Brand value is a key component of a company’s success and it takes several years to establish by implementing a brand strategy that supports the business. However, in today’s digital environment, brand value can be compromised in a matter of minutes and negatively affect the brand and company. As such, brand security is an issue that needs constant attention to minimise possible reputational damage to the brand and the associated risk of losing customers.

As data hacks occur more regularly, it highlights the need for companies to take privacy issues more seriously as the repercussions of not doing so carry serious reputational damage for brands. According to the IBM 2018 Cost of Data Breach study, if a data breach causes an organisation to lose just 1% of its customers it will cost the business on average $2.8m, and if it loses more than 4% of the customer base the cost is closer to $6m. The costs associated with a data breach are made up of lost business, the negative impact on reputation and employee time spent on recovery.

As such, companies cannot afford to ignore the reputational risk of a data breach and need to have measures in place to maintain trust with customers.

THE ROLE OF COMPLIANCE AND REGULATION

Customers expect companies to have stringent measures in place to protect their personal information and mitigate possible risks of data breaches and hacks. This is supported by the findings of a recent study by RSA Security, which found that more than 57% of consumers blame companies for data breaches rather than hackers. Further, the study states that a loss of customer trust is the biggest risk associated with data breaches and hacks. This should be a key concern for every organisation, as once trust is lost, it is near impossible to win it back.

To alleviate some of the risk, countries have introduced regulations such as the local Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act and Europe’s GDPR, to ensure companies operate with transparency while protecting customer privacy and using data responsibly.  While SA is yet to indicate the fines associated with breaches of the POPI Act, the GDPR has announced two tiers of administrative fines for noncompliance: €10m or 2% of annual global turnover, whichever is higher; and €20m or 4% of annual global turnover, whichever is higher. In many instances, this fee is equivalent to the 2%-3% marketing budget that organisations assign annually. While this should be a concern for companies, the reputational damage of a breach should be the biggest concern for organisations as it is far greater than the value of a fine.

While government compliance and regulations should be adhered to, companies also need to implement their own compliance and risk standards internally to keep customer data secure from possible hackers and third parties.  For example, marketing departments often use website tools to target customers online and share customer details with third party companies to create personalised campaigns. Both of these examples expose customer details to third parties and increase the threat of customer data being hacked.

To combat this, companies need to remove the segregation of duties from a single department and combine the expertise of the marketing, legal and IT departments to build brand trust and mitigate possible brand risks at all times. In doing so, they will be adding additional layers of security to prevent data breaches both within the company and via potential hackers.

INTERNAL STANDARDS

While marketers are generally familiar with the threat of data breaches, in many instances they do not have insight into the particular vulnerabilities associated with marketing data and how to safeguard it. This requires the expertise of both the legal and IT departments to put measures in place to counter the possible risks.

To improve brand security, the marketing, IT and legal departments need to work closely together to combine technology, data management, content and customer experience. In larger organisations, brand security officers have been appointed to focus entirely on protecting the brand reputation of the company. This role is charged with assessing, mitigating and managing marketing risks while looking at issues such as fraud, viewability and transparency. In essence, this role is responsible for guiding the organisation in terms of data security and customer privacy.

THE ROLE OF TEHNOLOGY IN BRAND SECURITY

While technology is a key challenge for data breaches and fraud, it also has to be part of the solution. Governance, risk and compliance software offer companies a solution to address several of the GRC challenges they face by automating mundane reporting tasks and providing a single view of the requirements. However, companies need to also gain visibility into the compliance environment of the future if they are to limit potential risks and threats.

However, companies cannot rely on a single solution to address potential issues and need to safeguard their customer data by implementing solutions that provide internal security standards and equip their customers to prevent possible data hacks and breaches. By using automation software solutions that help companies to deliver consistent brand experiences and provide verification tools in every e-mail, for example, customers are less likely to fall victim to possible phishing scams. However, beyond this, the company needs to also have measures in place to prevent fraudulent e-mails from being sent from within the organisation and minimise the possibility of identity theft.

Automation software presents a solution to help mitigate certain risks by automating tasks according to business objectives and brand standards. This will result in all components and rules being merged into a holistic solution and will remove the segregation of duty from a single department to minimise potential risks to customer data and fraudulent activities.

THE BIG TAKE-OUT

Customers expect companies to have stringent measures in place to protect their personal information and mitigate possible risks of data breaches and hacks.

CONSISTENCY AND AUTHENTICITY BUILD TRUST

While marketing departments are faced with the challenge of capturing the imagination of the customer while ensuring data privacy at the same time, brand consistency and authenticity should be the foundation on which customers establish a relationship of trust. This is achieved, for example, by using primary fonts which can be harder to replicate, e-mail signatures with built-in verification tools and documents that meet compliance standards such as correct director details and company addresses.

