Social media platforms have been incorporated by many businesses as key marketing strategies because they offer unprecedented reach and engagement opportunities. Influencer marketing has been an effective tool to increase brand awareness and significantly drive sales, especially in the retail, fitness, and tourism industry. However, social media can also be used by malicious actors to engage in infringing activities, such as promotion of counterfeits and brand impersonation. Brand owners suffer from loss of revenue, dilution of market value, and erosion of customer trust. Therefore, it is paramount that companies stay informed and equipped against potential infringers online.
Types of activities companies must pay attention to
• Promotion counterfeits and knockoffs
Every piece of illegal replica or low-quality dupes sold suggests loss of revenues that could have been generated from genuine products. Online platforms, especially TikTok have exacerbated this phenomenon. The “#Dupe” movement suggests a significant attitude shift in shopping. Buying cheaper dupes of expensive brands has become increasingly socially acceptable and show-off worthy. TikTokers display knockoffs in videos and encourage their followers to buy “high-quality” products with affordable prices. They work with companies on a commission-based arrangement, which incentivizes them to engage frequently with followers and promote sales through livestreaming and short videos. Since most of the knockoffs come from overseas, influencers even provide guidance on import declaration to ensure smooth delivery.
• Brand impersonation and scam
Malicious actors impersonate established brands, create fake accounts, and publish content to trick customers. In 2018, a fake campaign of Nike recruiting brand ambassadors was launched, requiring Instagram users with more than 250 followers to repost the campaign flyer to their Instagram story. People fell prey to the scam, despite the unconvincing and sketchy homepages of the fake account. The account “@nikerecruits” reached 85,000 followers over 24 hours. This has led to the official Nike account clarifying the invalidity of the campaign. Besides the apparel industry, similar schemes are also applied in travel packages, cryptocurrency, and pharmaceuticals to damage brand goodwill.
• SEO Manipulation & Fake Domain
Fraudsters apply unethical practices such as keyword stuffing, domain squatting, and paid ads on branded terms to artificially boost a website’s ranking in search engine. Counterfeit companies use SEO manipulation to temporarily improve their ranking, which can be even higher than the real brands, generating extensive traffic. Deceptive URLs by using typos (gooogle.com v. google.com), character substitution (gma1l.com v. gmail), top-level domain (apple.net v. apple.com), and subdomains (nike.com.shopper), combined with design elementsthat imitate authentic trademarks can establish a convincing image and lure in buyers. Brands not only suffer from stealing of revenues but may have to invest additional paid ad to compete in SEO as well.
• Influencer and engagement fraud
Many brands have collaborated with individuals who have a large following online and asked them to publish content that promotes their products or services. However, companies fall prey to fraudulent accounts, such as those with fake followers counts and bot-generated likes/comments to manufacture an inflated influence. Therefore, companies pay for reach and engagement that don’t exist, wasting marketing budgets and potentially risking reputational damages.
How BRANDS-IDENT safeguards your brands
1. Counterfeit Detection & Online Activity Monitoring
BRANDS-IDENT applies state-of-the-art AI image & trademark tracking technology to scan e-marketplaces and social media sites and identify promptly counterfeit products, fraud attempts, and unauthorized use of your intellectual properties (e.g., logos, designs, and marketing content). Furthermore, we detect illegal activities in grey markets and investigate unauthorized sales and parallel imports.
2. Takedown Assistance
As brand owners, you can enforce your rights against infringing domains by filing a DMCA Takedown request. Our monitoring system ensures that legally admissible evidence is securely captured and stored, including screenshots, timestamps, URL to facilitate takedown actions. Our extensive network of experienced IP lawyers globally connects you directly to a legal professional in cases of escalations.
3. Comprehensive Reports
From our dashboard, brand owners can generate periodic summary of product hits, suspicious activities, and potential infringing websites, which facilitates trend analysis and strategic decision-making.
4. Social Media Monitoring
BRANDS-IDENT adopts a tailored approach to identify and address potential threats to brand reputation across social media platform. Impersonation attempts, fake profile, and scam ads are detected timely to prevent further damages.
Book a demo with us today to safeguard your brand from social media threats.