How to Protect Your Brand on Amazon




How to Remove MAP Violators and map violations

Every manufacturer must have invested resources and time into building a brand. Protecting that brand, therefore, becomes a priority. If you have a vision for your brand, you would want to protect it by all means.


Perhaps, you have taken some steps to make your brand enticing to consumers. You might have great packaging, marketing campaigns, and other strategic moves. 


However, there are several challenges when it comes to online marketing, and the competition is high. Amazon marketplace is a platform that has grown over the years and is thriving as one of the best places to sell products. 


There are some challenges that brands face on Amazon. Each day you are exposed to new competitions as more people enter the market. But, you cannot leave your brand to go into extinction and your efforts to go to waste. 


Therefore, this article becomes relevant for you. In online marketing, there is a new kind of competitive pressure: intrabrand competition.

What is Intrabrand Competition?

Intrabrand competition is peculiar to online marketing. It is the competition that exists among similar brands. If consumers visit the virtual shelf, the product review pages, they will come across identical products from different brands and prices.


The prices might have a wide gap, and they may appear on the same page. This placement puts the consumer in the position to choose the right brand for them. In addition to this, they have to choose which seller's offer they will take.


This situation puts your brand at risk because it places you in competition with other brands. It becomes worse when the sellers competing with you are selling counterfeit products. It places you in the same position as them, making it look like you also sell counterfeit products.

Quality Control: Protecting your Brand, Reputation, Customers, and Product Listing

In the face of intrabrand competition, you have to stand out to survive in the online marketplace. You have to be able to retain your customers when they visit you. Your customers will return to you if they are satisfied and get the same quality from you from physical stores. Your brand will grow if every seller of your brand follows your quality control procedure. 


You have to ensure that the sellers follow your quality control to protect your brand's reputation. Unauthorized sellers who do not follow your brand's quality control procedure will create havoc for your brand. Your brand will suffer if your quality control is not upheld.


Reputation is critical to product success. If your reputation as a brand begins to suffer, your sales will begin to dwindle, and in no time, it will ultimately sink.


Another reason why you have to ensure that sellers follow your quality control procedure is to protect your Amazon reviews. On Amazon, your brand reputation depends on your reviews. Your review is the soul of your online sales. 


Your product reviews will determine your brand's progress or its death. Your product review will also determine your ranking on Amazon. When customers search for a product you sell, your product will appear on page one of the results if your reviews are good. If your reviews are poor, your product might not appear on the initial pages.


Appearing on the first page of Amazon result is essential. Consumer search behaviour has always been the same. Most users do not click on links beyond the ones that appear on the first page. 

Once they can get the relevant information they seek, they will not go to the next page. Even if users do not get the desired results, they will instead rearrange the keywords or search again with new words arrangements rather than check the next page.


Most of the sales, almost 100%, made on Amazon are garnered from the first three pages. So, if your product is not ranking on the first pages, your brand is fast going into extinction.

One way to get you on the first pages and retain your position is to invest in quality advertisement and high-quality content. That your product requires stringent quality control does not mean that you will not achieve it. 


You have to ensure that all the sellers of your product follow your quality control procedure. This company will keep your customers satisfied and help you to maintain positive feedback.

How to Achieve Brand Protection

Achieving brand protection requires some steps. The first step to protecting your brand is to consider your goal. If you have your goal always in sight, you will work to achieve it. 


Whatever your goal is, it is the driving force of your actions. The main goal is to prevent the sales of counterfeit products on Amazon to give room for your genuine product to thrive.


You have to take the necessary legal action to achieve this goal. You will need an effective trademark portfolio to ensure an intellectual property right that you can protect.


Secondly, make some distinction between your product and other products available. It will enable clients to distinguish genuine products from counterfeit ones. Also, clients can remove unauthorized and counterfeit sellers from the platform.


Thirdly, you need to have your MAP policies (see Brand Alignment MAP enforcement) drafted and effectively instituted. You should ensure a smooth enforcement procedure and sustenance. 


There is software that scans the market and fish out the unauthorized sellers of your products. When you identify MAP violations and counterfeit products being sold, you take the necessary legal action.

The Place of Smart Enforcement in Ensuring Brand Protection

Aside from taking the necessary moves, you also have to take advantage of the enforcement program. You can involve an attorney to make a move more effective.


If you want to handle the entire process yourself, it might not be at effective as it would have been with the presence of an attorney. For instance, sending C&D letters as a brand might not have the desired effect. 


Some unauthorized sellers do not regard such letters, especially when they know the law better than the senders. Having the backing of a legal firm is essential.


The law firm will verify the item sold to know if they are counterfeit. If they, they will submit an infringement or counterfeit report to Amazon. They monitor unauthorized sellers who join the listing. Once they confirm that the seller is selling counterfeit products, they will remove that person as soon as possible.


If the seller is selling genuine products, but they are unauthorized sellers and violate MAP policies (see our template), the law firm will investigate the source of their supply, cut it off, and remove them from the listing. They will send C&D letters and take more steps if the need arises. 


The aim is to protect brands from losing their reputation in the marketplace. In the process, users are protected from the harm that counterfeit products can cause. Consumers can live safe and healthy lives by having access to genuine products that will not endanger their lives.

