Developing a Successful Online Brand Protection Strategy

Introduction: VeriSign Digital Brand Management Services specializes in helping brand owners and trademark holders manage and protect their digital assets online. The following article has been exerpted and updated from the free VeriSign guide, “Protecting and Managing Your Company’s Online Identity: Strategic Solutions for Corporate Domain Name Challenges.”

Most companies recognize that their domain names are vital to establishing their brand identity on the Internet, and that they are valuable business assets, whether they manage them in-house, use an outside vendor, or use some combination of the two.

For marketers, as well as legal and IT departments, managing a large number of brands online – particularly for global companies – has become increasingly complex. Failing to register and protect domain names associated with a company and its brands puts communication channels, revenue, brand identity and customer confidence at risk. By contrast, developing and executing a sound domain name management strategy as part of your company’s overall online marketing strategy can not only reduce risk and frustration, but help turn domain names from an expensive aggravation to an effective sales and revenue generator.

The Challenges

Despite the fact that new threats to online brand identity surface on a regular basis, many businesses don’t have a comprehensive strategy in place yet to deal with them. However, considering the billions of dollars that companies spend to promote these same brands – and the costs and potential long-term effects of not taking action — it’s important to understand the challenges and what can be done to address them.

Let’s take a look at some of the most common problems.

One of the most prominent is the escalating number of “phishing” attacks, in which criminals use e-mail addresses and Web sites that mimic well-known companies to get users to divulge personal and financial data. According to the latest report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group, there were nearly 3,000 active phishing sites in March targeting 78 distinct brands. Not surprisingly, more than one-third of the phishing attacks used some form of the brand name in the bogus Web site link.

Next, consider all the products, services, trademarks and brands associated with your company. In addition, consider the new products and services you might launch in the next year, as well as new countries where you’re doing business now and potentially in the future.

Now, think about all the different domain names that could be associated with those variations. While .com is still the most popular extension, domain names for specific countries, known as Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs), now account for 39 percent of all registrations and are becoming increasingly popular with in-country users and localized search engines. Then there are Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), which use non-English characters sets, and the new “sponsored TLDs” (sTLDs) that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has just approved, such as .travel and .jobs.

Finally, consider other common threats to domain names, such as speculators who register domain names that companies have inadvertently let expire, and then attempt to sell them back or hold them “hostage.” Critics who register domain names similar to company names to make disparaging remarks or create public awareness of potentially damaging information; and traffic diverters who redirect customers looking for products and services to another site, lure unwitting customers into divulging critical personal information and financial data, or, as in a recent case, download malicious spyware from a site with a similar spelling.

While many companies aggressively pursue the most blatant or offensive violations, the combined cost of infringement, lost revenue, customer dissatisfaction and legal expenses remains very high.

The Solutions

So, what’s a savvy marketer to do? The solution is to turn as many challenges as possible into opportunities. VeriSign suggests the following steps to get your online brands under your control, no matter how big your business, budget or marketing department.

1. Identify and rank your brand assets: critical, important and secondary trademarks, brands, slogans, other intellectual property and names of key personnel.
For example, you have some brands you consider critical; some that are important in some regions, but not in others; names of key executives; and new products and services (including those that are not yet launched). If you work for a global company, there may also be brands and trademarks used in other countries.

2. Consolidate your existing domain name registrations into a single managed account.
Work with a registrar or an in-house specialist to “find” your existing domain name registrations by searching the WHOIS (a database of registrant information for each domain name) by registrant name, e-mail address, phone number and other data points. In addition, make sure your registrar – the company you register your domain names through – “locks” your gTLDs to eliminate unplanned and unauthorized deactivations and modifications, as well as unauthorized transfers.

3. Set up registration and modification standards and procedures across the entire company.
You may want to set up a company-controlled e-mail alias so someone is always able to receive communication about domain names – an important step to consider when you realize that many company Web sites have gone down because former employees were no longer there to get the expiration notices. Next, decide where you want your domain names to “point.” If someone types in one of your domain names in their browser, which Web site do you want them to see? Examine your DNS (domain name system) set up to make sure Web sites are not relying on non-redundant servers that could be taken offline by physical or virtual threats or accidents.

4. Make sure your current domain name portfolio matches the new standards and procedures.
Review each of your domain names to ensure that they meet your standards, and that the contact information has been updated for each name. Update domain name records accordingly and ensure that all employees understand the new processes.

5. Register any domain names that should have been already but haven’t been. Make sure all applications meet individual domain name registry requirements. In addition to common misspellings, brand names, and popular gTLDs, consider registering appropriate ccTLDs, particularly in countries with few restrictions. Keep in mind there are special requirements that must be met for some ccTLDs, such as an in-country address, proof of business in the country, or proof of a trademark in the country, and be sure to set up the DNS properly.

6. Recover domain names that have been registered by cyber squatters or other individuals.
Once you’ve completed an audit of your brands and trademarks, you may find domain names that have been registered to other companies or individuals. There are two common means to recover them. You can start by using local laws and courts or ICANN’s Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) to recover names illegitimately registered by another party. If these measures are not successful or appropriate, consider using anonymous acquisition methods. Costs vary depending on the dispute resolution process (or lack thereof) and the particular domain name(s) under consideration.

7. Manage and monitor your portfolio on a systematic, on-going basis.
With multiple domain names in your portfolio, you will need to modify records from time to time. Some of the events that may trigger this include: mergers and acquisitions; moves; new product or service launches; new business in other countries; transfer or termination of key employees; billing and budget issues; and departmental or project billing requirements.

8. Monitor and protect other online assets such as content and graphics.
Brand monitoring services can help you find out how your brand names, trademarks, logos, and proprietary content are represented online – even if the Web sites are not using your brand in their domain names. Such specialized services use sophisticated data collection, categorization and filtering tools to identify sites that infringe on branding, are linked to online fraud, or require brand renaming, and monitor public chat rooms, newsgroups and Web sites to find incidents of credit card number trading, threats against your company or personnel, distribution of counterfeit goods and even physical and virtual threats against your company.

9. Use your domain name registrations to increase customer satisfaction and generate revenue.
It’s time to consider how to use your domain names to increase customer satisfaction and make money. Make sure your domain name registrations go directly to one of your Web sites versus a “parked” or “under construction” Web page to make it easy for your customers to find you online. Do your domain name registrations for the French market point to a Web site in French? Are your international Web sites optimized to show up in localized search engine results? Consider registering domain names that correspond to product launches and marketing campaigns as needed. While you may not want to do this each time you launch a campaign, nor is it recommended, it may be easier for customers to find you if a particular product is better known than the parent company.

10. Periodically evaluate the cost and feasibility of an in-house solution versus outsourcing to an enterprise-focused domain name management vendor.
As your business and your domain name portfolio expand, you should periodically assess whether or not it’s feasible and cost-effective to continue to manage your domain names in-house.

Alternatively, specific events may necessitate a review. For example, you may need detailed reports on your portfolio and its associated costs and assets to other departments, divisions or sister companies; or need to register a large number of ccTLDs associated with a new product launch or global expansion project. Or you may be required to execute a large-scale modification project associated with a merger, acquisition, or change the billing structure so that individual lines of business are invoiced for their domain name registrations. Companies often find that working with a vendor that specializes in meeting the needs of large enterprises can reduce their overall costs and internal resources that could be spent on other projects