Advertising on a competitor's company name...

...seems a bit scummy to me?

[Jack_Hughes]

Just checked, we are now the proud possessor of 3 competitors advertising on adwords using our company name.

We don't do this and I find the practice rather distasteful. To my mind, all they are doing is adding some 'buzz' to our brand. Seems unlikely that they will steal many customers.

I do appreciate that it is a competitive world out there. I guess we could ask politely if they'd stop, but I doubt they would listen. Would trademarking our company name give us more leverage?

[nyet]

If it helps your buzz, why stop them? (If you could).

We do it as do our competition. There is nothing wrong with education consumers as to their options. It is better for the marketplace.

If Coke asks the NY Times to place it's ad on the same page as every Pepsi ad there is nothing wrong with that.

This is just the same thing.

[wrgvt]

In a competitive marketplace, you have to be able to distinguish your products against your competition. Sometimes just bidding on the keyword of a competitor's name can help. A web surfer is looking for Acme Widgets, but he's not sold on the idea yet that's exactly what he wants to buy. He searches for "Acme Widgets" and sees their ad, but also sees Beta Widgets. Now he thinks Acme Widgets are priced too high or maybe he's heard some not-so-good things about them, and so he checks out Beta Widgets.

If I'm that web surfer, I want to know all my options and I want to see that ad for Beta Widgets and see if they really are competitive or have something new that Acme Widgets doesn't. If Acme Widgets are no longer competitive, then their problem is their product, not the ads.

Also, if customers are bidding on your name, then you sure can bid on their name. With a good product and a creative ad, competitors bidding on your name shouldn't be a cause for concern.

[fischermx]

Jack_Hughes :
If you don't like it, complain to google and they will remove their keywords biddings.
For another company I work partial time we did this and we take ride of it within a week.

[nyet]

wasn't that policy changed? I thought as long as you do not use the trademark in the ad text Google would no longer take the keyword away.

[Jack_Hughes]

Also, if customers are bidding on your name, then you sure can bid on their name. With a good product and a creative ad, competitors bidding on your name shouldn't be a cause for concern.

Unfortunately, nobody searches for their name very much. So, they are piggy backing on our marketing efforts with no reciprocation ie they don't have much marketing effort for us to piggy back on.

[Liane]

I have a company name which is somewhat unusual in that the words used are backwards to the way the average consumer would use them in a sentence. I also pluralized the first word which is NOT a popular keyword.

In doing this, I was attempting to find a unique company name which still said what the company was all about.

One competitor chose to use my company name in their keyword selection and they even use it in the title of their home page on Overture. The first week Google launched adwords, they used my company name there as well.

Initially, I was pretty ticked off, but I let it slide waiting to see what would happen. Nothing happened because their web site sucks. To me, its just a joke that they think so highly of my business that they would try to undermine my company name. Now others are following suit!

I know for a fact that I outsell all of them by nearly 4 to 1 so who cares?

Is it scummy? Sure it is! But there are a lot of scummy people out there and you can't worry about all of them! :)

[nyet]

I think if your buiness plan requires the customer to remain in the dark about your competition the 'scumminess' of the competition is the least of your problems.

Consumers who make educated choices are the best consumers.

Vive la diference!

[Jack_Hughes]

I'm with Liane on this I think. I'll let it ride given that there is very little to be done about it anyway.

It is interesting that our competitors behaviour has exactly the opposite effect they might expect. I've met plenty of aggressive sales types to know that they will be thinking that they are getting one over on us. Well, they aren't. If anything they are actually motivating me to work even harder to improve my site & blow them away.

The idea that the competition is worrying more about us, rather than how they can best serve their customers, suites me just fine.

[nyet]

That's good. In fact it is a perfect example as to how a free, open and "aggressively" competitive marketplace furthers the consumer's interests!