Do you have a brand that you have invested so much time and effort in? Are you worried about how you are going to protect it? If you are reading this article then chances are that you answered yes to both questions. It is difficult to convey to non-entrepreneurs just how difficult it is to maintain a brand, let alone to build it. You start by creating a product that serves a particular niche. You ensure that the quality of the product never dips. And you study the market to find out which promotions are most likely to catch the attention of your customer base. And that is just the initial stage. Afterwards comes the hard part. You have to make sure that your product not only stands out but you have to ward off other people from trying to make money off of your hard work. From here on out, it will be a bloodbath and you only have your instincts and experience to rely on. Or so you thought until the introduction of Amazon Brand Protection services.

Every seasoned entrepreneur knows the value in content and marketing. It is a valuable investment that is integral in differentiating your product from the rest of your competitors. However, in the online market, you will be faced with a new challenge. And that is the intraband competition.

Amazon Brand Protection against Intraband Competition

Basically, intraband competition is a threat to your brand. This threat is unique to the online marketplace. And, of course, it involves the greatest online marketplace of all: Amazon. The online behemoth lets sellers battle amongst themselves on a virtual shelf. As with the shelves in a normal brick and mortar shop, the virtual shelves are basically where products are being placed. But that is where the comparisons end. The products placed on a virtual shelf can encompass products coming from multiple sellers and includes other product information like product reviews along with it. Here, competitors are pitted against each other in the eyes of the online shopper.

Pricing in the online marketplace can get tricky. Customers have to choose a brand from a generic product. And then, they have to choose a specific seller. While you can argue that this is for the best interest of the customer, chaos will ensue if there are illicit vendors in the mix. This problem is amplified because of the customer’s power to view all product offerings of a certain generic item. Should the customer choose to do so, he or she may sort all of the items by price and choose the one that comes up on top regardless of which seller it is. This is a normal consumer response and this is what unauthorized sellers and counterfeiters are trying to take advantage of.

Necessity of Amazon Brand Protection

There are a lot of negative impacts to your brand if counterfeits start to erode it. The most obvious of which is the loss of trust to you as a seller from two important parties to your business – your suppliers and your customers. From a supplier standpoint, a seller that has had their products diluted with counterfeits will become a liability. It is assumed that counterfeits will be of lesser quality than that of the original. Because counterfeit sellers normally will not care about the brand as it is not their own, they will not make an effort to protect it by ensuring quality. Suppliers can easily spot diluted brands by simply reading the reviews of your products as a seller. Customers on the other hand, may reject your brand altogether if they buy it from a counterfeit seller. It can take just one poor quality item to make a customer lose trust in your brand.

Brand dilution is what happens when too many counterfeits of your brand are already in the market. This means that customers looking to buy your product will have a significant chance of buying a counterfeit regardless if they were looking for a bargain or not. The negative reviews, despite being on the counterfeit seller’s product entry can still affect your own as customers tend to get opinions from multiple sources.

Finally, intraband can harm your profit and sales margins. Of course, businesses will normally lose money while in operation. However, the danger that counterfeits pose goes beyond that. When your brand dilution has advanced too far, your business as a whole may be affected to the point that you have to give up your brand. Far too often do businesses end up reimaging themselves after counterfeits have taken hold of their product’s brand.

Getting Started with Amazon Brand Protection

Growing your brand’s presence on the Amazon platform is no easy task. You have to get serious about it and market your product like never before. And, more importantly, you want the quality of your product to be as good as possible. What you need to do is to make sure that your customers will get the same quality that they would get if they, instead, bought the product from a big box store or a brick and mortar store.

Think of your profit as a function of your brand reputation. The more reputable your brand is, the more chances of you raking in the lion’s share of profits. You want to get ahead of your competitors but you cannot ignore the lurking danger that intrabands pose. In the short term, you can start slow by ensuring that you have the necessary tools to fight the big fight once it arrives. What this means is to have your products trademarked and registered. And if you feel like your product deserves a patent, and that you can afford it, it won’t hurt to get that extra protection. If the patent is successful and is good enough, you can start earning royalties from it. And, it will be a big weapon on your side once the intrabands come. If online marketing meant one thing, it is to ensure that your products maintain a satisfactory review grade.

China Mobile Tianjin (Tianjin Mobile) and Huawei have announced the industry’s first commercial use of next generation optical transport network (NG OTN) premium private lines in a network for Tianjin Medical University General Hospital.

