| Should You Sue to Protect Your Brand? |
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By: Cindy Wendland |
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 Amazon thinks you should sue to protect your brand. They are taking legal action against more than 1,000 people who have posted false reviews on their website. They believe their brand reputation is being damaged by false, misleading, and inauthentic reviews.
If your brand reputation gets tarnished, it is difficult to shine it up again. Amazon appears willing to do whatever it takes to keep their brand reputation intact. Amazon mentioned trust in the complaint when they filed the lawsuit. They want to keep their customers' trust. According to Ipsos, "research shows a strong correlation between how much a company or organization is trusted and consumers’ desire to buy your products and/or services, the credibility of your communications, investor confidence, and positive media coverage for your organization."
In marketing a brand, it is important to control what the public sees, believes, and thinks of the brand. In this age of customer engagement, we encourage customers to write reviews and provide their input. We hope it will be positive, but understand sometimes it will not be. That is acceptable. To have false reviews posted is unacceptable. People read and rely on input from unbiased users. If those reviews are paid reviews and/or are not from people who actually have bought and used the product, they are not valid. How would a potential customer know which ones are true and which ones are false? The truth is they have no way of knowing.
Kudos to Amazon for investigating and bringing forth a case that targets false reviews. As a brand, we applaud the actions that are important to maintaining a reputation. As a consumer, we appreciate efforts to keep information accurate and honest.
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Cindy Wendland has a background in marketing and finance. She is the creative director for an online men's health magazine, BrainBrawnBody.com, and she gets to write their leisure/travel blog. She is also a web designer helping her clients with online community engagement, websitesbywendland.com. Prior to her web years, she worked in pharmacy consulting.
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