Protect Your Brand on Amazon

In October of 2021, Rueters published an article accusing Amazon of copying top-selling products, then manipulating the search results to promote these product in India, one of the fastest-growing markets at the time. While Amazon denies these allegations, the fact is they do have access to a trove of proprietary data, and they hold the secrets of their internal search algorithm very close to the vest. Most brand protection strategies focus on unauthorized sellers, but to truly protect your brand you must protect as much information as possible.  

Imitation is Nothing New 

While the practice of copying best-selling products and promoting lower-cost duplicates alongside is nothing new – think Walmart and Costco – Amazon is in the unique position of also having access to all the internal data of its best-selling products. Although Amazon has developed more strategies in recent years to help brands identify and crack down on rogue sellers, this unprecedented access has led many companies to closely guard sensitive information, such as the location of manufacturing facilities, to discourage design replication. 

Who Must You Protect Your Brand From? 

Regardless of who is doing the copying, having to compete with doppelganger products is the bane of many brands’ existence. While protecting against counterfeit and unauthorized sellers is one thing, how do you compete with established, well-funded brands capable of creating a similar product using legitimate means?  

Strategies to Strengthen Your Brand 

Fortunately, many of the strategies used against unauthorized sellers can help fend off competition from knockoffs and build a stronger brand identity to attract loyal customers. Here are just a few strategies to protect your brand from replicas and build stronger relationships with customers:  

• Register Your Brand – The first step in protecting your brand is to register your brand with Amazon. There are many benefits to brand registry, not the least of which is that only authorized brand registry roles can make changes to your listing. This is crucial to protecting your brand voice.  
• Hone Your Brand Voice – the phrase your brand uses, the tone of your marketing campaigns and advertisements, and even how you tell your story are all part of your brand voice. Your brand voice not only brings your brand to life, it also sets you apart, and unlike a product, it can be very hard to duplicate. The stronger, clearer, and more unique your brand voice, the better your chances of building a loyal customer base and deflecting mediocre competitors.  
• Build a Brand Store – Amazon Brand Stores are a chance to create your own virtual store with every appearance of a fully-branded website within the Amazon marketplace. Brand stores are built from customizable templates using your own images, brand videos, and product listing links. You can even create a custom navigation menu so customers can browse through your entire catalog. Since Amazon values customer experience, they encourage the use of brand stores and even provide a handful of metrics to help you track your brand store performance.  
• Manage External Traffic – You might not be able to control Amazon’s algorithm, but you can certainly control who finds your listing outside of Amazon. As mentioned in 4 Ways to Drive External Traffic to Amazon, customers who end their shopping journey on Amazon don’t always start there. Whether you opt for affiliate programs, influencer marketing, or paid social media advertising, you have the power to bring customers straight to your product listings using these strategies, bypassing any direct competitors. 

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