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Branding has been one of the hottest business topics over the past few years. Add to that the
Internet¶s explosive growth, and we begin to identify new business challenges arising out of the
intersection of these two forces. There are many new opportunities to consider: from start-ups to
pure dot-com plays, to B2C and B2B, to bricks and clicks. Determining the right role and
strategy for your Internet brand requires careful consideration.





Viewpoint


 

Internet; Branding; Brand building.



Strategic Direction





18





10




2002



25-27

 

MCB UP Ltd
j 

0258-0543

Branding has been one of the hottest business topics over the past few years. Add to that the
Internet¶s explosive growth, and we begin to identify new business challenges arising out of the
intersection of these two forces. There are many new opportunities to consider: from start-ups to
pure dot-com plays, to B2C and B2B, to bricks and clicks. Determining the right role and
strategy for your Internet brand requires careful consideration.

Organizations of all types are recognizing the value and importance of using their brands to
improve performance and build deep relationships with their customers. The reason for this rush
to branding is straightforward. With the proliferation of competitors and products and services
that are easily duplicated or replaceable, brands become an important means of simplifying the
decision-making process for buyers. If managed properly, brands create difference, relevance,
and affinity.

 
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Many said the Internet would eliminate the need for brands. This argument suggested that,
because people could examine and access any product or service from every possible provider
via the Internet, the brand would be irrelevant ± customers would always choose the one with the
lowest price. We now know that logic was grossly flawed. It assumed that customers were
primarily price-driven and that brand (and all it means) played little role in the decision-making
process. In fact, we have learned that brands are even more important in cyberspace than they are
in most other channels or environments.

Again, the reason is simple. With more and more choices from many providers that are relatively
unknown, customers tend to choose a provider they know ± one that represents a set of values or
attributes that are meaningful, clear, and trusted (a brand), especially if they cannot see or
confirm that the provider is ³real´.

According to a recent survey reported in the u
 

   , of the 1,360
customers polled, 82 percent reported that brand names play a persuasive role in their online
purchase choices. For branding to be effective, it is worth acknowledging that customers relate to
brands, not to products or services.

 

What does it take to become a successful power brand on the Internet? A thorough understanding
of branding, a discipline around branding, and a process to get from point A to point B. First, a
word of caution: branding is part art and part science. It is serious business. Make too many
mistakes and you may not get another chance ± your customers may not forgive you, and your
organization may not either. Proceed with caution, but do proceed. There is no excuse for not
branding; failure to build a brand can result in extinction.
 

Step one: define the brand

Defining the brand is usually called a brand audit. It involves gaining a deep understanding of
your brand or potential brand, what it means to customers and prospects, how it relates to
competitor brands and what role it plays in the marketplace. Getting at this information is usually
accomplished through talking to customers and prospects via focus groups. Exercises are crafted
to delve beneath the surface and get at the true feelings customers and prospects have about your
brand and those of your competitors. This is where brand attributes are identified ± functional
and emotional, as well as positive and negative. The brand¶s strengths and weaknesses are
exposed, and customer affinity and loyalty are probed.

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Step two: determine an optimal brand future and develop a brand trajectory

Once the brand has been defined and described, it is time to determine where the ideal or optimal
place for the brand really is. In order to do this effectively the brand must be viewed in relation
to the overall business strategy and plan. What business are you in? Whom do you want to attract
as customers? What do those customers want? Where is the market opportunity? The brand is an
important vehicle in achieving the overall business objectives. The organization must create a
brand vision that looks at least three years out and answers the question: Given where the market
is headed, where competitors are strong and weak, and what permissions and limits customers
and prospects are willing to give the brand, where do you want this brand to be?

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Step three: create the brand strategy

The creation of the brand strategy should involve much of the organization. Realizing the brand
vision requires identifying the people, resources, and approaches necessary to achieve the vision.
Other considerations include choosing the appropriate brand strategy framework. Three basic
frameworks are available, ranging from the conglomerate brand to the corporate brand to the
master brand or umbrella brand models.

A conglomerate strategy is exemplified by Procter & Gamble. Few, if any, of the company¶s
products can be immediately identified as P&G brands; Cheer, Tide, Crest, and others stand on
their own as independent brands. A corporate brand strategy involves a closer relationship
between the company and its brands. Auto manufacturers and their models provide a good
example here ± most people recognize the Ford Mondeo or Honda Accord. A master brand
strategy demonstrates the closest relationship between a company and its brands. In this case,
every brand name includes the corporate identity, for example, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn
Express.


