How Does the Use of Trademarks by Third-Party Sellers Affect Online Search?

Presentation

Based on Marketing Science article MKSC-Mar-10-0118.R3

Tucker Presentation.ppt Tucker Presentation.ppt

Teaching Objective

Consumers use search engines to obtain information about brands, leading to conflicts trademark owners, resellers and search engines. We examine a change in Google policy that allowed resellers to feature trademarks in their search ads. This weakly reduced clicks on trademark holder's paid search ads. However, the decrease in paid clicks was outweighed by an increase in clicks on the unpaid links to the trademark holder's website. When resellers focus on the trademarked brand in their ads, their ads become less distinct, and customers are more likely to ignore their ad and buy from the direct channel.

Keywords: Online Advertising, Intellectual Property, Search Engines, Trademarks