Economics / 2. Marketing and management department

Master’s student: Yenkebaeyev Ybyray

Research supervisor:  Ph.D., Associate Professor Zhaksygulova G.K

Kazakh  National University named after al- Farabi, High school of business and economics

MAIN CHALLENGES WHEN MANAGING YOUR TRADEMARKS IN MARKETING SYSTEM

         Nowadays, there is no doubt that building  a strong brand is pivotal to your  business success. What’s more, protecting that brand is equally essential. Yet many small and middle businesses overlook an important first step in securing their brand: conducting trademarks in marketing system.
        A trademark is any unique word, symbol, name or device used to identify and distinguish the goods of one seller from the goods of another. A good example would be Procter & Gamble  because it has so many trademarks which are famous for  conducting accurately and successfully. A trademark allows the seller to protect what's trademarked from use and/or misuse by competitors while building brand loyalty among repeat customers. Trademarks also help prevent confusion or manipulation of consumers, who come to associate distinct attributes ,in particular, quality with a distinct brand. One of the potential measures to protect intellectual property for almost all firms is the use of trademarks. As we know, a trademark is a legally protected symbol, which has two main functions. The first function is to clearly distinguish the products and services of one company from those of other firms (WIPO, 2006). We call this the distinction function of a trademark (Greenhalgh & Rogers, 2007), which is primarily used to inform and help potential customers. The second function is a protection function, which means that the trademark serves as a protection of intellectual property and gives monopoly rights by prohibiting other companies from operating with similar or identical trademarks in similar or identical markets.

       If we look at managing trade marks in marketing system including finding problems, obstacles  and dealing with them, it will not be easy work. Furthermore, it takes so many time to carry out the whole process which means that it is so time- consuming to achieve the goal of making excellent brand and keeping, protecting the level that we reached after  a great deal of hard work and effort. From a branding perspective, the following are assets that can be protected: logos, names, tag lines and packaging. However, these assets can only be trademarked if they meet certain qualifications. A word or phrase that's commonly used or already connected with another product or service in the same industry cannot be trademarked. For example, a generic term like "search engine" can't be trademarked, but a unique name, like Google, can be. However, if your name is generic but used in an industry not typically related to the meaning of the term, you may be able to trademark it. A good example would be Apple Computer.  In your managing skills by marketing system, as a general rule, you can trademark your business name if you use it when advertising directly to your customers. If you don't use your business name in direct communication with your customers, you probably can't, because you're not connecting your name to your brand and its attributes. If your business name will be a large part of your marketing, you should consider trademarking it.    

        Every business wants to create an emotional relationship with the consumer by creating and maintaining the reputation and image of its mark. At this point, we can see the crucial role of  marketing system which is the main tool of every success company nowadays. The fact is from brand recognition to brand insistence that we need to make a great effort which means that we must manage our trade marks in marketing system very effectively. The reason why we need to conduct our trade marks in marketing system is that if we had a trade mark of our product we then would have to position it properly which is the key thing in marketing .After that we can do further steps to make it famous or …Registered trade marks increase the marketing power of the products and also protecting ability. For instance , dupont brands in textile sphere such as Coolmax, Kevlar made others realize that associating a Trademarks with a good marketing program is a way to pull consumers. If we take  a trade mark as a windwill or waterwill then without  water and wind it doesn’t work . Conducting and protecting trade marks in marketing system is sometimes very tough  because company need to spend a great deal of many to protect or manage in difficult times. However, if company won  and worked hardly and successfully, it would be essential experience for future. One of the best way to protect our trade marks to reach to the becoming brand because Moreover, a strong and well-known mark can discourage potential new competitors from entering the market (Aaker, 2007). The trademark increases the barrier to market entry, because high levels of investment would be needed to enter the market (Jensen & Webster, 2004).Properly marketed and employed, slogans, product phrases and other types of taglines can help companies to build an instantly recognisable brand identity in the minds of consumers. Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ and McDonalds’ ‘I’m lovin’ it’ are just two examples that spring instantly to mind. 

