Ford to control trademarked content online

[Jarrett]

This hit the wire last night. I understand the reason Ford is interested in protecting product image and do not disagree. I also know that if I was generating revenue / leads from those domain I would be looking for alternatives.



December 14, 2009

Subject: Restatement of Ford Motor Company Dealer Domain Name and Website Policy This communication is a re-statement of the attached Ford and Lincoln-Mercury Dealer Domain Name and Website Policy, which was approved by the Ford and Lincoln-Mercury Dealer Councils and was previously communicated to the dealer body in January 2003 and October 2006.
This trademark protection Policy is intended to protect the Company's legal rights in its intellectual property and, in turn, your interests as a valued dealer of the Company. It is consistent with the trademark provisions contained in your Dealer Sales and Service Agreement ("DSSA") and with Ford's ownership of its trademarks and, accordingly, requires that dealers use the Company's trademarks in an appropriate manner in association with their dealership name.
The Policy applies to all domain names registered or used by Ford, Lincoln or Mercury dealers which contain a Ford-owned trademark, including domain names provided by Company-authorized agencies like the DealerConnection and third-party-developed websites utilized by the dealer. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing sentence, the Policy applies to Ford/Motorcraft parts websites and extended warranty sales websites operated by or on behalf of dealers.
The Policy requires that dealer domain names which contain a Ford-owned trademark reflect the dealer's approved trade name. Accordingly, below are a few examples of unapproved domain name registrations and corresponding business uses:

• Registration of a domain name that is not reflective of a dealer's approved trade name.
• Registration of a domain name that is reflective of a geographic area, such as DetroitFord.com, except to the extent that this is the dealer's approved trade name.
• Registration of a domain name that is reflective of a different Ford, Lincoln, or Mercury dealer's domain name, trade name, or primary market area.
• Registration of a domain name using a Company trademark and general slogan, or which otherwise implies that the Company is operating the website, such as; FordTrucks.com, fordpartsdirect.com, FordESP.com, or LincolnSUV.com.

Please note that the Policy applies to all dealer domain names that contain Ford-owned trademarks. Consistent with Ford's rights as the owner of its trademarks and consistent with the trademark provisions of the DSSA, the Policy applies irrespective of when the domain names were first used and irrespective of whether such domain names are in current use or are planned for future use. If you are using a domain name that is not in compliance with the Policy, you are required to promptly cease such use.
Please forward this communication to all of your employees and third party supplier partners who are involved in maintaining your dealership's domain names or managing its websites.

[Lanecf]

Hey all - Ford yesterday re-issued a statement regarding the disapproved domains for dealerships to use - these include geographic names. Appears that this was previously communicated in 03 and 06, but we haven't really been going by these guidelines. Many of our competitors as well as Ford dealerships in other states use geographic locales that are not the legal name of their business. Just was wondering if anyone had been approached by Ford to cease the use of such names and wanted to get tohers feedback regarding the use of geographic locales in domain names. thanks

Chris Lane

[brianpasch]

This will be painful to enforce, like other OEM efforts, because some of their biggest dealers and most successful dealers use microsites to sell cars. Personally, I think that Ford's lead partners are the ones that are whispering in Ford's ear. It's bad for third party lead collectors to have Ford Dealers create multiple domain names. It would infringe on their lead flow and push national lead collection websites off Google Page One.

For example, if Boston car dealers who were Internet savvy created websites like "bostonaudi.com", "bostoninfiniti.com", "bostonbmw.com" in addition to their registered trade name websites, guess what would happen. The tens of thousands of searches per month on those exact phrases would go to local dealers directly and less would go to Edmunds.com, Automotive.com, Autotropolis.com, and other lead collectors.

Ford should realized that Internet Marketing strategies need to cover more than their primary domain. Microsites deliver more first party leads to local dealers. In the past it was expensive to create, but today that are inexpensive. With leads costing dealers $20 a piece, you can see the economic in the fight. Ford seems to be siding with the lead collectors.

I could see a reasonable policy that requested that only Ford dealers should be able to have domains with the Ford name in the domain name. BMW has a strict policy about commercial sites that include BMW in the domain name. I could also see that Ford dealers couldn't create domain names using the town name of a competing local Ford Dealer. There are limits to how aggressive one should get; big cities get a bit sticky.

