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When your brand is attacked, it can have a devastating impact on your company’s reputation and your ability to attract customers. It’s therefore important that you know the appropriate response to take. Here are just a few ways in which you brand can come under attack and how you can protect it.

A customer is badmouthing you online

Negative online reviews and defamatory tweets can be enough to bring down a business. Many consumers now research a company online before choosing to buy from them – if bad reviews and hostile social media comments are the first thing that show up on Google, you may fail to win over their trust.

When faced with online criticism, be apologetic and respond directly to the review or social media message if possible (on social media, you may want to message them directly as well as replying publicly). Encouraging happy customers to leave positive reviews may meanwhile help to outweigh any negative criticism.

Your intellectual property has been stolen by someone else

Intellectual property is a major part of a brand’s identity and may include your brand name, your logo, a slogan, company images or text from your website. If another company is claiming ownership of your intellectual data, it could cause your customers to mistake them for your company.

This could be something that you can legally dispute – especially if you’ve trademarked or copyrighted this content. By hiring a law firm that deals in corporate litigation, you can make a claim against the company that has stolen your intellectual property. If an online fraudster is using your intellectual property for malicious purposes, you may even be able to get police involved.

Another company is attacking your brand

Brand wars have become more common in the age of social media with large brands attacking one another on Twitter. This is usually done in jest and can sometimes encourage healthy competition. However, sometimes it can get more serious, such as accusing you of bad behavior.

Respond to these brands accordingly. If it’s a light-hearted attack, you may be able to respond with a similar light-hearted retort. However, if they’re uncovering unsavory truths about your business, you may need to come clean.

A media outlet has attacked your brand

An attack from a newspaper, magazine or major online publication can be serious. Word could spread and you could find that business is severely affected.

Taking on the media by yourself is not recommended and you may want to hire a PR company to help try and recover your reputation. Such a company may be able to help you find journalists to argue your case and spread good information about your brand.