Using the law to protect the brand on social media sites: A three “M”s framework for marketing managers

The purpose of this paper is to examine the legal concepts and theories that are useful in protecting a brand from harmful and unauthorized social media use by third parties.

Qualitative research of articles, news stories, court decisions and statutes was conducted. Various legal concerns and theories were developed from this information.

The various legal theories were organized into a three‐category framework: Monitoring; 'Mposters; and Message.

This framework should be useful to brand managers to protect their brand against unauthorized use, imitation or unfavourable affiliations in social media.

This work is the first to develop a managerial framework of legal issues to address unauthorized and unfavourable use of a brand identity in social media.