To achieve this, technology should be implemented, not only to automate repetitive tasks, but to ensure that the company is able to establish trust with customers in every interaction. In addition, technology should be used to provide a layer of added security to the organisation while providing data and analytics to determine possible risks, mitigate fraudulent activity and gain visibility into how its brand is being used to engage with customers.

Customer trust and a company’s reputation are too important to be left to a single department. To be successful in safeguarding customers’ details, companies must tackle the challenge from various angles and implement several solutions that make it more challenging for hackers to access their information. At this time, technology savvy companies that implement solutions to safeguard their customer data are putting themselves at the forefront of the fight against the competition. However, in the future, this will become standard practice to protect their customers and meet their expectations.

Paula Sartini, founder and CEO of BrandQuantum, states that there are several factors that can cause serious reputational damage to brands, ranging from social media to fake news to cyber attacks. 

Companies must have measures in place to minimise the possibility of reputational damage. Brand consistency, which is critical to establishing trust, can provide a layer of brand security for both organisations and their customers.

THE VALUE OF BRAND CONSISTENCY

 Brand consistency is a key tool that helps customers and potential customers to recognise your brand and helps to establish relationships of trust with customers. Research findings from a survey conducted by Investis Digital and Forrester Consulting are that: ‘more than half of businesses see an improved reputation as a result of consistently communicating their brand values’.

By delivering a consistent experience in every interaction with your customers, they know what to expect when they engage with you. It also demonstrates that you take detail very seriously and gives customers confidence that you will deliver quality service to meet their needs.

This consistency can also be used to provide brand security in that should customers receive a phishing email which includes your company logo, for example, based on previous experience in dealing with your company, they would know that the email didn’t come from your organisation.

ACHIEVING BRAND CONSISTENCY

Brand consistency can only be achieved by establishing specific brand guidelines that are managed from a central department within an organisation and implemented by every employee throughout the organisation. These include the visual elements such as the logo and font colour to the tone of content used in communications. However, as employees have access to email and company materials across multiple devices and are able to create personalised customer communication as needed, achieving consistency is a great challenge for organisations.

To ensure brand security, every employee needs to know what the brand stands for, understand their role in delivering a consistent brand experience and be committed to delivering this experience in every customer communication. This will help to establish the brand’s reputation and build trust amongst its customers while aiding to secure the brand and even protect your customers from potential threats.

EASE THE PROCESS OF BRAND CONSISTENCY

While many companies have brand guidelines and standards in place, sharing these across an organisation and having all employees implement them is a real challenge for marketers today. This is supported by findings of a survey conducted by Investis Digital and Forrester Consulting which revealed that, ‘only 25 percent of businesses rate themselves as very effective at consistently managing their brand values across digital channels.’

To ease the process, employees need to be given tools that will help them to deliver consistent brand experiences at every customer touch point. All relevant documents from letterheads to sales collateral and presentations should be easy to access from a central location using the technology they have become accustomed to using daily.

Emails should be branded with beautifully designed email signatures and be written in the correct font type and colour. To provide added peace of mind for the recipient, emails should include the organisation’s unique font within the email signature as this is far harder to replicate than ordinary fonts and adds an additional layer of security.

The content should also align with the overall brand, with employees easily accessing previously developed and approved content that can be personalised to include specific client information. Attachments should be branded correctly and contain the correct information to ensure brand consistency in all communications and build brand trust.

ADHERING TO LEGAL REQUIREMENTS AND COMPLIANCY

To provide added security for both the recipient and sender, emails should adhere to legal requirements and compliancy acts such as the Privacy or Personal Information (POPI) Act and Electronic Communications Act (ECA). To achieve this, emails that contain personal information should not be shared with external parties but should only be sent via the organisation’s own internal server to the customer.

It is also important to include disclaimers with every email that the organisation sends in order to protect it against in terms of confidentiality, copyright, contract formation, defamation, discrimination, harassment, privilege and viruses. If the disclaimer is not included on the email the company could be faced with a possible lawsuit from recipients.

PUTTING THE BASICS IN PLACE

All content and branded materials should be easy to access regardless of the device or where the employee is based, whether local or global. The branded communications should be managed from a central location with tamperproof mechanisms built into the system to ensure that employees cannot make changes to documents, presentations, emails and other company information without the necessary approvals.

Ensuring brand consistency across several employees and different devices is a key challenge for several marketers today. However, it is a critical task in establishing trust with both employees and customers and requires a strategic approach to achieve success. However, technology also needs to be implemented across organisations to help ensure brand consistency in all customer engagements as this not only helps to build brand trust, but can provide a layer of added security for both the organisation and the customer.