TEMPERATURE TEST
Bots, Inventory, and Brand Protection Strategy
Our March 2018 Temperature Test sought to understand how much bots had affected brand protection strategy. Specifically, we asked respondents:
“The Holiday season saw the increased use of ‘bots’ to buy-up inventory of goods online and then resell them on popular platforms. Did this cause you to increase enforcement?”
Our results indicate bot buying is an emerging but not dominant concern for brand protection professionals.
Only five (11 percent) respondents said holiday season use of bots caused them to increase enforcement. These respondents were in apparel/footwear/fashion (2 respondents), consumer goods (1), toys (1), and other (1) industries. Perhaps this is not surprising, given many holiday gifts are made by these industries. Yet even among these industries only a few increased enforcement in response to bot buying. And no respondents in any other industry did so.
47 RESPONDING INDUSTRIES
Apparel, footwear, and fashion (11), Consumer goods (4), Electronics (8), Food and consumables (3), Packaging (2), Pharmaceuticals (4), Other industries, including automotive, defense contractor, entertainment, heavy equipment, sports equipment, toys, and industry not disclosed (15)
IN THE NEXT TEMPERATURE TEST….
another possible emerging threat to brand protection, 3-D printing.
THE BRAND PROTECTION PROFESSIONAL | JUNE 2018 | VOLUME 3 NUMBER 2
2018 COPYRIGHT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES
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