If OEM's strictly enforced and demand that dealers only use their primary business name in the URL, then I would have to believe that the OEM's were in collusion with lead collection portals. Dealers take out co-op TV advertising that crosses PMA boundary lines. Ford co-ops newspaper ads that have distribution that crosses PMA boundary lines. The Internet should not be viewed so narrowly.

The first OEM that strictly enforces this idea will see less creativity and competition on the dealership level. Dealers will have less control of their own marketing platforms. This will result in third party companies and lead sources commanding a higher price for leads. Lead collectors will be able to use non-Ford automotive domains to surround local Ford dealers and capture leads.

I would actually benefit from a strict OEM lockdown because my lead generation portals that I am building for my clients will slip higher in the local rankings. Regardless of my benefit, it would suck for the dealers who are just getting the tools to control their own destiny.

This is a backward step in Automotive Digital Marketing; a compromise must be reached. I will offer my time to sit down with Ford executives to create a fair and balanced domain naming policy. Ford needs to see how one sided this type of strict ruling would be for their dealer own network.

[JoePistell]

Brian,

Why not own the offending domain and sell content and inventory space on it?

[Craig]

Why not own the offending domain and sell content and inventory space on it?
Joe Pistell

Exactly why I own toyotacertifiedboston.com as well as usedtoyotaboston.com
Since I don't personally have a franchise agreement with Toyota (wish I did) they can't have me remove the site. The next step will be migrating this from a free wordpress site to a hosted platform so I can host inventory and develop leads for a select group of Toyota store..... Acton Toyota!

[JoePistell]

Craig,

You can keep the WordPress site! I am building a mod with HomeNet to feed my inventory into the WP site and automatically build pages each time a new unit arrives! I've got my "auto-blog" almost done, be glad to resell you the guts for a fraction of what it cost me.

I am working with HN with another Mod (in beta) that will SuperCharge this set up! Email me or PM me anytime.

More as it comes...

[VJnator]

Exactly why I own toyotacertifiedboston.com as well as usedtoyotaboston.com
Since I don't personally have a franchise agreement with Toyota (wish I did) they can't have me remove the site. The next step will be migrating this from a free wordpress site to a hosted platform so I can host inventory and develop leads for a select group of Toyota store..... Acton Toyota!

Craig, I like what you did with your different blogs. A great tool to own Googles Page One Real Estate. I have only one thought you might look into. With the verbiage "Toyota Certified" you possible get Toyota's HQ and their lawyers involved to take a closer look on your pages. I am not familiar with Toyota's policies but I imagine, when you link to your franchise URL from a blog you could be possible violated name rights like "Toyota Certified".

Otherwise congrats on the nicely styled and informative blogs.

[Jeff Kershner]

The first OEM that strictly enforces this idea will see less creativity and competition on the dealership level. Dealers will have less control of their own marketing platforms. This will result in third party companies and lead sources commanding a higher price for leads. Lead collectors will be able to use non-Ford automotive domains to surround local Ford dealers and capture leads.

We are already seeing a few others manufacturers head in this direction and not with just domain names but across several other online marketing creative. Honda...cough cough.

I hear that Mercedes-Benz could be doing the same thing. They have already insistent that UNLESS you're a Mercedes-Benz of "yourtown" you're being forced to change to "Mydealername Auto" while having the Mercedes-Benz separate. Next in line, I'm sure will the each dealers domain name.

Example: TomJones Mercedes - unacceptable
Mercedes-Benz of Mytown - acceptable

Now has to be:
TomJone Auto
Mercedes-Benz

The manufacturers are making HIPPO decisions without understanding the true ramifications.

Not to mentions there some dealers websites that have been around for a very long time and have some strong hold in the SERPS. Can you imagine being told tomorrow that you need to chance your main domain?? What a mess.

I could also see that Ford dealers couldn't create domain names using the town name of a competing local Ford Dealer.

I can agree with this on some levels until you get into a larger geographic area like "Batimore Maryland" our "Houston Texas". How on earth will a manufacturer police this.

Funny thing is..I almost (and maybe I did but can't find it) wrote an article on this several years back predicting this was going to go down.

NOTE: Lets keep this thread on topic please. Feel free to start a new thread on WP and inventory.