24 Jan What Is Brand Protection And Why Do You Need It?
What Is Brand Protection And Why Do You Need It?
Whether you know it or not, there is a reason why people say the startup business realm is one of the most difficult and challenging sectors to work in.
From competition to public perception, there is a multitude of factors that contribute to you making it or breaking it when starting or operating a business.
In this article, we are going to dive into one of the most important facets of organisation management and business operations, and that is brand protection.
While you may not think of this as being one of the more important things when managing a company or organisation, the protections that you put in place to make sure that the public sees you in the best light possible are some of the fundamental structures that make up a stable business.
So whether you are just now starting a business or you are re-learning what it means to steward your company well, the concept of brand protection and why your company needs it could quite possibly be the thing that elevates your business to the next level.
What is Brand Protection?
The best place to begin would be to explain precisely what brand protection is.
For the most part, there are a variety of answers to that.
Essentially, brand protection is the measures put in place to guard not only your brand and the usage of it but to ensure that the banner you are operating under is one that maintains the reputation that you have worked so hard to earn.
After all, it is your brand reputation that is going to attract new customers and keep you ahead of the competition, which is precisely what you will need to do if you are going to make it in the shark tank of modern-day business.
Going into detail, one of the most common forms of brand protection is trademark registration.
Brand Trademark Registration
In layman’s terms, a trademark is a sign that distinguishes between people’s goods and services.
This is to make sure that two separate businesses are not mistaken for one another.
In the same way that you would have a specific domain connected to your website to differentiate between your company and your competition, trademarks attach themselves to brands to ensure that the business realm is not just one giant melting pot.
Going with this analogy, in the same way that you would purchase a domain name from a registrar such as 101domain, businesses are required to go to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to receive a trademark for their brand.
Two more techniques that are widely considered to be brand protections are copyrighting your content and acquiring a patent.
Copyright and Patents in Branding
For the former, this technique centres around discouraging plagiarists from taking your content, whatever that may be, and using it as their own.
When it comes to the latter, this technique is commonly used when operating a business that produces physical products, such as a phone or a pair of glasses or anything else.
Patents, which are issued by the government, are safeguards against competing businesses taking your product and marketing it as their own.
Overall, the basis of brand protection centres around separating you from the competition and ensuring that the field is a fair one.
So whether it be blocking plagiarists from stealing your content, or malicious individuals who attempt to ruin your reputation, these safeguards make it so that your brand is stable and solely influenced by you.
This is an invaluable benefit in the world of marketing and making sure that the public sees in the way that you desire to be seen.
Now that you have a relatively-comprehensive understanding of brand protection and the forms that it might come in, the next portion of this article is dedicated to fleshing out the reasons why your business needs brand protection.
Why do you need Brand Protection?
Whether you realise it or not, the types of protection that were just listed are things that have been proven to be effective and reliable, but that is only because the threats they are standing against are genuine ones.
So regardless of if you believe you need them or not, it is vitally important that you understand the reasons as to why so many businesses and companies implement them.
One of the first and most important reasons why brand protection is critical is that it enhances not only your brand’s value, but it’s level of reliability as well.
In the world of business, investors and partners are a significant aspect of the job, so proving to them that they are wasting neither their time nor their money is extremely important.
With brand protection, those investors or venture capitalists know that they are buying into a business that is both stable and secure – two adjectives that they love to hear.
The next reason why brand protections are crucial to any marketing scheme or business strategy is that it brings culture to whatever environment it inhabits.
For example, when you see the Nike “swoosh,” you automatically associate it with a specific activity or lifestyle that Nike embodies as a brand.
This is exactly what you are trying to do with your brand, so ensuring that it is secure is of the utmost importance.
Also, in all reality, you are guarding more than just a brand or an environment.
You are also guarding the values, people, and goals that you have attached to your company.
No longer is it how people view you, but it is actually you.
It is what you stand for, what you sell, and what you want to be in the future.
So with that being said, it is obvious why ensuring that direction is one that only you are influencing is a real desire of most businesses.
Going along with that topic, let’s briefly discuss how when creating a brand and the culture around it, brand protection is fundamental to the safety of those building and promoting new content.
In this age of digital marketing, there are plenty of people trying to make a name for themselves and their company, and they genuinely have the tools to do so.
The thing is, once you have created content and you have a foot in the door, you immediately become a target for replication, theft, or mimicking.
The list goes on as to possible ways that another party could corrupt your new content, but with brand protection, you have the freedom to move and expand in a manner that metaphorically holds your place in line.
So whether you consider yourself a creative, designer, or freelancer, getting ahead of the game on protection might be the move that sets you apart from all others vying for a platform.
That being said, now would be an excellent time to jump in on possible ways that you can ensure brand protection as a designer, creative, or freelancer.
Protecting your personal Brand
One of the most fundamental forms of shielding yourself and your content is by making sure you have certain legal protections in place—which means that you need to include a Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions link within your platform somewhere.
While this may not be an element that consumers actively flock to when scoping out a particular website or brand, this allows you legal options when your brand is in jeopardy.
Essentially, it sets the stage for you to lay legal claim to the content you create as people come on and off your website, which is extremely crucial in such a content-rich industry.
Another way that you can implement brand protection as a freelancer is through the miracle that is the contract.
As a creative, it is essential that when working with clients, you set some ground rules and expectations before doing any work for them.
Whether you notice it or not, the occasional client may attempt to receive content while simultaneously cheating you out of your money.
The thing is, when a contract is established, and content ownership, payment, and deadlines are established before any work takes place, both parties have a platform to work with if any disagreement or tension arises.
With that covered, it’s essential to realise that implementing both of these forms of brand protection is critical to any operation if you hope to have the freedom to grow and expand your business in the future safely.
Now that that’s out of the way, we can finally move on to the last reason why every company should use brand protection – possibility.
Corporate Brand Protection
While most people see businesses like Coca-Cola or McDonald’s as multibillion-dollar companies, very few individuals are aware of what they looked like when they just started.
Odds are, they did not begin by having a restaurant in virtually every city or a bottle in everyone’s hand but instead started as pure startups that used marketing and branding to their advantage.
These businesses made sure that their brand was secure and that their reputation stayed in a good light.
While most businesses may not make it to this level of influence, it is vitally important that you set yourself up for success.
Who knows? This implementation of brand protection that has proven to be effective and reliable might be the measures that turn your business into an iconic brand.
The post What Is Brand Protection And Why Do You Need It? is by Stuart and appeared first on Inkbot Design.