By Sally Watson, 12 September 2000 18:15
NEWS The survey, from ebusiness software company Cyveillance, reports that ecommerce is posing significant new risks to brand identity, but the threat is being ignored by almost 60 per cent of British firms. Andrew Muir, MD of Cyveillance, claims it's not just dot-com companies struggling with their online identity. He said: "Companies who have spent 50 or 100 years building up a brand have a lot to lose." The most common type of damage is caused by brand misrepresentation - where someone maliciously or accidentally corrupts a logo or name through misuse. Muir said: "Brands can be captured and used to divert traffic away from a genuine retailer to a competitive site. There are also links to objectionable material, which is happening increasingly often." A spokeswoman for online bookseller BOL.com said the company has spent a long time building a brand both on and offline. She said: "Online we work very closely with our affiliates and monitor them to make sure the brand is properly represented." Although the report found unauthorised use of a brand to divert web traffic is the greatest form of brand abuse, only 66 per cent UK directors interviewed had any form of external web monitoring in place.
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