China’s digital economy has seen continual growth and upgrades across numerous industries and 5G applications and cloud services are playing an important role in pushing private lines to offer cloud-network integration and differentiated experience beyond basic network connections. As a primary infrastructure developer, Tianjin Mobile is has acquired a deep knowledge of customer requirements across a range of industries. To meet those requirements for high bandwidth and performance, Tianjin Mobile has built an end-to-end OTN all-optical network with innovative technologies such as Huawei’s 200G, OXC, and iMaster NCE.

Now Tianjin Mobile and Huawei have released an all-optical government/enterprise private network to provide world-leading services that are fast and smart for government, finance, healthcare, education, and industrial interconnections. Speed: premium private line, preferential access, plug-and-play end devices, and ultra-fast provisioning; all-optical network, one-hop transmission, and MS-level latency; end-to-end OTN, 10M–100G access, and ultra-high bandwidth.

Smart: intelligent, mesh, and 3D network architecture to achieve intelligent and reliable multi-level protection; customer self-service, on-demand bandwidth selection, one-click adjustment, intelligent speed increase, and smart assurance.

Tianjin Mobile has signed a cooperation agreement with Tianjin Medical University General Hospital to provide its high-quality Internet private lines. In addition to offering basic bandwidth, Tianjin Mobile will also provide value-added services such as intelligent speed increase and smart assurance, helping to upgrade E-Clinic services with online diagnosis, treatment, and electronic health records, ensuring smooth communication between doctors and patients.

In the next phase, Tianjin Mobile will work with industry partners including Huawei to further the construction of all-optical OTN networks, innovate industrial applications and quality experience, facilitate the digital and cloud-based transformation in various industries, as well as promote the digital economy as the new driving force in Tianjin.

• OPPO will first enter Vodafone’s European markets, including Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and the Netherlands, progressively rolling out across Vodafone channels
• Vodafone customers will benefit from a broad range of OPPO’s products from entry-level to state-of-the-art flagship products, including both 4G and 5G smartphones
• Partnership agreement will enable OPPO and Vodafone to accelerate 5G adoption and expand availability of OPPO products to more Vodafone markets and customers.

OPPO and Vodafone announced a comprehensive partnership agreement that will bring a broad range of OPPO’s smartphones to Vodafone’s European markets starting from May 2020.

As a leading smartphone brand with an innovative product portfolio, advanced 5G technology know-how, and annual handset shipments of more than 100 million, OPPO is a natural partner for Vodafone’s leading gigabit network. The collaboration between the two companies will give consumers more choice and accelerate 5G adoption across Vodafone’s international markets.

OPPO’s broad range of products will be made available across Vodafone’s retail and online channels, spanning value-for-money handsets to industry-leading 5G flagship smartphones including the OPPO A series, Reno series and Find X series.

In the first phase of cooperation, Vodafone will introduce OPPO products across retail channels in Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and the Netherlands. The two companies will jointly develop their global partnership, working together to expand the future availability of the OPPO range across Vodafone’s markets

Alen Wu, Vice President and President of Global Sales, OPPO said: “OPPO is confident that our industry-leading products and technologies will enable Vodafone to win new opportunities in the 5G era. Vodafone’s vision that ‘we connect for a better future’ aligns with OPPO’s value of ‘Benfen’ – to do the right thing and provide real value to customers. OPPO looks forward to solidifying a long-term win-win relationship with Vodafone to create a better future for our customers in the 5G era.”

Ahmed Essam, Vodafone Group Chief Commercial Operations and Strategy Officer, said: “The combination of OPPO’s state-of-the-art devices and Vodafone’s leading network will give our customers greater choice with the full potential of 5G. Vodafone’s partnership with OPPO brings together their attractive product portfolio with our growing strength in 5G to our markets across Europe and beyond.”

OPPO predominantly manufactures its products in-house and most of its manufacturing facilities have resumed normal operation, ensuring that even during the Coronavirus outbreak period, OPPO can continue to provide products to Vodafone and ensure business continuity. While physical retail is currently constrained, both companies will develop online sales channels and ensure continued support for customers. OPPO will also closely work with Vodafone to ensure the continued safety of employees and customers as restrictions at retail are lifted.

OPPO’s series of products will be rolled out from May through Vodafone in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and the Netherlands. Further announcements will be made by OPPO and Vodafone about product availability in other countries.