Protection from Brand Infection: Research Survey

On behalf of the CMO Council, I am pleased to pass along to my readers an announcement of the formation of a new thought leadership initiative titled "Protection from Brand Infection." Protection from Brand Infection is a new area of exploration to determine the degree to which senior global marketers are sensitized to, and concerned about, brand hijacking, product piracy, cyber fraud, and other Internet reputation risks.

I emphasized "Internet reputation risks" because that is often my focus in discussions on this blog.

According to Donovan Neale-May of the CMO Council, "the program will focus on Enterprise Brand Protection and take a deep dive into the brand image and integrity issues, implications of online counterfeit sales, gray market knock-offs, phishing attacks, cyber squatting, email scams, online brand and trademark abuse, domain kiting, pay-per-click fraud, copyright and patent infringements, as well as product piracy and fakes."

As part of this initiative, CMO Council is currently hosting the Protection for Brand Infection survey, which I encourage my readers to take. In return, CMO Council will give us an exclusive look at the results of interest to the pharmaceutical industry.

Here are some finding so far:

29.4% of respondents (so far) see cybersquatting, or the illegal use of trademarks or brands in domain names online, as the most prevalent infringement on business and reputation. However, only 18% are plagued by replication of goods, fashion labels, apparel or products.

Where do you fall? Are you among the nearly 40% of marketers who are leaving this brand problem up to legal? Or are you one of the marketers with an eye on those who are looking to profit from your brand’s reputation?

We are nearing the end of our research for a CMO Council initiative, Protection From Brand Infection, and are looking for your insights to round out our peer-led audit. You can access the survey at http://www.brandsecuritycenter.org/survey/protection/

The CMO Council is closing this research within the next week, so time is of the essence. All participants will receive a free copy of the report upon publication.

Take part in this benchmark of how marketing is taking control and securing the trust in our brands!