Protecting Corporate Brands One Keystroke at a Time

by Bill Unrue

Published on December 8, 2009

Tags: Brand Equity, Branding, Collaboration, Management

Enterprises spend a great deal of time and money building their brand identity, and for good reason.

It's not only a primary component to an organization's marketing strategy but also a solemn promise made to customers, partners, and investors on the value of doing business with the organization.

And although focus groups, marketing collateral, and promotion initiatives are vital to building brand identity, many of those tactics are effectively countered—not just by competitors but also by the regular day-to-day activities of an organization's staff.

Brand-leaking

All types of organizations—from Fortune 100 to mom-and-pop operations—are susceptible to negative exposure each time an employee surfs the Web using company equipment.

It's an all-too-frequent occurrence. A check on WikiScanner, for example, shows that 86% of the Fortune 100 companies have had employees edit Wikipedia entries using the organization's network—with most of those entries having nothing to do with the corporation. Here are just a few entries that company staff members have edited:

Lockheed Martin: Jenna Jameson, Beavis and Butt-Head, Jackass (the TV series), NCAA Football 08, Punk'd
Northrop Grumman: America's Next Top Model, Arizona Cardinals, Final Fantasy XI, Happy Hour, PlayStation 3
General Dynamics: 2007 Pacific-10 Conference Men's Basketball Tournament, Lethal Weapon 4, Marathon, Sandra Bullock, The Real World, Timeline of Christianity
Humana: 2006 NFL season, Ferrari 360, Miami Dolphins

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Bill Unrue is the president of Anonymizer Inc. (www.anonymizerinc.com), a provider of online identity protection solutions for consumer and businesses. He can be reached at williamunrue@anonymizerinc.com.

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