| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 17/04/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 18 |
| Copyright: Other |
One of today’s hot topics is on-line branding. What is it? And, more importantly, does it really matter anyway? Well frankly, yes it does. It’s a key to building your business.
Branding is a fundamental part of on-line marketing. It’s not simply about name recognition, it’s about depth and all the values that the consumer associates with your company. Branding is what your company, products and services stand for. It’s what makes you who you are.
Today, most organisations spend far more time thinking about their off-line branding than they do their on-line branding.
Producing brochures, writing copy, developing adverts and making customer mailings all generally have a high time investment and are carefully planned and reviewed before implementation.
On-line marketing is quite different with much less time being spent on it. Now obviously this is a function of the fast-paced, high-energy personality of Internet life. We can spot an opportunity, react quickly and get things turned around straight away. That said, there really is no excuse for a drop in standards and poor quality workmanship.
Just as an example of one tiny area of branding, ask yourself this question. Who writes the copy for your Web site and your e-mail newsletters? OK. Now, would you ask this person to write your brochure or advertising copy? Bet you wouldn’t. While off-line marketing copy is generally written by specialist copywriters who generally go through a formal briefing process, e-mail newsletters are written by an internal member of staff who have been asked to put something together by lunchtime.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the quick and dirty element of on-line marketing and I’m very much for the internal writer who knows more about the product than any external person will. However, what I am concerned about is the gap between the off-line customer experience and the on-line customer experience. It should be completely seamless and often it’s not.
One upmarket travel firm recently sent me an e-mail newsletter that was so out of touch with the rest of its branding and market positioning that it was almost shocking.
It was as though Fortnum and Mason were talking to me from a market stall. It completely devalued the brand and the investment they had made over a considerable number of years in developing the company and associating themselves with quality, reputation and customer care.
But what about branding for the smaller company, the company that doesn’t do very much advertising and doesn’t have a small fortune to spend on brochures? Because this kind of company is smaller and more specialist, on-line branding is even more important.
Many customers visiting your Web site will be experiencing your company for the first time so while you don’t have to worry so much about the seamless experience between your on and off-line branding, you will need to focus completely on your Web site. Doing business with you over the Internet requires a huge leap of faith for every first-time customer.
They’re putting their faith in a company they don’t really know. So take a look at your site and ask what kind of messages it gives out. Does it say quality and professional? Does it say solid and trustworthy? Make sure the look reflects who you are as a company and your brand qualities.
Which brings me on to what I like to call the ‘Blue Peter’ sites. They’re the home-made sites with weird flashing things in strange colours, odd graphics and badly written copy. Sorry to be a design snob but they are really awful. You can spot them a mile off and really don’t do anything to inspire confidence in you to do business with.
Shame if the company behind is actually extremely knowledgeable and experienced, offering quality products and high standards of service. The customer won’t ever know this because they will have moved off onto someone else’s site before all 47 fonts have downloaded.
In summary, take some time to think about branding. Its key to developing your business. It takes years to develop a brand so just make sure your on-line activities are working with it, not against it.
this week: on-line branding
the net result
Setting up stall: be careful how you sell yourself on the NetEvery fortnight, Karen Gee from eDreams.com helps agents and operators to get the most out of the Internet
on-line branding tips
n Name recognition: remember name recognition is not branding. The former is just being aware whereas branding is actually associating the name with specific qualities.n On-line look: your on-line look is always important but if you’re small and don’t have much off-line presence, it’s essential. Make sure it doesn’t look homespun as this will completely devalue your company and is a sure-fire way to get your customers to click onto another site.
n Lessons to learn: spend time surfing on other Web sites and evaluate what they do, what works and whatdoesn’t. Its an essential way to spot opportunities. You can learn a huge amount, avoid expensive mistakes and build a look that not only reassures visitors but also improves the likelihood of purchasing from you.
n Attention to detail: obvious I know but check any links you have on your site do actually work, that anyinformation you’ve said will be available on your site ispresent and that it’s regularly updated. Nothing frustrates the user more than any of these glitches.
on-line branding tips