Apparently, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,’ but for an entrepreneur, it certainly doesn’t feel like it.
When you have put your heart and soul into creating something unique and special, an amateur copycat coming along can be, at best, annoying and, at worst, detrimental to your bottom line.
In such a competitive and constantly evolving marketplace, authenticity and originality is what elevates you from the crowd. Protecting that is crucial, which makes taking action to combat the fakes a strategic necessity.
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Tell a distinctive story
What is most likely to set you apart is your brand’s story.
The narrative of your journey is a compelling and authentic way of connecting with your audience and reducing the likelihood of possible imitations.
For us at Citron, that meant our marketing team put our evolution front and center, focusing on how we developed, from a mother wanting to do more for her family to a global lifestyle brand.
Make your IPs a marketing asset
Intellectual property protections are a huge part of how you can legally safeguard your brand, but they can also be utilised to make your brand stand out to consumers.
When used as a marketing tool, the intellectual property associated with your patented products, designs or solutions will set it apart from others and underscore your commitment to originality.
An authentic marketing strategy goes a long way to building lasting trust with your audience and thereby increasing your brand equity.
Ensuring your communications are consistent enough to convey reliability and accurately represent your brand messaging will foster loyalty and outshine any impersonators.
This applies to everything your customer sees, from product packaging to advertising campaigns.
Stand together for brand marketing
The truth is that we all suffer when targeted by fakes, counterfeits or frauds. That is why it is important to advocate for industry collaboration to offset these threats.
Joint marketing initiatives could raise awareness and by partnering with others and monitoring infringements, you can strengthen industry standards as a whole, perhaps creating new regulations and penalties for wrong doers.
All authentic marketeers and entrepreneurs have a vested interest in championing originality and IP protections to better safeguard their brand and its assets.
Educate and engage through marketing your brand
One of the best ways to help your customers distinguish the genuine from the fake is through education.
You can use your marketing channels to highlight the value of your brand and its bespoke features. As well as ensuring your audience is engaged with the unique quality of your brand, you can also use your connection with them to raise their awareness of potential copycats and direct them to authorised retailers; for their benefit and yours.
Any good leader knows how vital innovation can be to any business. But it can be especially important when you want to stay ahead of the competition.
Staying committed to developing new products and ideas will allow your brand to cater more effectively to the needs of its consumers and expand your audience with each fresh launch.
When you create an environment dedicated to innovation, whether through feedback or teamwork, your brand will be able to stand out in a crowded market. A brand that adapts and creates is seen as a leader in its field and as ‘the one to watch’.
Counterfeits, copycats and fakes can murky the waters of brand recognition, so your marketing strategy needs to be as clear and as consistent as possible to make your voice heard above the other noise.
While they are never likely to totally go away, we can severely limit their negative impact by focusing on what makes our brand special. When we share our unique story and qualities with an engaged audience, they become our loyal ambassadors who wouldn’t look twice at a knockoff.
By Sara Chemmaa, Founder of Citron.
