Similar named competitor

[LauraY]

I just signed on a company whose name is very similar to another company that they get mistaken for. Unfortunately the other company does not have a good reputation and my clients are getting bad reviews because of it. I've already advised them on how to deal with these bad reviews, but how would you go about avoiding them altogether? Would you risk adding a disclaimer with the other companies name?

 

[keyserholiday]

I would strongly encourage them to rebrand and change their name. The negative reviews won't stop and you could spend too much time reply and reporting them.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I would strongly encourage them to rebrand and change their name. The negative reviews won't stop and you could spend too much time reply and reporting them.

That's likely the best solution.

However, if as the marketer you can't get them to make that decision you need to:

1. Start getting tons of positive reviews to combat the negative ones
2. Reply and mention "We don't have a record of you as a customer. We believe you may have been a customer of <company>. We are mistaken for them quite often. Please adjust review." Make sure you write something much nicer but that's the gist.
3. Contact Google periodically about reviews that you believe were left mistakenly. They probably won't remove them but you can try.

Again, @keyserholiday is right. They need to rebrand. But if they don't, that's about all you can do.

Also, if their brand was first and the other company copied them, I would look at possibly taking legal action to force them to change their name. If your client has a lot of equity in their brand then you may need to do that. Although, the name might be ruined for both companies at this point.

 

[keyserholiday]

I would be more worried about what negative content is out there. They might have upset somebody like me have a sucks site named after them. In all seriousness, I have too many cases where the wrong business gets repeatedly attacked because their name is similar to one that made the news. I have helped a Vet in Florida for that exact reason.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Agreed. But getting buy in as a 3rd party company is difficult period. Buy in to do something as difficult as rebrand? That's a tall order. Hope it works though!

 

[Jac]

I just signed on a company whose name is very similar to another company that they get mistaken for. Unfortunately the other company does not have a good reputation and my clients are getting bad reviews because of it. I've already advised them on how to deal with these bad reviews, but how would you go about avoiding them altogether? Would you risk adding a disclaimer with the other companies name?

If possible please Private Message shortlink of Competitors GMB