Put People First
Our Approach to Brand Protection
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Effective Online Global Brand Protection and Sales Channel Strategy has little to do with the strength of your brand, the number of eCommerce professionals hired or a robust corporate strategy.
Our engagements have proven time and time again that in an ever evolving global ecommerce environment, there are three critical common factors attributed to companies that successfully protect their brands. These are, Active Monitoring, Investigation and Research, and Aggressive Enforcement strategy.
Having refined this process through many years of experience, H&A utilizes this process to help clients through the problems caused by those selling and diverting their products without authorization. This includes identification of unauthorized third party (3P) sellers and other known DBAs (doing business as) they use, clarified authorized sellers, shut down counterfeit operations, provided information for legal action and much, much more.
If you do not plan for the future, you cannot solve your problem, Here at H&A we DO NOT only prescribe to the here and now, but the future to success. The preverbal Whack-a-Mole approach will never solve your problems long-term, we put a foundation in place to solve these issues for today and tomorrow.
Businesses invest significant personnel time and financial resources when developing products or services and bringing those products or services to the market. Popular products become attractive targets for unauthorized third-party or online sales by unknown or masked marketplace operators, which diverts revenue, reduces brand value, and erodes customer confidence. Ironically, the more successful and more valuable the brand, the more likely the brand is to experience such goodwill and profit pilfering. For businesses, the question is when not if an unauthorized seller will infringe and exploit a brand.
Unfortunately, many businesses find themselves encountering a game of whack-a-mole with each challenge popping up and disappearing in an endless, chaotic manner. At H&A, we approach brand protection holistically, starting with the fundamental agreements, processes, and activities of distribution, educating invested stakeholders, and continuing through disrupting unauthorized sellers that tarnish brand image and divert business revenue.
OUR METHODOLOGY
At Howell and Associates, we specialize in cleaning up distribution channel compliance and improving product distribution. Because there is no “one size fits all” or “silver bullet” solution, we customize our processes to a brand’s particular needs that reduce or even eliminate unauthorized product sales. For example, we:
- Analyze the marketplace, including previous enforcement and cleanup activities
Analyze existing policies and procedures and make best-practice recommendations regarding distribution channel establishment and maintenance (these policies and procedures are essential in working with online third-party marketplaces, customs, and other enforcement agencies)
- Identify and investigate unauthorized product sales
- Determine leaks in authorized distribution channels to identify how authentic product finds its way to improper marketplaces
- Identify counterfeit or masquerading product and assist the brand in-house compliance team in removing these products from the market
- Assist the brand in-house compliance team in channel compliance actions to remove unauthorized product listings, unauthorized sellers, and sales price violations
- Assist the brand in-house compliance team continue to monitor sales and distribution channels, maintain clean channels, and respond to new market conditions
Our methodology assists businesses and brands in preparing them to successfully reduce the number of unauthorized product sales. We help brands identify both unauthorized sales and distribution channel weaknesses, reduce unauthorized sales through targeted channel compliance actions, remove counterfeit products from the market, protect brand value, pricing, and reputation. We have seen our strategies reduce unauthorized sales by up to 85% or more.
OUR RESULTS
David G. Howell
MANAGING PARTNER
David G. Howell
MANAGING PARTNER
David G. Howell
MANAGING PARTNER
