Case Analysis: KitchenAid and the Royal Bank of Canada: Do you let your Brand go online all by itself?
1. Consider your own online shopping patterns. How much weight do you place on the presence of name or logo or other trademark (Such as the KitchenAid silhouette) on a web site when purchasing goods and services? Do you ever stop to consider whether you may have been missed? How could you tell the difference?
2. Brian Maynard of Kitchen Aid notes that the development of the internet changed the problem of brand policing. What are some of these changes? What new challenges can you think of that did not exist in the pre online world? Provide several examples.
3. The companies mentioned in the case (e.g., Kitchen Aid RBC, Disney, and Coke) were all established and enjoyed strong brand recognition well before the advent of the internet. Do you think online-only companies face the same problems as they do? Why or why not? Justify the rationale for your answer.
