Part V

Protecting Your Brand

Think Big as You Register and Protect Your Name from Competitors

If your products or services will travel the world, think in global terms right from the get-go by following this advice:

• As you develop your brand identity, test its relevance and acceptance in other cultures and languages — especially in the cultures of countries where you plan to develop clusters of customers as a result of global offices, Internet marketing, or distributor relationships.
• If your products or services will travel national borders, obtain international trademark registrations in the very beginning, before others can beat you to the task. If you don’t, someday when you seek to protect your brand in distant markets, you just may discover that your name has already been trademarked — but not by your organization.
• There’s no such thing as a worldwide trademark, but you can file a single international application that allows you to apply for trademark registration in any of the more than 60 countries that participate in what’s called the Madrid Protocol. For information, visit the World Intellectual Property Organization at www.wipo.int.

All the work you put into your brand will be for nothing if you don’t defend it from attack and misuse. Head to www.dummies.com/extras/branding for bonus information on essential steps to take.

In this part …

• Keep your brand out of trouble by taking preemptive action against brand attacks and by fortifying it with all the necessary registrations and legal protections, including trademarks if your brand will travel across state or international borders soon or someday in the future.
• Protect your valuable brand asset by writing and enforcing an ironclad set of usage rules that cover everything from trademark-protection actions to social-media usage guidelines.
• Be ready to dodge dangerous and damaging brand-equity landmines by foreseeing potential threats to the strength of your brand and preparing a crisis-management plan that’s ready to go (even though we hope you’ll never need it).
• Know the steps to take should your brand suffer a value-eroding image hit. Be ready — just in case — to stage a brand rescue and recovery mission should your brand ever face natural or other disasters that shake the consumer credibility and brand relevance and worth.