Jack Wolfskin fights on the net with claws – recover little Davids to favor once a Markengoliath is aiming to defend his brand image against small Davids and thereby violated the fundamental laws of online reputation management. According to James at the end of August, it is now the outdoor manufacturer Jack Wolfskin, which defends its trademarks with teeth and claws, it gets a bloody nose but increasingly. Bone of contention is the use of paw prints, which are similar to the logo of the company. Jack Wolfskin was earlier known quite rigorously to protect its trademark rights. Got to feel for example even the TAZ. This time it hit the little ones however on the DWanda hand work portal.
On this portal, hobby designers and artists sell their self-made and-entworfenen pads, rompers, scarves or embroidery. And some of them used just paw motifs or patterns, what now doomed them. Jack Wolfskin not only the portal operator warned off, which then promptly the disputed article from the side took the private sellers, including 991 euros costs were provided, but also… From there spread the message about the blog Werbeblogger in rapid speed. In the DWanda Forum find discusses about 200 pages of comments on the issue, in countless blogs and the original article has been commented on already over 600 times and can be found in the Google search for Jack Wolfskin”in a prominent position. Now the big news portals such as SPIEGEL ONLINE, focus online, or the Handelsblatt have become involved.
For the outdoor brand a PR meltdown and for their carefully maintained image a medium-weight catastrophe. The first official reaction of the company per the press release could not appease, but sparked still more head-shaking and public expressions of abandoning previous customers out. No question, you must protect its brand! So good that there are appropriate laws, help. The application of these laws in turn should not be mechanistically operated are, but requires the special Augenmasses. Otherwise there is a risk to destroy more than to preserve. Meanwhile, the company has converted its communication and goes to both the blogger and the Dunned down. Would Jack Wolfskin early not only by lawyers but also by communication professionals advise themselves, had they can save yourself the trouble, is that grass, the marketing agency new Hans-Joachim communication from Kiel, responsible for the online early warning system reputation control, sure. The story to Jack Wolfskin follows the classic pattern of the Streisand effect. While the companies in such situations are not powerless on the contrary. There is a variety of ways to respond to criticism on the Internet and to use it actively for their image. Only there are 2.0 other rules, according to which a brand confronts threats, game on the Web without doing its own reputation on set. “, so grass continues. It is nowadays more than ever is to weigh, to select what communication strategy. Because reputation loss can drastic harm a company and be significantly more expensive for, as so many trademark infringement on a large scale.