allowing affiliates to use your brand name 

allowing affiliates to use your brand name

At the end of the day it needs to be a business decision. What results in more profits for your business?

As a merchant you want to make as much money from your affiliate program as possible. You need to consider the following:

1) Does filling the search results page with listings for your company (instead of your competitors) help you do this?
2) Are affiliates causing confusion or misleading consumers by placing their ads?

[b][link=http://www.usclargo.com/asp/showpads.php?sort=Title&cat=All&search=Keywords&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.usclargo.com/asp/showpads.php?sort=Date&cat=All&search=Keywords&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.usclargo.com/asp/showpads.php?sort=Size&cat=All&search=Keywords&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.usclargo.com/asp/showpads.php?sort=Company&cat=All&search=Keywords&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.usclargo.com/asp/showpads.php?sort=Category&cat=All&search=Keywords&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.usclargo.com/asp/showpads.php?sort=Reverse&cat=All&search=Keywords&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]

If affiliates present a variety of different links to your site when searches for your name are done, this might be thought of simply as better merchandising. It presents the visitor with a variety of different ways to enter your site and they may be more likely to enter the site on a page that contains exactly what the are looking for so total sales are higher.

[b][link=http://www.usclargo.com/asp/showpads.php?sort=Title&cat=All&search=Title&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.usclargo.com/asp/showpads.php?sort=Date&cat=All&search=Title&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.usclargo.com/asp/showpads.php?sort=Size&cat=All&search=Title&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.usclargo.com/asp/showpads.php?sort=Company&cat=All&search=Title&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.usclargo.com/asp/showpads.php?sort=Category&cat=All&search=Title&string=mdi&match=any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.usclargo.com/asp/showpads.php?sort=Reverse&cat=All&search=Title&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]

Most affiliates probably prefer no restrictions and if this policy results in more profits for the merchant, then its a win-win situation. If it doesn't then one workable policy is for the merchant to specify in their TOS that affiliates may not outbid the merchant for the merchants branded terms. By doing this affiliates can still make some cash, the merchant gets added exposure and sales and there are likely to be fewer ads for competitors showing up.

[b][link=http://www.clickfire.com/tools/software/showpads.php?sort=Title&cat=All&search=Keywords&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.clickfire.com/tools/software/showpads.php?sort=Date&cat=All&search=Keywords&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.clickfire.com/tools/software/showpads.php?sort=Size&cat=All&search=Keywords&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.clickfire.com/tools/software/showpads.php?sort=Company&cat=All&search=Keywords&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.clickfire.com/tools/software/showpads.php?sort=Category&cat=All&search=Keywords&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.clickfire.com/tools/software/showpads.php?sort=Reverse&cat=All&search=Keywords&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]

The other thing it makes sense to add into the TOS is that affiliates cannot put things like "official site" in the ads as this almost certainly causes confusion among consumers when there are 2 or more ads for the same site all claiming to be the "official site". Any merchant who runs an affiliate program should at least consider PPC campaigns on thier own brand name. On the other hand, an affiliate program can serve as an outsourced PPC program if the merchant either doesn't have the resources to run a PPC program or simply prefers not to put in the work to run PPC.

[b][link=http://www.clickfire.com/tools/software/showpads.php?sort=Title&cat=All&search=Title&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.clickfire.com/tools/software/showpads.php?sort=Date&cat=All&search=Title&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.clickfire.com/tools/software/showpads.php?sort=Size&cat=All&search=Title&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.clickfire.com/tools/software/showpads.php?sort=Company&cat=All&search=Title&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.clickfire.com/tools/software/showpads.php?sort=Category&cat=All&search=Title&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]
[b][link=http://www.clickfire.com/tools/software/showpads.php?sort=Reverse&cat=All&search=Title&string=mdi&match=Any]GRML Blog[/b][/link]

If the decision is made not to allow affiliates to bid on brand names, the best bet is to give notice (typically 7 days) of the change in policy to give affiliates time to change their campaigns or adjust their bids.