Don't Have the Time to Do It Yourself?

Let us Take Care of Your Monitoring & Enforcement

The first step in removing unauthorized sellers is spotting them on your listings and that is exactly what the Brand Alignment Monitoring Dashboard will do for you. With price updates every 3 hours and inventory totals for every seller on every listing, you will get the most complete picture possible of your brand on every major online marketplace.

Of course, the most important step in removing unauthorized sellers is prevention and enforcement. This is where Brand Alignment is leagues above the competition when it comes to map policy enforcement software.

  1. 1
    Clear over 80% of unauthorized sellers: Brand Alignment will make a custom strategy for your brand reputation to ensure the highest rates of removal
  2. 2
    Control Your Authorized Channels: Daily emails informing you of authorized channel violations and price cascading events
  3. 3
    Risk-Free Guarantee: Brand Alignment is so confident in their removal rates, that we will create a custom guarantee for every brand. We will remove x% of sellers or you have the option to terminate the contract early
Brand Protection Agency Dashboard
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Free Marketplace Evaluation

Will Enforcement Solutions Work for My Brand?

In short, the answer is Yes. 


We have had our 80%-90%+ enforcement rates in every single industry we have worked in. That includes the following:

  • Consumer Electronics
  • Apparel and Shoes
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Health & Beauty
  • Sports & Outdoors
  • Mobile Phone Accessories
  • And More

As you are already aware, each industry has their own bells and whistles. Please contact us if you have any specific questions about enforcement in your industry.

Are There Any Risks Involved With Enforcement?

Brand Alignment gives the brand the option of using their own personal cease & desist letters or the option to customize Brand Alignment's proven high performance Cease & Desist letters. These letters were crafted by Intellectual Property lawyers with a full focus on minimizing liability.

Any infringement complaints filed by Brand Alignment are done with the utmost care and transparency. We do not file counterfeit complaints without test buys and approval from the brand. Our trademark complaints are done with caution and all bases covered.


Finally, in this world, anybody can sue anybody for anything. But it does not mean it will stand up in court. There is nothing we can do to prevent frivolous lawsuits from disgruntled sellers. However, we do everything we can to prepare you to have any case against you quickly dismissed. After two years in business, we are proud to say that neither us or any of our brands have had any legal issues of any kind related to our service.

Brand Alignment vs The Competition

If you are new to shopping for a brand protection provider, it might be confusing to tell the difference between companies. It might sound like everybody offers the same type of monitoring and enforcement. This could not be further from the truth.

Brand Alignment

  • Crawls marketplaces for dynamic pricing changes every 3 hours or 8x a day
  • Markets monitored for price cascading are crawled every hour or 24x a day
  • Sends a Cease & Desist letter to every unauthorized seller on Amazon
  • Since 100% of all unauthorized sellers are contacted, Brand Alignment averages an 80%-90%+ Removal Rate
  • Uses hundreds of proprietary investigative techniques to identify personal information of sellers and supply chain sources

The Competition

  • Crawls marketplaces for pricing only 1x-4x a day
  • Markets monitored for price cascading are crawled every 3 hours or 8x a day
  • Requires YOU to send a Cease & Desist letter only if YOU have the email of the unauthorized seller 
  • Since only a small percentage of unauthorized sellers are contacted, the competition averages a 10%-30% removal rate
  • Uses basic investigative techniques like Google searches or buying low quality lists in hopes of finding emails to send letters

How Much Money Are You Losing By NOT Switching to Brand Alignment?

  • What is your current Buy Box Loss percentage? How much unsold inventory do you or your authorized channels have due to Buy Box loss?
  • How much are you charged by Vendors for chargebacks related to price matching MAP violators?
  • What effect do unauthorized sellers have on your Brand Integrity when they violate MAP policy or sell refurbished, returned, or used items as New?
  • Are you dealing with unhappy authorized channels who have difficulty obtaining the Buy Box? Are you being turned down by potential authorized channels for not having better control of your MAP policy?
  • Did you know that data shows that less sales are made from 3rd party sellers having the Buy Box than from Amazon having the Buy Box?
  • What are your storage and warehousing costs from unsold inventory due to unauthorized sellers?

How Much Money In Sales Are You Losing Each Year Due to a Lack of Quality Brand Protection?

100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Free Marketplace Evaluation

100% Satisfaction Guarantee

You are fully protected by our "Brand Alignment Enforcement Guarantee". If we don't reach the custom benchmarks that we agree upon during negotiation, we will give you the option to terminate the contract and you will not be charged any further.

Emmanuel Frost

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long Does It Take to Get Started?

I Have More of a Counterfeit Problem Than a Grey Market Problem. Can You Help?

Do You Work With Third Party Vendors or Only Directly With Brands?

What Are Your Enforcement Rates on Other Marketplaces Besides Amazon?

My Grey Market Problem Extends Outside the USA. What Can You Offer?

I Had a Bad Experience With My Last Brand Protection Provider, Why Will You Be Any Different?


P.S.: Due to the constant changing nature of online marketplaces, our Enforcement Guarantee is a limited time offer.


Please contact us now to ensure you are locked in with your guarantee.

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