Countering counterfeits in SEO

While Search Engine Marketing and Optimization (SEM and SEO) has long been a well established digital strategy for luxury goods companies, there is an added dimension of countering counterfeiters from using the same digital channels to sell rather than market a product. While luxury goods companies are only slowly coming around to e-commerce (Moving from digital marketing to Sales) counterfeiters typically have a field day using the anonymity of the web to rake in revenues from e-sales. One key area of conflict is in Search engine Optimization and the use of key words for optimizing web content. Search engines like Google for instance allow the use of trade-marked keywords to be used in SEM/SEO for ads by all and sundry. This leads to counterfeiters using trade-marked key words to link to their sites (instead of the original luxury goods company website/page) and then sell their fake products on it. While the genuine buyer quickly recognises a fake and stays away, the market does get flooded with cheap fakes to "less discerning" customers.

The European Cultural and Creative Industries Alliance have objected to this and asked search engines (Google in particular) to change their policy of making their Google adwords program a free for all and restrict the use of trade-marked key words. Google has always reverted that while key words are free to use, these trade marked copies are not allowed in the ad copy itself. Lets see how this impacts the SCMluxe in favour of counterfeiters through an example of the much effected LVMH group. Keywords of successful LVMH brand/collection of bags like PALLAS, MARLY or TURENNE are trademarked and hence should ideally be used by LVMH authorised entities. However when these keywords are used in the Google adwords set up by a counterfeiter as tags for his advert, a quick search by a customer on Google will lead the customer with links to these adverts and links rather than the LVMH site http://us.louisvuitton.com/eng-us/women/handbags. Note that the actual advert by the counterfeiter will not have these words (PALLAS, MARLY etc) in the actual ad copy (usually it will resort to the well worn counterfeiter strategy of using variations of these words in the ad copy like PALLASS, MARLEY etc). Customers who go to this counterfeiter ad are tempted to follow additional links to which actually lead to a e-commerce site wherein a purchase can be made. Though genuine customers of LVMH bags might avoid the site, there will be customers who will knowlingly buy a fake product - thus flooding the market with fakes. This was exactly LVMH's contention when it launched a lawsuit on Google for providing counterfeiters an legitimate marketing/sales channel on the web.
A positive outcome lately of course has been that both Google and LVMH have reached a settlement wherein they will cooperate to identify and close these loopholes in SEM/SEO
 

Digital Marketing to Digital Sales

The luxury goods industry always regarded the web as a medium of marketing and a tool to create brand loyalty and awareness amongst its customers. However growing online sales indicate that customers are slowly beginning to adopt e-commerce for luxury products as well. A Mckinsey study for digital marketing in 2013 shows the following:

 

·         20% growth in online sales of luxury goods in 2013 in a stagnant market

·         $12.5 billion online sales of luxury products in 2013 and expected online sales of $27.8 billion in 205

·         65% of online sales driven by fashion accessories across digital devices

·         66% of customers in brick and motor stores would like to interact with a sales associate armed with a mobile device

·         Multichannel customers (buying both online and in-store) spend more than in-store customers. For example Sephora multichannel customers spend 5 times more than old economy customers who bought exclusively in-store

The above numbers simply indicate one important message “The Web is being integrated into our lifestyles and the luxury goods industry can no longer insulate itself from it”

The previously held sacred belief of web for marketing and stores for selling will need to change. SCMluxe should now look at both digital marketing and sales. Access across mobile devices, online loyalty, e-commerce, click trough rates, e-campaigns, SEM/SEO will gain importance and SCM luxe needs to be prepared for it. In the next post let’s look at some of these terms in more detail