One of your business’s best assets is the brand name. For one, it sets you apart from your competitor and helps build your reputation in your niche, which can go a long way in ensuring sales and revenue. Hence, aside from coming up with a strong and unique name that will resonate with your target audience, protecting it is also crucial.
Once you’ve established your business and it has started growing, counterfeits or competitors may try to bring unhealthy competition by infringing your business name. And in some cases, some may also produce knock-off products that imitate your brand. This can hurt your business, more so your reputation in the industry.
For that reason, implementing different brand protection strategies as early as possible can be one of the best defenses in ensuring no other individual or entity will use your brand name to its advantage.
To help you get started, here are some of the ways you can protect your brand name:
Register Your Trademark
A trademark is a sign that can be used to distinguish the products or services of one firm from those of another. As long as it’s registered, it can help protect your brand name by giving you the full authority and right to use it worldwide in association with the goods and products you’re selling.
Registering your trademark may be a lengthy process, but it’s worth it. You’ll sell your products or offer your services without the fear of infringement since you have the confidence to take legal action against any perpetrators. This means that if you find anyone trying to sell products registered under your trademark without your consent, you can sue them. This is an excellent way of protecting your brand name.
As a good start, you can check out resources and companies like Trademark Engine to help you apply for and get your registered trademark. There are also services that can help you in trademark monitoring and performing trademark searches.
Use Your Brand Name As Much As You Can
The more you use your company’s logo, brand name, tagline, or any other element that identifies your firm, the more you strengthen your presence in your niche and the evidence you have that the brand belongs to you. For instance, if you sell electronics, it would be best to ensure that all the electric kettles, iron boxes, fridges, and televisions have your brand name on them.
Moreover, you can also have your sales, marketing, and transport team workers wear t-shirts with your company’s logo and brand name. If you’ve grown to a level where you have trucks and vans, you’d want to make sure that they all have your company name written on them.
Essentially, the more people know and identify your brand with the products and services you’re offering, the lesser chance other entities have in succeeding in impersonating your company or using your established name to grow their business.
Register Your Domain Name
Having a domain name is highly crucial in today’s business world. It gives your business credibility and allows you to be in the same digital marketplace as your competitors. Moreover, it plays a crucial role in enhancing the awareness of your brand and protecting it.
With reference to the above points, you’d want to register your domain name as soon as you’ve decided on your brand’s name. Most people shun that because they associate a domain name with building a website, a process that they may not yet be ready for.
So, to deal with that fear, it’s essential that you know that you don’t have to be planning to build your website instantly to register your domain name. The idea is to have a legal claim over your brand name so no one else can take it or impersonate it.
To effectively secure your business identity, it would be wise to register the domain name of your choice with various extensions to minimize the chances of any fraudster trying to copy your business. It will also help if you register the spelling close to your business name. The aim is to increase the chances of visitors accessing your website without a hassle, even if they misspell your brand’s domain name (this is after you’ve built your site).
Another important tip you shouldn’t forget while registering your domain name is setting an automatic renewal. This can help prevent any likelihood of losing the name in case the expiration period is over.
Build A Strong Online Presence
It can also be beneficial to establish an outstanding social media presence to strengthen and protect your brand from imposters. A great way to do this is to use the same username and logo or photo across different social media platforms.
If possible, try and post content consistently so your online customers can be engaged and get more familiar with the products or services you’re offering and how your brand runs its activities. For example, if you’re an eCommerce business, do you offer door-to-door deliveries or free shipping? Are there new products to be launched that your target audience needs to be aware of?
Regular audience engagement can go a long way in boosting your brand’s reputation and visibility. With this approach, it can be difficult for other individuals or companies to try to sell products under your name since they can’t fully copy what you do. Additionally, loyal customers can easily detect a change and air out their complaints, especially if they get a different or better experience before. In this case, you’ll be able to know that someone else is trying to replicate your brand name and incorporate the right measure to weed them out.
Respond To Any Infringement Attempts
As mentioned earlier, registering your trademark gives you authority over the use of your brand name and other associated intellectual property with your brand. And so, should any individual or entity use it without your permission, you can file a case against them.
If the perpetrator ignores the order, your lawyer can help you take further legal action. Such a case may take a while, especially if the person resides in a different country from yours. However, you shouldn’t lose your vision of protecting your brand name since it’s for a worthy course.
Conclusion
Having a unique and appealing brand name can help your target market quickly identify and set you apart from competitors in your niche. And considering the role your brand name plays in the overall success of your business, protecting it should also be one of your priorities.
The insights outlined above can be a good start in securing your brand name, giving your business a higher chance to maintain its competitive advantage over others.
