Brand pirates

Are you a brand pirate?

There is a bit of a trend that I have noticed. I’ll use Apple to illustrate (as they seem to get the most publicity around it), however there are plenty of other organisations that find themselves in the same situation.

You spend incredible amounts of time and energy building a brand. Develop products and services that people want to buy. Go out of your way to make them something special, something worth talking about. The buzz builds and people clamour to get on board.

Then, at the same time the customers are lining up, so are other businesses. Happily willing to hitch their idea to your brand wagon. That’s just the way business works. One thing leads to another and I have no problem with that.

But sometimes it crosses the line. And here is where the Apple example best illustrates the problem. Apple have built incredible products that have worldwide recognition and affection – just by adding an “i” in front of the name or including “mac”, a business can instantly associate and leverage that awareness. But why should that be okay?

There are plenty of stories about Apple coming after these “pirates” and using the legal system to enforce their trademark and in most cases public opinion sides with the poor little guy being bullied by big bad Apple.

But why should Apple allow any Johnny who rocks up to profit from their work and brand? There are plenty of partners who provide products and services that work with Apple within legal frameworks, again that’s business.

That doesn’t mean Apple should tolerate anyone who want to stick “i” in front of their name and build their business around it thinking it will be okay because the product or service provided is Apple friendly.

There are many, many companies who have to deal with brand pirates every day. At best they are a public relations minefield, at worst they can badly damage the brand they have attached to.

For example, the public sees an “i” and automatically thinks “oh Apple-related product”. The problem is the company may have nothing to do with Apple. Doesn’t hold their values. Isn’t focused on innovation and design. Now I have a muddied view of Apple, I thought these things were important but the product I just bought doesn’t seem like Apple… you start to get the picture.

In the golden age of piracy, whole shipping channels and many countries were held hostage by pirates. Now, I don’t mean to suggest that these companies present a threat of life or death to someone such as Apple. However, if one is allowed to go ahead, more will follow and pretty soon it is not too hard to see the value of the brand slowly sinking beneath their weight.

See you next week.

Michel Hogan is a Brand Advocate. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia and in the United States, she helps organisations recognize who they are and align that with what they do and say, to build more authentic and sustainable brands. She also publishes the Brand thought leadership blog – Brand Alignment.