Brandjacking on the Web

I thought this was an interesting article, particularly since even today, much of the emphasis on brand monitoring is still geared towards more traditional methods of control, with relatively little said about online activities. In my opinion, however, firms really need to focus on this emerging threat, especially for companies that rely on the internet as a major acquisition/ retention channel. Additionally, "controversial" brands have much to lose if intelligent objectors can capitalize on similar sounding domain names to promote their own anti-brand agenda at the detriment of the victim company. The article below, sheds further light on the issue.

"Brandjacking" is on the rise
Do you know how your brand is being used online? According to a new report called the Brandjacking Index, many brands are being hijacked online - and companies don't even know about it.
Bizreport.com, May 2, 2007 by Kristina Knight

Cybersquatting is the leading cause of brand manipulation. By buying relevant domain names, cybersquatters abuse the brand image for their own gain. Phishing attacks, click fraud and similar tactics are used to make money or steal information.
The Brandjacking Index tracked 25 popular brands on 134 million public online records in March. The report authors found more than 285,000 instances of cybersquatting during the four-week study period.
Frederick Felman, MarkMonitor's chief marketing officer, said (in an interview with Reuters) that cybersquatting is a starting point for other forms of abuse, including search marketing tricks designed to pull traffic away from reputable Web sites. "Brand-holders face a double whammy: The volume of these abuses is significant, while abusers are becoming alarmingly savvy marketers," he said.
In another report, researchers found that phishing attacks increase 104% between March 2006 and March 2007.
What can a business, online or offline, do to protect themselves?
Stay on top of where your brand and trademarks are being used with a brand tracker like this one from ACNielsen, and invest in an email authentication program for email campaigns.