Battling the Marketplaces that Facilitate Brand Attacks

It’s a never-ending battle to keep a brand – any brand — from being cheated, attacked, used, abused, or even eliminated from existence.  For companies that use their website to sell goods, transact business, upload and download files, or manage accounts, there are countless ways the brand can be attacked.  Hacking websites, stealing data, and holding systems hostage are just a few of the cybercrimes committed against businesses every day.  And the pace of change in technology makes “staying ahead of the hackers” challenging for even the most committed organizations. 

But when we think of cyber crimes and cyber criminals hurting businesses, we think of tech-savvy gangsters using powerful computers to infiltrate systems.  We don’t usually think of how legitimate marketplaces and vendors might play a part – perhaps unwittingly or carelessly — in allowing these brand attacks to happen.  The more such attempts go unchecked, the more other criminals are enticed to try it. 

Battling the Fakers and Profit Takers

The ugly shadow of counterfeiting stretches across businesses and global economies, impacting not just the tangible goods bought but also the increasingly vital domains of services, digital assets, currencies, documents, and even the revered world of art. And, with the rise of AI, counterfeiters can fake people’s voices and even the person’s likeness. 

Indeed, the scale of the illicit trade of what is “FAKE” is staggering, funneling billions into criminal enterprises.  What’s a brand to do?  One thing is certain.  They aren’t taking it lying down.  In response, corporate brands and governments are deploying a diverse arsenal of strategies, from cutting-edge technology to rigorous legal frameworks and widespread public education to battle the non-stop “Bakery of Fakery”.

Battling the Fakers and Profit Takers

Protecting your brand is a proactive and continuous process. It requires vigilance, strategic planning, and the right tools to be effective.  But to create an effective Brand Guide that includes a Brand Protection Plan, one must know what to protect against.  Brand protection is not a one-size-fits-all plan.  Each company is selling something different, positioning it in different ways using different venues and strategies to reach different audiences.  In short, there is a plethora of ways that a brand can be compromised, stealthily threatened or even directly attacked.

Your company has spent a lot of time and effort creating its brand and shaping how it is viewed by the world.  Company Name.  Logo.  Icon.  Colors.  Fonts.  Slogan.  Tag Line.  Motto.  Trademarks.  Service Marks.  Copyrights.  Voice.  Ads.  Domain.  Website.  Blog.  Podcast.  Trade Show Presence.  Social Media pages.  Brand Guide.  Advertorials.  Influencers.  The brand’s profile has been brought to bear with the utmost intentionality.  Tremendous energy went into guiding how the brand was perceived and received.  Slowly but surely, the brand’s name recognition grew, and its reputation polished.  Perhaps it has even developed brand loyalty… or even – dare we say it – brand love.  In short, the brand has taken on a life of its own.

The Problem with Too Much Brand Recognition

Ever heard someone say this…  “Do you have a kleenex handy?”  “Their favorite game at Summer Camp this year was ping pong.”  “Can you get me a band aid for this cut on my finger?”  “The only sneakers my son likes are the ones with velcro fasteners.”  “My kids love going to their uncle’s house because they can jump on the trampoline.”  “Take the escalator up to the second floor to find the restrooms.” These are all common statements that people make every day.  But, at one point, they were incorrect because they were using brand names for generic products.  This is called genericization. 

When you tell someone to google it, that is genericization.  And when someone says “If you don’t want the cold to dry your lips, use chapstick at least two or three times a day.”, that person is referencing a brand that has succumbed to genericization and suffered genericide – or Brand Death — as a result.  Sounds dramatic, and it is.

When a Brand Name Becomes a Verb

When we think about competition in business, we invariably think about the product or service being provided and how it stacks up against competitors.  Quality.  Price.  Value.  Customer experience.  Customer satisfaction.  That battle also includes the strength and power of the company’s brand.  Having a powerful, recognized and respected brand name is worth a lot and can even increase the product’s price, value and customer satisfaction. 

Big, deep, thorny problems can kill companies.  One need only look at global companies that were thriving 50 years ago but now no longer exist to understand that it just takes one complicated problem to sink a business.  One deeply complex, intertwined, and/or seemingly unsolvable problem can quickly take a company from thriving to diving to not-surviving in the span of a few short years or even months.

Consider how a failure to adapt to technological changes and market shifts killed Blockbuster, Kodak, Nokia, RIM, MySpace and Borders.  Blockbuster famously rejected purchasing Netflix for $50 million, failing to recognize the shift towards online streaming and clinging to its brick-and-mortar rental model.  Despite inventing the digital camera, Kodak failed to capitalize on this innovation, fearing it would harm their film business. They underestimated the speed at which consumers would adopt digital photography, leading to their decline and bankruptcy.  Nokia and Research-In-Motion (RIM) — maker of the Blackberry — were unable to keep pace with the smartphone revolution. Borders failed to embrace online book sales and outsourced it to Amazon (who ate their lunch).  And MySpace just could not compete with Facebook.

It is not uncommon for a company to face one or more deeply complicated, intertwined and seemingly unsolvable problems.  The enormity and complexity of such challenges can feel so overwhelming that some business leaders bury their head in the sand and hope the problem resolves or goes away.  For recent examples, we need only look at look at Kodak, Borders, Bed Bath & Beyond, Radio Shack, Sweet Tomato, Blockbuster, Circuit City, and Toys R Us.  

In the US, the today’s problems can indeed feel enormous and untenable.  Cybersecurity attacks by hackers who are increasingly savvy.  Compliance challenges imposed by governments.  Marketplace unpredictability.  Economic instability.  Obsolescence due to AI and Blockchain technology.  Political upheaval.  Shrinking labor pool due to a 50% surge in new business applications and massive deportation of immigrants.  Even one of these problems can sink a small or mid-sized company.  More than one can torpedo even a large, sophisticated company.  Part of the challenge with such thorny problems is that it can become difficult for leaders to plan and execute.  But, as the saying goes, when you fail to plan, plan to fail.  So what’s a company to do?  To find a way forward, it helps to start by considering the past. 

Leadership Paves the Ultimate Path to Promotion and Prosperity

In the bustling marketplace of business success and career advancement, one powerful currency flows quietly through all jobs: soft skills. While technical prowess and hard skills often open the door, it’s mastery of interpersonal abilities that will ultimately determine how high a person climbs and how much they will earn.  Among this constellation of essential soft skills, one star shines brightest.  Arguably, it casts the longest shadow and illuminates the path to the top: leadership.

Leadership – The Top of the Soft Skills Ladder

The topic of leadership is researched and written about incessantly.  There is a long history of scholarly work dating back to the early 20th century on the topic. Over the last 100 years, hundreds of thousands of articles, white papers, magazines and books have been devoted to exploring a kaleidoscope of aspects of leadership. It has examined leadership from various perspectives and using diverse theories. There has been a notable increase in scholarly research on leadership in recent decades, particularly since the new millennium, at business schools and think tanks.