With competition being fiercer than it ever was, being able to protect your brand should be one of your organization’s top priorities. And with many businesses resorting to illegal means, launching a “Minimum Advertised Price” (MAP) policy is a crucial component to your brand’s success.
What a MAP Policy Is
A MAP policy, according to the American Bar Association, serves as a way to place price restrictions on goods or services when they are advertised. However, its design must not restrict the actual sales price.
In other words, these policies prohibit resellers to advertise products or services at prices that are below what the manufacturer, supplier, or service provider has specified.
This is why you must already develop a well-designed MAP policy. Failure to do so can dramatically affect your brand and its bottom line, especially if the word gets out that you do not have one in place.
Ensuring Your MAP Policies Are Not Being Violated
After deploying the advertised price restrictions, follow it up by careful monitoring and thorough tracking, PriceManager advises. These play a critical role in ensuring that resellers or your major competitors do not violate your MAP policy enforcement.
In addition to monitoring your own policy, you should also track your competition and ensure that they are in compliance with the MAP.
Protect Your Brand through a MAP Monitoring Service
Fortunately, monitoring MAP compliance as well as tracking of online pricing do not require manual efforts. There are services specifically designed to help all involved parties – from manufacturers to retailers – ensure that violations to a MAP policy are not occurring.
You can also use many of these services for other competitive intelligence-related tasks, all of which can help you not only protect your brand, but improve your business’ bottom line as well.
