Many companies are trying to educate consumers about brand hijacking, a phenomenon that is rampant on the Internet, but which is now extended to cold calling.
” Carglass repairs, Carglass replaces, and don’t forget the “fr point” » ; ” As I like, don’t forget the “dot fr” “. Many of you have already heard (increasingly often) these little mentions at the end of the advertising screen. If this may seem a little irritating in the long run, it is obviously not trivial. Trademark hijacking, or brandjacking, is a common practice of using the name of a brand to steal its customers. And companies are trying to fight against this well-established phenomenon on the Internet, but now also by telephone.
A rather pernicious practice, but very legal
How do brands (and consumers, by extension) get tricked? Individuals who impersonate companies buy keywords from Google to rank high on certain queries in the search engine. Here we are touching the limits of the American giant’s advertising auction system, which we talked about a few weeks ago on Clubic, with possible scams at the end of the chain for Internet users.
Here we are not talking about a scam, but a legal practice. In this case, some companies play with the cogs of the search engine to appear in front of their competitors. Therefore ” dietbon » appears first, as a sponsored link on Google, while our initial query was « As I like “. For UFC-Que Choisir, it’s another site, ” Box Diet which came out on top, on an identical request.
The Internet user and the searched brand lose out, since the first quoted finally lands on another site, which may have the effect of misleading him.
By telephone, the trap is even greater for anyone who is not informed
Between brand theft for the purpose of diversion and theft of customers and those that smell like a scam, some consumers may have a hard time navigating. Not everyone is sensitized to the same level, which amply justifies the somewhat overplayed “heaviness” of the “point fr” of our friends at Carglass.
Beyond the Internet, new practices are appearing, and they are even more aggressive. As indicated by the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir, we must look at the side of cold calling. Some people may have been tricked by a company pretending to be Carglass (leaving a tiny bit of doubt to the interlocutor, to flirt with illegality), to push them to change their windshield over 4 years old. years.
But nothing obliges to replace its windshield beyond 4 years. With this practice, the reputation of the brand takes a hit, since it is not the origin of these calls. The association explains that in reality, the people canvassed here are dealing with completely established independent companies, which will make appointments (and be paid for it), appointments to be honored with… other actors windshield replacement.
Source : UFC-What to choose
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