          As these companies show, the best slogans become synonymous with the brand as a whole, reflecting the company’s products and values in one short or simple statement. Effective taglines such as these are not easy to create, so when you do it’s important to protect them and enforce them against would-be copiers.

         It is important to note that after becoming or making your trade mark a successful brand we must protect it from our rivals.The best way to protect our brand is to use the synergy relationships between trademark lawyers and marketers.when we manage our trademarksin marketing system we often face something uncomfortable between marketers and lawyers. As we know, by the time the marketer is engaged, several business and technical personnel may have already decided that the product should be successful. The pressure is on the marketer to facilitate this success through his or her creativity. When the trademark lawyer’s involvement comes long after the marketer’s initial involvement, the marketer may have already evaluated and eliminated several possible marks and been subjected to criticism about the selected mark. After having defended the creation to others, a marketer may not be willing to surrender easily to the risks or concerns the trademark lawyer communicates after conducting a search.

     An in-house trademark lawyer for a major consumer products company explains that marketers want to usedescriptive marks because they are easier to market, while trademark lawyers tend to insist on selecting unique and "own-able" marks. However, Sondra Schol, in-house trademark counsel for Eveready Battery Company Inc.’s Schick Shaving Division, acknowledges that in some circumstances, such as when a product has a small marketing budget or is expected to have a short life, a descriptive or laudatory mark is more beneficial than a suggestive, arbitrary or fanciful mark. That is because the descriptive or laudatory mark will more quickly convey to consumers the product’s benefits. Ms. Schol cautions her marketing contacts that one problem with selecting descriptive or laudatory marks for what are expected to be short-term products is that successful short-term products may become long-term products. Once a product becomes successful, others are more likely to want to compete with it or even copy it. Having committed to the use of a weak mark with such a product, the trademark owner may find that it is unable to stop competitors from using similar marks for similar products. So while trademark lawyers and marketers approach the development and use of a mark from different perspectives, it is the synergy of the relationship between the two that results in a successful marketing effort and protecting easily which is most important.

      To conclude, it is important to keep in mind that the more you differentiate your brand  by managing your trade marks in marketing system from others in your industry, the easier  they'll be to protect. The thing is that the final successful result of managing your trade marks in marketing system  brings  powerful brand which then allows us to conduct and protect our brand easily and clearly .Choose a name and logo that distinctly identify your business by using marketing system assets and will protect it from competitor. Moreover, trademarks and industrial designs are key things today which  increase and help marketers show the power of Marketing. To protect your trademarks , it begins from the start by marketers of company .What’s more, the synergy work and relation between trademark lawyers and marketers is a key tool to protect easily and successfully.

REFERENCES

 

1.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark

2.     https://www.gov.uk/how-to-register-a-trade-mark/register-a-trade-mark

3.     http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2006/03/article_0003.html

4.     http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/sme/en/documents/wipo_magazine/02_2002.pdf

5.     D. Aaker Building strong brands. - M .: Publishing House Grebennikov, 2003. - 440 p.

6.     Keller KL Strategic brand management: creating, assessment and management

7.     branded capital, 2nd edition .: Trans. from English. - M .: Publishing House "Williams", 2005. - 704 p.

8.     Vinogradov EV Estimation trademark: illusion or reality? // Questions of evaluation. 2002. ¹3. S. 20-24.

9.     Starov SA, plugs VS Classification of the main approaches in assessing the value of brands in Russian

10. D. Schultz about brands and branding. www.v-ratio.ru

ANOTATION

When the competition is fierce, even the market leaders have to address the rather complex issue of maintaining the leading position. The traditional means (such as the market share increase and the price decrease to enter into the price-based competition) often prove to be inefficient. Today the consumer loyalty is becoming an increasingly important factor contributing to the company success. This is the reason why the competitors have become much more interested in considering such issues as brand management, its value assessment and the brand use as an instrument in the competition. However, after reaching brand image it is undeniable that there appears another issue with protecting and maintaining position.