Brand Building on the Internet
by Brad VanAuken

Read all about the Brand Building on the Internet below. When you've read enough, contact us to talk about how we can put these insights to work for you.

Cyberbranding 200 Study Results  |  Using the Intranet to Further Brand Goals with Internal Audiencess

Cyberbranding 2000 Study Results

BrandForward just completed its first annual cyberbranding study: Cyberbranding 2000 Study™. The study's objective is to understand branding dynamics in cyberspace versus the “brick & mortar” world. We fielded the study in March of 2000. 1548 people were surveyed. The study explores three top e-commerce categories (books, toys & games and clothes/apparel) and identifies patterns that are applicable to all product categories.It compares “brick & mortar” brands in cyberspace to pure Internet brands.It analyzes twelve different dimensions of brand equity: awareness, accessibility, quality, value, relevant differentiation, emotional connection, position in consideration set, preference, usage/share of requirements, personality, vitality and loyalty. It also analyzes the online purchase process including the role of brands. Finally, it ranks the importance of 23 factors to the success of e-commerce sites.

Following are some insights from the study:

• Of the three categories studied, books had the highest online purchase category penetration and unit share


• While brand awareness is surprisingly high for a few cyberbrands, there is still a great need to build awareness and encourage trial for most cyberbrands. As this is the first building block of brand insistence, it is also a significant vulnerability for pure Internet brands vis-a-vis “brick and mortar” brands in cyberspace.


• Brick & mortar brands received the highest unaided mention in the toys and games and clothing categories by a huge margin, however, Amazon.com was a very close second to Barnes & Noble (36% to 29%) and far ahead of other competitors.


• The most frequently mentioned points of difference include the following:


• Shopping accessibility and convenience (manifest differently in cyberspace versus the “brick and mortar” world)


• Product selection


• The shopping atmosphere/experience (again, manifest differently in cyberspace versus the “brick and mortar” world)


• The price and the value received for the price


• Other important points of difference:


• Unique products


• Unique target consumers (such as teens)


• A brand that is trustworthy and dependable and that never disappoints consumers


• For clothes, the brand's unique product style


• “Brick & mortar” brands with e-commerce capability are perceived to be more accessible than cyberbrands


• While cyberbrands are perceived to be more “innovative/leading edge” and less “old fashioned/traditional” and “boring,” they are also perceived to be less “friendly,” “dependable” and “trustworthy”


• Depending on the product category, people arrive at a given site:


• Directly via the URL: 45-54%


• Directly via a bookmark: 11-28%


• From a link from another site, newsletter or e-mail: 13-19%


• From a search engine: 10-22%


• Characteristics that are most important in deciding which site one will purchase from include the following:


• Prices clearly marked


• Secure payment method


• Inexpensive shipping


• No hassle return policy


• Detailed item description


• Pictures of items


• Of those who purchased online, 28-45% did not consider purchasing from a retail store and 19-34% went to a retail store first, depending on the product category

The study provides much more information and insight than I have space to include in this newsletter. In our report, we augment this study's findings with our own analysis of what it takes to create a strong brand-building site. This is a very important topic as more and more brands attempt to build brand equity and conduct commerce online.

Using the Intranet to Further Brand Goals with Internal Audiences

Brand management groups at many companies have found the Intranet to be a powerful tool to accomplish the following on behalf of their brands:

• Communicate up-to-date brand identity standards and systems and provide powerful tools for applying those standards and systems in a variety of situations (Updates are immediate and universal. There is no need to print expensive new manuals or hope people update the existing manuals with the new pages.)


• Provide accessible decision logic for brand architecture (for example, to help people determine when a brand should stand alone, be a sub-brand or be endorsed by the parent brand)


• Educate employees on brand management principles


• Educate employees about brand goals and strategies


• Provide key brand talking points to sales people, customer service representatives and others in direct contact with outside audiences


• Reinforce the brand essence, promise and personality


• Recognize people who have gone out of their way to further brand goals


• Maintain constant contact and dialog with company employees on brand issues


• Keep people focused on achieving key brand goals


• Demonstrate best practices in reinforcing the brand identity in an interactive environment

Brand building Intranet sites frequently include the following:

• Prominently featured brand essence, promise and personality


• Brand identity standards and systems with templates that can be applied digitally or printed out


• Brand plan including brand objectives and strategies


• Brand equity goals and performance against those goals


• Other brand research


• Key selling points for the brand


• Specific copy to include in consumer, trade and other external audience communication


• Recent brand press releases


• Recent brand advertising (including video clips of recent television ads)


• Brand glossary


• Frequently asked questions


• Recognition of people who have gone out of their way to further brand goals


• Proper use of brand identity standards (including brand colors, tonality, visual style and voice) throughout the Intranet site


• Screensavers that feature the brand logo


• Bulletin board for raising and addressing brand issues


• Digital brand management newsletters conveying important brand information and featuring examples of successful brand building actions

They sometimes include the following:

• Brand management education


• Importance of brand management


• An overview of the brand management process


• How to create brand insistence


• Calendar of upcoming brand events


• Video clips of brand management speakers


• Video clips of employees and customers talking about what the brand means to them (reinforcing the brand essence, promise and personality)


• Corporate executives reinforcing the importance of delivering the brand promise (through video clips or quotes)

Your organization's Internet and Intranet sites are two places where you can incorporate animation and sound into your brand's identity, providing it with a richer multi-sensory texture. These two platforms are relatively new so that there is an opportunity to portray the brand's identity as intended consistently throughout both vehicles, if not initially, then at least during a subsequent generation of development. It is critical that brand identity standards and systems are consistently applied to these two vehicles and that the brand management perspective is factored into the design of these sites. More and more companies that have “piecemealed” their Intranet sites by division or department are realizing the importance of a consistent, seamless look and feel that is driven by the brand and its identity. We have gotten an increasing number of requests to help companies create a consistent branded look across these two sites recently.

Just as the Internet is revolutionizing how we conduct business, so too the Intranet is revolutionizing how we can further brand goals through internal audiences.