 
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Step four: identify the brand action steps

Once the brand positioning and brand strategy have been determined, the next step involves
identifying the specific brand actions that can be taken in each functional area of the business
where the brand is encountered. These brand actions represent opportunities for the brand to be
reinforced and to ensure that the brand¶s attributes are being delivered and communicated
effectively ± every time the brand is encountered. This is where the brand becomes everyone¶s
business.

To move the brand to its optimal position requires a plan acknowledging that everything must
work together and that some actions must occur before others. This part of the branding process
is the most overlooked. We typically figure that, once we have identified what needs to be done,
it will happen. Instead, we must begin operationalizing the brand, that is, identifying and
formalizing the types of behaviors that must be exhibited by everyone in the organization,
especially those actually delivering the brand to the market. This means building performance
and measurement systems that reward or promote specific brand behaviors. Over time, the
behaviors become part of how people, and hence the brand, act consistently. The organization
develops a brand culture that becomes its style ± everyone is a part of it and can take pride in
what the brand represents and accomplishes. A side benefit of this level of brand permeation is
that the brand starts to attract the right kind of employees ± those who find the brand as attractive
a place to work as customers find it attractive to do business with.

 


 

Step five: leverage the unique aspects of the Internet

The Internet has unique sensory aspects that provide for strong emotional and affinity
connections, for instance motion, entertainment, interaction, and self-direction. These are key
tools that no media other than the Internet can provide in the same combination ± whether it¶s the
Coca-Cola jingle ³Always Coca-Cola´ that plays in the background of Coke¶s Web site; or the
image of that sleek new 5 Series moving across the face of BMW¶s site demonstrating key
performance attributes. Search for the ways that emphasize what you are trying to accomplish
with your brand on the Internet; exploit the Web¶s unique characteristics to create and strengthen
brand affinity ± loyalty that builds the brand experience.

 



Step six: monitor, measure, and adjust

The final step in the process of developing a successful power brand recognizes that brands are
dynamic ± they must be monitored and measured to ensure that they remain relevant to the
customer. In addition, it is wise to establish a baseline benchmark of specific brand metrics such
as awareness, attribute association, preference, and loyalty, so that, as the brand actions are
implemented, the return on investment for each action can be measured and rewarded. As with
most things, it is important to track progress, so you can justify efforts and expenses for future
branding actions.
Ò 


Clearly, the Internet represents both opportunity and challenge for existing brands as well as
start-ups. Experience confirms that the ease of establishing a brand and the significance of
branding in cyberspace is more difficult and more important than many initially suggested.
Nonetheless, the reasons for building a brand and the process and discipline in managing one are
based on sound principles that have been proven over time. One could argue that the advantage
goes to existing brands that are now more aggressively migrating to the Internet ± first, because
they already know and understand the power of brands and second, because they have brands
that are well-known and already command awareness and an established customer base.

Despite the obvious advantage, many companies are likely to make some common mistakes in
relation to their brands in cyberland. They may wrongly assume that their brands will have the
same appeal to Internet users as to traditional channel users. (Although the demographic
composition may appear similar, Internet users do have significant attitudinal differences.) They
will also incorrectly assume that the Internet is just another channel of distribution for their
product and/or service. (The Internet is more than just another channel ± for many business
propositions, it is a new category with a much broader reach and the ability to market one-to-
one.) Therefore, the Internet must be viewed in the proper context and against strategic goals and
objectives, and used effectively to strengthen the brand to the extent that it results in additional
customers, higher customer loyalty, higher revenues and market share, and, ultimately, profits.





This review is based upon ³Cyberbranding: leveraging your brand on the Internet´ by Bergstrom
(2000).

Bergstrom¶s article provides a worthwhile and interesting insight into the potential of brands in
the midst of the seemingly boundless growth of the Internet. Employing a highly readable style,
the author introduces us to the importance of brands in ³cyberland´ and ways in which your
company can build sustainable brand strength.

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Bergstrom, A. (2000), "Cyberbranding: leveraging your brand on the Internet", ã  

  , Vol. 28 No.4, pp.10-15..

