Dispelling Brand Protection Software Myths [Plus Reporting Tips for Your Board]
The rise of brand disinformation. Impersonation. Faux profiles. Harassment online. Persistent scams. Phishing and Spoofing. Digital threats. Dark web blackmail campaigns. Damage to your brand’s online reputation…The list goes on.
Brand protection software and monitoring tools are being fast tracked to conversations in the C-suite.
What once was a more level playing field is now a painful topic, inching ever closer to the boardroom, led by herranged CISOs, on the offense.
2024 calls for a sharper defense.
In this blog we are looking at the key features of brand protection software to counter brand abuse to pointers for C-suite reporting.
We’ll also discuss trends amongst intellectual property counterfeit products use cases can threaten your brand’s integrity and share how you can position these cyber threats to your board.
What is the purpose of brand protection software?
Brand Protection software offers a comprehensive defense mechanism against the multitude of threats targeting corporate brands online.
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
Warren Buffett
In a nutshell, these tools have been engineered to safeguard a company’s intellectual property by identifying and mitigating risks associated with counterfeit sales, brand impersonation, and various online frauds. Through vigilant monitoring, the software efficiently detects infringements across diverse platforms, including but not limited to:
- Fake domains and third-party websites
- Unauthorized applications
- Search engine misuse
Interested in other topics in this series? Catch up and read the first two blogs in this series.
Use case: E-commerce giant TEMU takes on Amazon and intellectual property rights
In the competitive landscape of online marketplaces, Temu emerged as the leading shopping app worldwide in 2023. It achieved a monumental milestone with 337.2 million downloads, outpacing Amazon Shopping by 1.8x
In a recent report by Time, small businesses have been battling counterfeit goods on Chinese online marketplace Temu.
This Chinese retail titan, part of the company Pinduoduo—which boasted a whopping $9.6 billion in revenue for Q3 2023 alone—has been accused by creatives of selling “exact copies” of counterfeit product and designs at lower prices, putting a strain on these smaller entities’ ability to compete. WIRED recently reported that Temu’s extremely low prices result in the company incurring an average loss of $30 per order as part of its brand strategy to penetrate the American market, leading to annual losses between $588 million to $954 million. Moreover, this aggressive pricing strategy is placing significant financial pressure on small manufacturers in China, forcing them into pricing structures that are barely sustainable for profit-making.
A similar legal suit from 2023. This time, Amazon takes Temu to court.
Legal advisor Andrea Sager highlighted a growing trend of complaints since Temu’s popularity surged in 2022, illustrating the platform’s ongoing struggle with intellectual property rights infringement. In response, Temu acknowledged the significance of protecting these rights, with a spokesperson noting their commitment to supporting small business innovation and creativity, despite the challenges and the need for continued improvement.
Next, let’s review the benefits of brand monitoring software for protecting against online threats.
4 key benefits of brand protection software to reiterate to your board
When building, honing, and ultimately maintaining a brand’s security, there are benefits to keep in mind (especially when battling your boardroom) for ROI to unlock more value in your security budget.
But first you need to pitch the value add of this software. So here are 4 ways to reposition this request:
1: Prevent brand impersonation: Brand protection tools that focus on mitigating online threats assist in proactively identifying potential fraudulent activities that mimic your brand, to ensure the authenticity of your brand’s online presence. We outline the main forms of brand abuse in this blog.
2: Minimize reputational damage (not to mention financial): By curtailing the sale of counterfeit items and mitigating fraud, brand protection software plays a crucial role in preserving the integrity and financial health of the brand.
3: Social media monitoring : The analytics provided by the software empowers brands with insights into their vulnerability against online threats, offering actionable advice on bolstering their digital footprint.
This social media platform is in the top 2% of communities on Reddit. Brand protection software can monitor product listings for brands.
4: Online reputation management: Key features include holistic workflows and interactive report tracking, brands can streamline their online content strategy, ensuring that their digital assets are well-protected and accurately represented across all channels for peace of mind.
Brand Protection software is truly an indispensable asset for companies striving to protect their top talent on social media, monitor effectively their online reputation, and defend against damaging scams. Your brand’s reputation
3 ways to share the outcomes of your brand protection solution
Being a successful CISO these days involves wearing many hats, especially when it comes to reporting and distilling tech, engineering, risk, and business outcomes to your board. To gain trust and reaffirm why brand protection software is so important to multiple stakeholders on your board, you need to know how to get your ROI reporting just right.
However, interpreting the questions of multiple stakeholders does not have to be so complex.
When it comes to compiling reports that satisfy the needs of analysts, marketing, revenue, engineering, and leadership teams, you’ll need to present accurate real time data. By detailing how brand abuse affects your online marketplaces, digital channels, you’ll neatly quantify brand impersonation cyber threats.
To let the most engaging metrics paint a clear picture, here are 3 great ways to prioritize your pitch.
- Concentrate on sharing significant takeaways that directly convey the brand abuse at present. You should lean in and focus on reporting the most recognizable threats: Including mobile apps impersonation, online threats
- Use visual aids such as tooltips, color contrasts, and arrows indicating increases or decreases in online brand protection charts. A precise digital risk protection overview is what your board need for the most impact.
- Consider sharing metrics via a real-time dashboard that is accessible for a clear, concise, and interactive presentation. Share meaty threat intelligence titbits like trademark infringement issues, e-commerce scams, lists of counterfeit products takedowns. This will let key stakeholders review the unauthorized use of your brand’s intellectual property online
Do you need a better brand protection strategy?
Resources and context are the ultimate brandshield when it comes to a solid brand protection solution.
CybelAngel offers robust domain protection by utilizing superior scanning techniques to monitor and take down fraudulent sites and look-alike domains. It safeguards businesses from spoofing, phishing, brand impersonation, and more. Our advanced detection machine learning capabilities alert users to variations of legitimate domains and maintains a domain threat watchlist to preemptively address spoofing threats.When it comes to cybersecurity threats our effective takedown process successfully eliminates 95% of malicious domains. All this is achieved without the need for client intervention to ensure the most comprehensive brand protection.
Protect your brand from cyber threats by requesting a demo of our domain protection module today.
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That is it for this blog. Thank you for reading the CybelAngel blog.