CMO study: Marketers fear increase in brand infection

In times of a slow economy, marketers see a lot of danger for brand integrity by fakes, frauds and infringements. The Chief Marketing Office (CMO) Council asked in a global audit of 306 marketers, sponsored by MarkMonitor, how marketers view threats to online and offline brand attacks. The results reveal that top marketers see online threats heating up but still struggle to understand, monitor and measure the impact of the increased sophistication of brand hijackers and product knock-offs on consumer trust and confidence. The good point is: they plan to increase spending on brand protection.

The study “Protection From Brand Infection” shows that marketers are reporting a greater number of incidents or fraud online than offline. In terms of chief vulnerability online (29.5%) has surpassed offline (22.6%) already. The brand value, trust, integrity and reputation is being eroded and damaged, reply the study respondents. The main problems companies are fighting grey market knock-offs, phishing attacks, cyber squatting, email scams, trademark abuse, copyright and patent infringements.

Key findings of the Protection from Brand Infection study
- The top six market segments with the highest prevalence of abuse are digital media, luxury goods, software, footwear and apparel and Internet e-commerce (tied), and consumer electronics.

- 30.3% said their company has a specialized brand protection group with another 17% choosing to outsource those efforts with a third party provider or leaving it up to their industry trade organization.

- 27.4% reported they spend less than $100,000 on brand protection annually and the same number reported they have no budget allocations. Another 29.1% report they don’t know. 9.8 percent say they’re spending more than $500,000 while 2.7% say they’re spending more than $5 million.
- The value and integrity of brand assets suffered the greatest impact from counterfeit products, knock-offs or online brand hijackings, with 41.2 percent of marketers rating this highest followed by 35% blaming it for undermining revenue and margins and 26.7 percent saying the activities raised unnecessary customer concerns and anxieties.

 

http://www.thestrategyweb.com/cmo-study-marketers-fear-increase-in-brand-infection