Super Bowl viewers this year saw mysterious ads for something called "mlife." Many assumed the product came from insurer Metropolitan Life, aka MetLife. In fact, mlife is a
wireless product from AT&T - and MetLife's lawyers originally accused the telecom giant of muddying the waters around their familiar brand. MetLife has evidently decided,
however, to focus on its own branding efforts - and let any unintended publicity from AT&T's murky ads do some of their marcom work for them.
But other major corporations have long proven themselves willing to go the mat in defense of their brand integrity when they feel it is truly threatened. The owners of
California's famous Pebble Beach Golf Links, for example, brought legal action against a Texas golf resort that had replicated the most challenging holes from Pebble Beach. The
California club said the copies created confusion in the minds of consumers.
In the virtual world, automaker Volkswagen convinced a court that a firm called Virtual Works should surrender the rights to the VW.net domain name. Again, the issue was
consumer confusion.
When a brand comes under attack, either through marketing that creates consumer confusion or through a competitor's deliberate efforts to ride on profitable coattails, experts
say the first thing a PR executive must do is ensure that the fundamentals are in place.
Stick To The Knitting
"If one company is corrupting the goodwill built up by another company ... then the company being attacked has to come out and present the benefits and the strengths of its own
brand value," says Ken Makovsky, president of New York-based PR firm Makovsky & Co. "You have got to develop a campaign that talks benefits, that presents data about the brand
- and that also communicates the integrity of the brand."
Sound like branding 101? Exactly. When [interlopers attempt to overtake your brand] the first defense is to redouble efforts to stake out brand turf. This is the time to lay
out once again the history, the values and the promise of the brand - all the things that go into a successful branding effort in the first place.
"The key is in always knowing what your brand stands for in its relationship with the consumer. If you are totally clear on what your brand stands for, and are consistent on
executing against that, that is the most important thing," says Mark Curran, managing director of the global marketing practice at Ogilvy PR.
"You are showing why your brand is better," agrees Alissa Blate, EVP at The MWW Group. "You are not bashing the competition."
If an attack is especially vigorous, though, a more direct response may be needed. In such cases, the art lies in repelling the invaders without giving them any added
credibility or attention.
When Curran worked with the International Olympic Committee, for instance, he wanted to discredit "ambush marketers" - those who used the Olympic name without becoming official
sponsors - and yet he did not want to give them added PR. Solution? In all his PR materials, he referred to the practice as "parasite marketing." That sent the message loud and
clear.
Internal Assault
Competitive confusion is not the only threat to brand integrity. Sometimes your own strategic partners can imperil your branding efforts.
One corporate PR exec, who requested anonymity, shared just such a story. She brought on a PR consultant to help craft a major campaign. The campaign won awards, and the
outside consultant decided to promote herself as co-creator of this "award-winning" campaign. To do this, she proposed using the corporation's visuals within her own advertising.
"I directed the consultant to not use our [materials], with the explanation that I did not want to risk having our campaign's message become too closely tied to her own," the
PR exec explained.
The two sides are still battling it out, and the consultant now claims that she owns the rights to the corporation's materials, including its tag line.
To avoid similar problems in the future, "I would ensure that any agreement in place clearly identifies ownership and copyright permissions," said the PR exec.
"I felt we could have slam-dunked any legal case that may have transpired. However, my CEO does not believe that anything good could come of us ending up in court."
But corporations routinely issue cease-and-desist orders when they feel their brand is being infringed upon. For the PR department, that legal action can be a double-edged
sword.
"When you spend too much time negating what someone else has said or done, it requires you to put out a lot of energy that in effect continues the focus on the other company,"
says Elonide Semmes, principal at Greenfield/Belser.
Others argue that if legal action is needed, it usually makes sense to publicize the fact. Makovsky says that if he needed to file an infringement suit, "I would immediately
publicize it, because it would immediately bring to a head the issue of the confusion."
In either case, the PR fallout from a legal move must be handled with care. "Do you want people to think of you as the company that sues in order to squash the competition?"
said Semmes.
"Frankly, I think you want people to think of you for all the great things you do." So it's back to basics once again.
(Contacts: Mark Curran, 212/880-5217, [email protected]; Ken Makovsky, 212/508-9601, [email protected]; Alissa Blate, 201/507-9500, [email protected]; Elonide Semmes, 207/741-2199, [email protected])
When All Else Fails...
Sometimes a brand is just not worth defending. Take for instance the nation's oldest and largest maid service franchisers - The Maids. "We are constantly trying to distinguish
ourselves from Merry Maids, which is the largest maid service [corporation]," explains PR Manager Janet Nelson. To resolve the confusion, Nelson first worked to articulate her
firm's differentiators. She crafted the message that The Maids clean not just for aesthetics, but for health, taking extra steps to remove irritants that trigger asthma and
allergies. When that wasn't enough, the firm went the extra mile, changing its name this summer to The Maids Home Services.
"It sets us apart and it tells people that we offer more than just basic maid service," she says. It's still too early to know whether the name change will have the desired
effect, but the lesson is clear: When two brands are too close for comfort, there are times when a strategic surrender makes more sense than a fight. (Contact: Janet Nelson,
800/843-6243, [email protected])