Protecting Your Brand

Everyone knows the recipe for a successful brand includes carefully defining what your business represents and delivering a consistent customer experience every time.  Whether your business is fast food or residential cleaning, your band says, “This is who we are and this is what we can do for you.”  The stronger the brand, the greater the correlation is to consumer purchasing.  That is why businesses invest heavily to protect such an intangible part of their business.

Creating, promoting and protecting the brand is the role of the corporate office. Protecting your brand, which is your marketplace identity, starts with careful brand management. Your brand may have started as a name and a product or service but over time your brand identity may include a logo, mascot, slogan, color scheme, phone number and even a smell. Your brand is used in corporate and franchise marketing materials, signage, and even business stationery.  It shows up in the quality of your product or service and the consistency of its delivery. 

The brand is the most valuable piece of your organization and without proper care and attention, it could become damaged or disappear completely.  Protecting the brand use and maintaining its consistency across products and locations is the single most important role of the corporate office.  Your franchisees purchased the right to use your brand, without it, they have lost the foundation of their business.

Start your protection at the inception.
The best place to start protecting your brand is when you first develop your business.
Jennifer Onnen, Hot Dish Advertising of Minneapolis, an agency working with numerous franchise companies, says, “Franchise brands are harder to protect because it is up to the franchisee to keep the integrity of the national brand image at the local level. Early on, it is imperative to reinforce the brand image continually to the franchise system in order to keep from diluting it over time. The larger the system, the faster they'll lose control if the brand is not reinforced and protected."

Correspondingly, the more recognizable the brand, the greater its value and the higher the cost associated with damage control.  That’s why companies the size of McDonald’s employ small armies of brand managers and attorneys that focus solely on protecting the brand and continuing to build its value.

Protecting the brand, whether from infringement, copying, or misuse, requires expert legal help.  Trademark law allows you to register your name, logo and packaging for an indefinite period. Patent law allows you to protect your product for a specific number of years, while copyright laws are for artistic, dramatic and musical works.

In a franchise situation, the licensing of the brand by a franchisee requires you to provide stringent rules for the use and application of your brand. Using an attorney familiar with franchise law is critical.

According to Kerry Olson, franchise attorney at Gray Plant Mooty of Minneapolis, “Good franchise attorneys understand that the brand is the cornerstone of every franchise system and can give franchisors the advice and tools to develop, maintain, build and protect the brand.  At the initial stage of building a solid franchise concept, a franchisor needs assistance with choosing a strong trademark and articulating clear and enforceable system standards.  As the franchise system grows, a franchisor must take necessary steps to enforce these standards so as to maintain the goodwill of the concept.  Customer loyalty and profitability depend on it. 

Franchise attorneys understand that while a customer's experience may be in the hands of a local franchisee, the franchisor must act as a leader for the brand.  If a franchisee is not complying with system standards or is infringing on the trademark after having left the system, franchisors need solid rights under the agreement to adequately address concerns.  As issues arise, franchise attorneys can help determine what steps can and should be taken to remedy the situation, taking into consideration the overall goodwill of the brand, the franchisor's relationship with the franchisee and the system as a whole.”

Here are some of the things an attorney can do to help you:

• Manage a franchisor's intellectual property assets, including registering and maintaining trademarks and service marks
• Draft documents and implement programs to establish and enforce trademark and service mark standards and procedures in the franchise system
• Handle trademark and service mark disputes as well as disputes related to proprietary information, whether the infringer is a former franchisee or an unrelated third party
• Preparation and registration of the franchise offering circular, including franchise agreements and other documents that outline the rights and obligations relating to the brand
• Address franchisor-franchisee relationship concerns that may negatively impact the goodwill of the brand

Once the brand useage rules have been established, the corporate office must enforce those rules. Says Molly Maid CEO David McKinnon, “Not only will we enforce the MOLLY MAID system, but we will enforce the other rules that each agreed to when signing his/her franchise agreement. This is not meant to be penal; rather it is meant to protect the brand and encourage owners to follow the system and grow.”

Equally important to protecting a brand is that your company fulfills the promise behind a brand and maintains the positive reputation and image of your company. The brand should be top-of-mind in every decision made about how you run your company. This can be as involved as the marketing concepts or as simple as the consistency of the color of the packaging.

If you have a house painting business named Quality Painting, you don’t have The fastest painters in town! as your slogan. Instead, you hire professional painters and your provide top-notch customer service. Everything from your flyers to your vans should support the image you are trying to brand in the consumer’s mind – that of quality.

You’ll never totally control how the consumer perceives the brand. Everything – from what is happening in the world to what has happened to a particular customer on a particular day – will influence every purchasing decision. You can, however, influence the customer’s perception of your brand by carefully guarding the reputation, service, product quality, and consistency.

The brand promise must also be embraced by those people who support the brand, which includes both the company employees and the franchisees. A brand promise can not be delivered intermittently; everyone, from the bottom up, must work at delivering it consistently, day after day after day.

The stronger the brand, the more likely a company will survive unplanned and potentially catastrophic situations, such as product tampering and urban rumors. Brand loyalty is one of the most remarkable benefits of branding and studies show that it is a greater influence in purchasing than price, advertising and even recommendations from family and friends.

To effectively protect the exclusiveness of a brand, you need to encompass a strategy of brand management which includes protection from outside infringement, a model of future growth, and a conscientious effort to keep the brand fresh, current and always in a positive light.

Sidebar:

PROTECTING YOUR BRAND

• Keep your brand “top-of-mind” in every decision you make about your company.
• Take legal precautions by using trademarks, patents, copyrights, etc.
• Carefully structure your franchise offering circular, including franchise agreements, to protect your brand from misuse.
• Market your brand – your competition does and so should you.
• Work on your brand from the bottom up – every employee should buy into the value of your brand or your customers will go elsewhere.
• Keep your brand message consistent yet fresh.
• Set yourself apart and above the competition by emphasizing what is distinctive about the brand and what is better.
• Never get too comfortable. A top brand can quickly lose its cachet if it doesn’t keep up with changes in styles, trends, tastes and technology.