FTD Brand Protection

BOSS said:
Why the hell would you want to?
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Because that agreement is for affiliates, not the one for members.

Affiliates are paid commission for sending customers to FTD.com, but you can't let your affiliates (who are effectively marketing subcontractors) compete for your own brand terms.
 
Ummmm..... err...... florists are affiliates, too - just a different type. I was trying to explain that over in the comments on this RF blog post.
[URL="http://amnavigator.com/blog/"]Geno Prussakov
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September 1, 2010 at 5:25 am][/URL]

What exactly is your definition of an “affiliate marketer”, CHR?
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CHR September 1, 2010 at 11:23 am

In the case of flower sellers, affiliates can sign up with FTD, Teleflora, 1-800-Flowers or FloralSource wire services and offer online or call-center ordering. They do not operate flower shops and are know in the industry and ‘sending florists only’ (SFO’s). The affiliates earn commissions of 20% (or more), rebates from the wire services ranging from $3 to $10 per order, and retain services charges paid by consumers during the ordering process.


To gain more orders, some unscrupulous affiliates use ‘local addresses’ when they have no physical presence, purchase local phone numbers with remote call forwarding, and list the ‘businesses’ with local-sounding names in order to convince consumers they are patronizing local florists directly.


The gathered orders are then sent via one of the wire services back to real local florists to fill and hand deliver – except instead of receiving the full dollars from consumers, the average order has been stripped of more 40% of the consumer’s spend – and the shopper has paid an unnecessary ‘service charge’ (typically $10-19) by going through a middle man.


The conusmer pays more, gets less for his/her dollar, and often doesn’t realized he/she has been duped until the flowers are seen – or end up NOT being delivered at all.



These affiliates are not like those of Amazon or Overstock. Neither company would put up (with) duping consumers like the floral industry does.
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Geno Prussakov September 1, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Are these arrangements separate from or intertwined with FTD’s, Teleflora’s, and 1-800-Flowers’ affiliate programs?
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CHR September 1, 2010 at 11:55 pm

They are both separate and intertwined.



I believe you’re asking about traditional affiliates who use unique codes in their links leading to the the main domains (FTD.com, etc…) to allow for order tracking – so the affiliates receive credit for helping generate orders. A few of those affiliates use shady practices, but most follow the rules and act ethically.


In the case of AB 2076, it addresses free-standing affiliates who actually process the orders themselves and pass them through wire services to local florists for fulfillment. Those orders can get mixed in with main site orders – especially when a local florist refuses to fill for one of the deceptive companies. The order can get re-routed to the same shop under the main company name’s account.



The wire services allow these ‘absentee florists’ to sell under many, many different ‘company’ names – and let them send through their networks under entirely different business names, too – so local florists don’t know the true origins of orders – until we’re caught in the middle of complaints.


One of the worst examples of rogue florist affiliates occurred a couple years ago when hundreds of Google Maps listings (for some of the most popular florists in the US) were hijacked by an affiliate marketer. It took months for some of the shops to get their listings back – and several have never recovered their positions in local search to this day.
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I just got "diarihia" of the brain.........I know it's ugly, but CHR, you are the worlds fastest.......replier......before I could finish reading, another post.........I spent alot of time on the short yellow bus........
 
Wait a second!!

Are you sure its FTD?

As long as you are bidding on keywords that use flowers or florist in broad settings then your fine.

As far as FTD saying you have to include FTD in your negitive keywords? No no no you are not biding on FTD flowers. You are biding on something flowers, or something florist. but not the exact words FTD flowers or florist.

Besides the screen shot should include the search term with [ ] or " " either thats not FTD or they have some stupid head working for them...
 
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Eric S said:
Are you sure its FTD?

...

Besides the screen shot should include the search term with [ ] or " " either thats not FTD or they have some stupid head working for them...
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My vote is for the stupid head ... er, rather legal dept or management. People who don't understand the nuances of search marketing. I remember years back getting a letter because we had FTD in our meta keywords tag. <giggles>

The [] or "" denote exact or phrase match in the PPC bidding, but only advanced users will bother with the quotes in performing a search.
 
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Eric S said:
So I guess I Have To Send A Letter To 800flowers to include a negitive keyword in their PPC.
www.everydayflowers.net
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source...q8msBgAAAKoEBU_Q5PnT&pbx=1&fp=d80d763a699a6ab
And This one.
http://www.everydayflowers.com
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=http...i=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=d80d763a699a6ab
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I was thinking the same thing.....to ALL of the order gatherers. My name is registered so I guess maybe I'll get some litigation going.
 
Well I just got my letter from my friends at *TD.

"In summary, we demand that you cease and desist from bidding on our *TD brand terms and take the affirmative corrective action (discribed in letter) no later then 5:00PM Eastern Time, September 20, 2010."

Listen folks I don't bid on *TD at all and according to their instructions even if I am just bidding on florist or flowers I still have to make the attempt of adding a negitive Keyword of *TD in my campaigns.

You know what I don't really care. I'll add their little request because I don't want legal action brought against me, my family, my business and my employees.
 

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As they're retention rate drops, the "legal actions" will go up.........................We've not seen a turf war in this industry, but it's a comin...............................Florists need to focus and kick some "floral booty".................
 
I guess that the money that you all spend with them for the rights to use their images and websites means nothing compared to the moeny they spent building their brand....I just wonder if they realize that without your extensive time and money spent they wouldn't have a brand...
 
So here are my screen shots before adding the NEGATIVE KEYWORD "FTD" to my campaigns and after.
 

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lori042499 said:
I just wonder if they realize that without your extensive time and money spent they wouldn't have a brand...
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Oh they know it... florists still put the FTD logo prominently in their windows, on their vans and stationary.... and FTD get's a boost every time they do... I mean whats easier to remember FTD.com or flowersfromtheheartofmichigan.com ??

Florists built the brand, florist owned the brand, florists sold the brand.... stupid florists....
 
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You will notice in my screen shots that my ad was showing for the keyword however it was only showing for the users in that area. This works with either broad or phrase settings.

Keep in mind that my "keywords" do not contain "FTD" and do not contain "online" but "florist" and "flowers". No specific location within the keywords.

Wether your a member or not of FTD this will effect all of us.

If you are a member you are a FOOL to continue to support a company that will go to great lengths to make sure that no one can ever compete with them intentionally or not.

(what a great week. I recieved my first summons and now I have recieved my first cease and desist letter. )

One more day left what could possibly go wrong right!
 
aaahhhh, IRS or state tax audit??? Just joking, hope nothing else goes wrong, Eric!
 
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