Building trust and credibility amongst consumers is essential to your business’s continued growth. A great way to do this is to leverage your trade mark strategy, which can act as a foundation for establishing and sustaining trust with your customers. This article will take you through seven trade mark strategies to build trust and credibility among your audience in New Zealand.
1. Know the Importance of Trade Marks
If you have a registered trade mark with the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ), you will have exclusive rights to use it for the goods and services it covers. This means that there is a legal basis for you to stop others from using a similar mark that could confuse consumers. As a result, trade marks are importance to your customer relationship, as they can:
- increase brand value, making it a useful asset in business transactions and when establishing partnerships; and
- build consumer trust, assuring your customers of your consistent quality and the origin of your goods or services.
Understanding the importance of trade marks is the first step for using your marks to build trust and credibility among your audience.
2. Use Your Marks Consistently
Consistent use of your marks is important for building trust and credibility with your consumers. Presenting your marks the same across all platforms will help reinforce the recognition of your brand. This includes consistency across your social media platforms, website, packaging and any other marketing materials.
Some ways that you can ensure consistency include:
- developing brand guidelines that outline the correct use of your trade mark;
- training employees on the importance of following these guidelines; and
- monitoring all platforms to ensure you are being consistent.
3. Manage Your Quality
Your trade mark should represent the quality of your good or service. This means that you must conduct quality assurance checks to ensure that your goods or services meet high standards. Otherwise, you will not be able to reinforce your consumers’ trust in your brand.
Some ways that you can inspire customer trust and improve quality are:
- complying with industry standards to maintain quality;
- actively seeking and responding to customer feedback; and
- being transparent about your manufacturing processes and quality assurance measures.
4. Protect Your Reputation
Your trade mark is a visual representation of your business’ reputation. This means that keeping a good reputation attached to your mark requires ongoing effort.
For example, you might want to focus on providing excellent customer service to foster positive relationships with consumers. Alternatively, you might want to focus on your public relations techniques to emphasise your brand’s strengths. Regardless of what strategy you select, ensure your trade mark has a positive connotation and effectively reflects your brand’s unique selling point.
5. Marketing Considerations
Effective marketing strategies can help you build awareness and credibility around your mark. You should use your trade mark in all marketing efforts to help reinforce brand identity and trust.
For example, this might mean ensuring that your mark is prominently featured in all of your marketing campaigns. You should also only partner with reputable organisations and events to help strengthen your brand’s credibility through association.
6. Monitor Your Mark
As a trade mark owner, there may be times when your competitors or other businesses will copy your mark or use one highly similar to it. This is known as infringement. Proactively monitoring the market for potential infringements of your mark is critical for protecting your mark and maintaining consumer trust. Unauthorised use of your mark may confuse consumers and reduce your brand’s value.
Some key ways to monitor your mark include:
- conducting regular searches to identify any unauthorised use;
- having a surveillance strategy in place to monitor online and offline markets; and
- taking legal action against infringers to protect your brand when required.
7. Educate Consumers
Educating consumers about the importance of your trade mark and its part in assuring quality can also help strengthen their trust in your brand.
For example, you should try to communicate the importance of your trade mark in your brand messaging. You might also want to create and distribute content that details the history, meaning and significance of your trade mark and why it is important to your business. This proactive approach will help foster a deeper connection with your audience by making them feel informed about your brand and like a valued part of your story.
Our free Trade Mark Essentials in New Zealand guide explains how to register and defend your trade mark registration.
Key Takeaways
As a reflection of your business and brand values, a trade mark is a great way to build trust and credibility with your customers. Some key strategies to do this include:
- knowing the importance of trade marks;
- being consistent in using your trade mark;
- managing your quality;
- protecting your reputation;
- considering effective marketing strategies;
- monitoring your mark; and
- educating consumers.
If you need assistance developing a trade mark strategy for your New Zealand business, our experienced trade mark lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 0800 005 570 or visit our membership page.
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