Explosive growth in the supply of cheap, counterfeit, electronic goods has fuelled calls for brand owners to assume greater responsibility for their products, especially in the run up to the frenetic Christmas market.
Andy Churley, marketing director at brand protection specialists NetNames said: “Brand owners need to take responsibility for protecting customers.
“Today, it is imperative that businesses are using the online power channels to engage customers and drive the sales life-cycle. However, at a time when one in six products sold are counterfeits, brand owners need to remember that domain names are a valuable online asset so branding and domain names need to go hand in hand. For example, the domain name ipadmini.com has been owned by a company called Ballade since 2005 and provides “geo targeted ads based on the IP address of user”.
“While searching for miniipad.com brings up a 404 web-page error. Issues like this are a serious problem for brand owners who are looking at pushing their product envelope. As a result, businesses need to take control of domain names and ensure that as soon as a concept, brand, company or slogan is thought of, the appropriate domain names are secured in order to stay one step ahead in the online world.”