition is peculiar to online marketing. It is the competition that exists among similar brands. If consumers visit the virtual shelf, the product review pages, they will come across identical products from different brands and prices.
The prices might have a wide gap, and they may appear on the same page. This placement puts the consumer in the position to choose the right brand for them. In addition to this, they have to choose which seller’s offer they will take.
This situation puts your brand at risk because it places you in competition with other brands. It becomes worse when the sellers competing with you are selling counterfeit products. It places you in the same position as them, making it look like you also sell counterfeit products.
Quality Control: Protecting your Brand, Reputation, Customers, and Product Listing
In the face of intrabrand competition, you have to stand out to survive in the online marketplace. You have to be able to retain your customers when they visit you. Your customers will return to you if they are satisfied and get the same quality from you from physical stores. Your brand will grow if every seller of your brand follows your quality control procedure.
You have to ensure that the sellers follow your quality control to protect your brand’s reputation. Unauthorized sellers who do not follow your brand’s quality control procedure will create havoc for your brand. Your brand will suffer if your quality control is not upheld.
Reputation is critical to product success. If your reputation as a brand begins to suffer, your sales will begin to dwindle, and in no time, it will ultimately sink.
Another reason why you have to ensure that sellers follow your quality control procedure is to protect your Amazon reviews. On Amazon, your brand reputation depends on your reviews. Your review is the soul of your online sales.
Your product reviews will determine your brand’s progress or its death. Your product review will also determine your ranking on Amazon. When customers search for a product you sell, your product will appear on page one of the results if your reviews are good. If your reviews are poor, your product might not appear on the initial pages.
Appearing on the first page of Amazon result is essential. Consumer search behaviour has always been the same. Most users do not click on links beyond the ones that appear on the first page.
Once they can get the relevant information they seek, they will not go to the next page. Even if users do not get the desired results, they will instead rearrange the keywords or search again with new words arrangements rather than check the next page.
Most of the sales, almost 100%, made on Amazon are garnered from the first three pages. So, if your product is not ranking on the first pages, your brand is fast going into extinction.
One way to get you on the first pages and retain your position is to invest in quality advertisement and high-quality content. That your product requires stringent quality control does not mean that you will not achieve it.
You have to ensure that all the sellers of your product follow your quality control procedure. This company will keep your customers satisfied and help you to maintain positive feedback.
How to Achieve Brand Protection
Achieving brand protection requires some steps. The first step to protecting your brand is to consider your goal. If you have your goal always in sight, you will work to achieve it.
Whatever your goal is, it is the driving force of your actions. The main goal is to prevent the sales of counterfeit products on Amazon to give room for your genuine product to thrive.
You have to take the necessary legal action to achieve this goal. You will need an effective trademark portfolio to ensure an intellectual property right that you can protect.
Secondly, make some distinction between your product and other products available. It will enable clients to distinguish genuine products from counterfeit ones. Also, clients can remove unauthorized and counterfeit sellers from the platform.
Thirdly, you need to have your MAP policies (see Brand Alignment MAP enforcement) drafted and effectively instituted. You should ensure a smooth enforcement procedure and sustenance.
There is software that scans the market and fish out the unauthorized sellers of your products. When you identify MAP violations and counterfeit products being sold, you take the necessary legal action.
The Place of Smart Enforcement in Ensuring Brand Protection
Aside from taking the necessary moves, you also have to take advantage of the enforcement program. You can involve an attorney to make a move more effective.
If you want to handle the entire process yourself, it might not be at effective as it would have been with the presence of an attorney. For instance, sending C&D letters as a brand might not have the desired effect.
Some unauthorized sellers do not regard such letters, especially when they know the law better than the senders. Having the backing of a legal firm is essential.
The law firm will verify the item sold to know if they are counterfeit. If they, they will submit an infringement or counterfeit report to Amazon. They monitor unauthorized sellers who join the listing. Once they confirm that the seller is selling counterfeit products, they will remove that person as soon as possible.
If the seller is selling genuine products, but they are unauthorized sellers and violate MAP policies (see our template), the law firm will investigate the source of their supply, cut it off, and remove them from the listing. They will send C&D letters and take more steps if the need arises.
The aim is to protect brands from losing their reputation in the marketplace. In the process, users are protected from the harm that counterfeit products can cause. Consumers can live safe and healthy lives by having access to genuine products that will not endanger their lives.