In our online world, many companies’ brands are increasingly being challenged by others. Dealers are increasingly becoming more aware of the importance of reputation management. Vendors are shouting its importance through blog articles, conference session and webinars. Many people only look at one aspect of brand/reputation management – online reviews. While reviews are certainly important, they are only one aspect of it. Search results, domain names, PPC campaigns and online content also must be monitored in any company’s brand and reputation management programs.

There are many “types” of brand attacks your company can be forced to deal with ranging from those that are hostile to those with good intent. Here are some types:

• Domain squatters – These are individuals that buy domain names (website addresses) that include other company’s trademarked names with the express intent to sell them back to those companies for profit.

• Competitor attacks – These would include people who buy domain names, create content or run Google pay-per-click ads with the intent to use your branding for their benefit. In example: Your competing dealer buying domains, writing blog articles or running PPC campaigns that are designed to appear when consumers search for YOUR name.

• Supporters/Fans – Yes, even your supporters and fans, despite their good intentions can also attack your brand. More about this.

Which do you deal with? All of them? Some of them?

The first two are the easiest to decide. Of course you don’t want your competitor running around driving your consumers (actual or potential) to them. I’m fairly certain that you also don’t want to have your brand name hijacked by a domain squatter and be held ransom for some exorbitant amount of money. There is at least one industry vendor who screams to dealers that they MUST control search engine results by buying domains that contain their names and branding then quietly buys domains that belong to others. There are certainly moral dilemmas involved here. On the one hand, you want to maximize your exposure to people not looking for you but, at the same time, you don’t want your competitors doing it. I’ve heard many people complain about their competition doing this to them and arguing how it’s “dirty” and “immoral” and then opposite comments resembling “you snooze, you lose” (usually followed by a snicker).

The last one is where many companies waiver and don’t know what to do. You can take the open path and allow all of your fans and supporters to create any content they want or you can protect your brand from these actions also. Every business likes and wants fans and you certainly don’t want to alienate them. Your company may even have “partners” that, while in support of your brand, utilize it for their interests, even if you benefit in some way.

What’s the “right” response?

Here’s my advice:

Any use of your brand or trademark that allows others any amount of control over your name without your permission and consent should be treated the same whether it’s out of malice or support.

Some would call this extreme and disagree. That’s fine.

Let’s take some examples of extremely popular brands with gigantic fan bases: Apple, Lucasarts and Toyota.

“Between January 2008 and May 2010, Apple Inc. filed more than 350 cases with the U.S. Trademark Office alone..” [link] Apple aggressively protects its brand in all cases. There aren’t many days that go by that you don’t see Apple suing somebody or sending “cease and desist” letters for some violation of their trademark whether it’s from companies utilizing part of their names (ie. iWhatever), fans creating websites supporting (or not supporting) Apple products whether or not they actually contain any reference to “Apple” in the domain, or blogs leaking unannounced product information. Do they piss their fans off? Sure, at times they do. Do they still do it? Absolutely.

Lucasarts, the owner of the Star Wars brand, has arguably one of the largest fan bases in the world. Whether its companies selling knock off products , websites that are “close” to something they own (Note: They sued Digg because the popular social media sharing site sounded too much like an old video game they made titled “The Dig”),  or fans creating (and growing) the Star Wars brand through fan created content or websites, they don’t care. It’s their brand and name and they are very aggressive in controlling it. They’ve even gone so far as to say if you create anything that involves or uses any of our trademarked assets or intellectual property, we own it. Go ahead, draw a picture of R2-D2 right now. Yeah, they own it. Sorry.

Any Toyota dealer out there can attest to the aggressiveness in which Toyota protects its branding. I worked as an Internet Director for two dealer groups that owned Toyota stores. I remember all the hoops I had to jump through whether it was with Google or Toyota just trying to buy Google pay-per-click ads containing our dealership’s name. I even had to argue with Toyota to buy my own dealership’s exact domain name! Go ahead. Buy a domain or try and place a GoogleAd containing the word “Toyota.” See what happens.

While your company is arguably not as popular or has as much of a fan base as either Apple or Lucasarts, does that mean you shouldn’t take the same position? I would argue that they have even MORE to fear from this standpoint than any dealership would ever have to worry about. How many people could you potentially upset versus either of whose companies? I would guess they have some of the best attorneys and brightest employees on the planet making these types of policy decisions. Any of us would happily trade places with them in terms of company success, popularity and brand awareness.

How do supporters of your brand hurt you? It may not be so obvious. Think about a consumer searching your brand on Google. When the results appear, they see all sorts of content, which you may or may not own. Any content that uses your name but doesn’t drive the traffic or business to you is an attack. Whether it’s a Google pay-per-click ad, a fan community, or a competitor trying to use your name to drive the consumers to themselves, it is all the same.

Look, I’m not against your business having fans. You should create and encourage your raving fans to be fans. You should identify the ones with the most influence and have them shouting how great your business is from the top of a mountain. That being said, there are many ways in which your fans can support you without innocently (or not so innocently) attacking your brand. They can encourage their friends to join YOUR community, leave reviews FOR you, write blog articles saying how great you treated them, and SHARE your content with their social network. Your brand protection and your fans’ support can coexist without your trademark being violated. Encourage fans that are supporting you the right way, absolutely.

If you come across a fan that IS using your name, identity or branding that, in any way, could potentially confuse your consumers or drive traffic to themselves that you would have received had that content not existed, you should take action. I would advise that the first thing you should do is reach out to the supporter, thank them for their support, explain your brand protection policies and ask that they cease, alter, or turn-over your trademarked assets (depending on what the trademark violation is).

What do you do if they refuse? Well, if they refuse to respect your wishes and comply, you only have two choices: allow them to retain control of the asset(s) or not.

We’ve all heard the saying that 1 happy person will tell 1 person about their experience while 1 unhappy person will tell 100.

Keep in mind when deciding whether to enforce your trademark that it only takes one bad experience to turn that happy person controlling trademarked assets from a raving fan into avocal opponent. I would advise that rather than wait until that moment arrives to deal with it, you become proactive and take control of your assets. None of the companies I used as examples are where they are from being passive.

If you reinforce the ship before the attack, you minimize your company’s vulnerability and spend less time doing damage control and more time on building a better ship.