1. Online Threats to a Brand
There are many threats faced by brand or company to online sites
1. Consumer Complaint Sites -: These are the sites developed by aggressive & frustrated
individual for filling complaints against products and services with the wish that others
reader avoid or boycott that brands. Individual share their negative feeling about product
and Warne to others reader to be aware of it. These sites really become threat for
companies as negative feelings and complaints posted on the sites which effect on their
sales and customers retention rate too.
2. Competition-: Competition has been intensifying in all sectors. Many foreign players
have entered the Indian markets and have taken the competition to a higher level. In such
a scenario, the temptation to indulge in unethical activities is significant. In recent times,
many unethical activities have been experienced in online marketing as well. Competitors
can easily communicate with the target segment through consumer generated media and
can generate negative publicity for a rival brand. The companies therefore need to keep
track of their competitors and their unethical activities online.
3. Social Networking Sites-: In India, the social networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut,
Twitter etc., have seen tremendous popularity in the last few years. A social networking
site is an online service that attempts and assists in establishing and maintaining social
relations among people. These websites attract enormous volumes of traffic, and
information to keep an eye on these websites, as the Click Through Rate (CTR) is very
high and any negative promotion by the competitors here can become a major problem.
4. Counterfeit Products-: These are imitation products that are produced with the intent of
fraud by selling them as genuine products. These products are the exact replica of the
original products with only minute and imperceptible differences. The main intent behind
manufacturing these products is taking advantage of the superior brand image of the
original products. Although manufacturing and selling of counterfeit products are illegal
and unethical, many counterfeits are available in the Indian Market. These products can
hamper the business because besides reducing sales, they can also ruin the brand image.
Bad word of mouth due to the poor performance of counterfeits can spread very quickly
in online media and this can lead to serious trouble which can escalate very rapidly.
Bharti Bhutani www.managementexplorer.com Page 1