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Brand and management of a brand on the Internet
by Alexander O. (www.webskyguide.com)
Many brand-managers consider that there is no difference between the promotion of a brand in a network and offline-promotion. Indeed, the difference between
inside-brands (the brands which have developed in a network) and outside-brands (network have been used only as one of the channels to create and promote these brands)
is being constantly smoothed out as number of Internet users increases, and will disappear completely soon. Nevertheless, network brand-building has a number of
essential differences.
Here are some advantages of the Internet as a medium of PR for brand development:
Targeting. Internet brand-building will be especially efficient for the brands of focused companies and exclusive goods and services. Unlike manufacturers and sellers
of consumer goods, such brands do not gain by the scale campaigns focused on an excessively wide audience; these campaigns are inefficient and can even be harmful for
them. The Internet gives ample opportunities for the individualization of advertising according to the users' preferences.
Loyalty to Internet-advertising. It is important that the attitude to advertising and other means of brand promotion in a network is based on loyalty and promoting
customer loyalty. In fact, the user, as a rule, faces target-advertising, and he/she will most likely be interested in it. Besides, he/she can independently obtain
volumes of information on a brand, unlike, for example, the case of persuasive TV advertising. Thus, the risk of negative attitudes to a brand decreases considerably
with Internet advertising, since it is focused on the target audience.
Distribution of attention. According to some assessments, owing to interactive technologies, brand recall in a network becomes almost five times greater than without
the network through offline channels.
Dynamics. The Internet-brand develops more dynamically - users can get the information more quickly owing to the more convenient access to the website.
Disadvantages of Internet-branding:
Transparency. A well-known brand allows a significant increase in the prices for the goods and services offered under the brand. However, in the case of the Internet,
the user can easily and quickly compare both the prices and advantages of various brands, particularly given search engines on the Internet that are geared to
comparing products and prices. Analysts of Warburg Dillon Read investment bank call such an economic system "naked". As a result, investments in a brand may not
always be repaid, as was the case before the epoch of the Internet.
Information background. The promotion and management of a brand in a network becomes complicated with a huge quantity of images and other information among all of which
the brand can be lost. This leads to twice (on average) the expense of inside-brand promotion.
Brand illusiveness. The main task in the network brand promotion is to destroy the consumer's feeling of illusiveness and the unreality of the company providing the
brand. For this, traditional non-virtual means of supporting a brand should be used.
Notwithstanding the above, present trends indicate that in the near future the Internet will play a leading role in the creation and development of brands.
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