[Manual request] [Infotrieve]

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Claes Hultman

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2002/1

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Co-Branding: The Science of Alliance

Edited by Tom Blacket and Bob Boad

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Review


 

Brands, Alliances, Marketing

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European Journal of Marketing





36





11/12




2002

+

1439-1441

 

j 

0309-0566

The importance of brands and trade names in marketing is well known. In a time when
phenomena like co-operation, partnership and other forms of alliances are in fashion, a book
about co-branding is well timed. The book is in 123 pages, excluding the appendix.

Co-branding, as defined by the authors, is a form of co-operation between two or more brands
with significant customer recognition, in which all the participants¶ brand names are retained. It
is usually of medium- to long-term duration and its net value creation potential is too small to
justify setting up a new brand and/or legal joint venture. Legally the parties concerned are
independent entities and their intention is to create something new ± a product, a service or an
enterprise ± the scope of which falls outside their individual areas of capacity. The phenomenon
is common today, have not we all an IBM-Intel (or similar) co-branded computer on our desk?
Well-known brands, often used for co-branding of consumer products, are, for example Lycra,
Dolby and Teflon.

As the degree of shared value creation increases, four different forms of co-branding situations
illustrated in the book arise. Low shared value creation represents what is called the ³reach-
awareness co-branding´, the parties may rapidly increase awareness of their brand through
exposure to their partner¶s customer base, for example the co-operation between American
Express and Delta Airlines. On the second level the authors put ³values endorsement co-
branding´. The co-operation is especially designed to include endorsement of one or the other¶s
brand values and positioning or both. Examples include the many banks that co-operate with
credit cards or Le Cordon Bleu¶s co-branding deal with Tefal. In the latter example, high-quality
cookware was launched with the name of the French culinary academy, synonymous with the
highest standard of cooking.

³Ingredient co-branding´, a brand noted for the market leading qualities of its product supplies
that item as a component of another branded product, such as Intel and IBM or Compaq,
represents the third level of co-branding. Finally, ³complementary competence co-branding´,
when two powerful and complementary brands combine to produce a product that is more than
the sum of the parts and relies on each partner committing a selection of its core skills and
competencies to that product on an ongoing basis. An example of this is Esso and Tesco Express
co-branding in the 24-hours mini-supermarkets at petrol stations.

The book continues with a discussion of the different forms of co-branding and its opportunities
and benefits as well as the risks and pitfalls. On the positive side, a number of different
opportunities and benefits are identified ranging from increased income in the form of royalty to
access to leading-edge technology. On the negative and risky side, co-branding may fail due to
financial greed or over-extended brand franchise or degenerate a successful trademark into a
generic term. In essence, co-branding may lead to royalty income, sales boost, new markets, and
additional consumer benefits.

In the following three chapters the retailer¶s opportunities, ingredient branding and the legal
aspects are discussed. As is pointed out in chapter 7, the ultimate purpose of co-branding is the
creation of economic value and a model of how this can be assessed through financial valuation
techniques is presented. The model is based on financial forecast of future economic earnings,
subjective weighting and estimated future key drivers of demand (for example, such as perceived
quality, lifestyle promise and pricing) as well as of key attributes that determine the strength of a
brand.

In the last chapter, a ³blueprint´ in the form of the different factors determining a brand¶s value
is presented. Here we find a useful tool guiding managers to consider all aspects of a brand¶s
value both the own brand and potential partners¶. Finally, the future is discussed. The authors
believe that co-branding in its purest form has at its core the exchange of values or attributes (on
reputational level) between brands, to create a new reality whereby both brands are perceived to
be better as a result of the initiative. While today, the best practice in co-branding is in the high-
tech sector, the authors expect co-branding to be much more used as a marketing tool in the
future as it will be adopted in new fields like banking and become a truly mainstream marketing
activity.

In total, eight different authors have contributed, however, the editors, and especially Bob Broad,
are involved in several chapters, and the number of authors leads to a fragmented impression of
the book. The first three chapters are well justified as they present good overviews of the topic.
The weak part of the book is some of the following chapters. The legal aspects are well covered,
but why only a particular chapter on ingredient branding and not the other types mentioned in
chapter 1? And why a particular chapter on just co-branding ± a retailers opportunity? As an
example, is two or more stores located in the same multiplex property a co-branding situation of
particular relevance to the reader? I would rather have a thoroughly presented case of best
practice co-branding in the high-tech sector.

I am critical of the main model for assessing the economic value. As a conceptual model the
interbrand¶s approach to the economic use method works fine, but the problem is to quantify the
model. The demand drivers, such as perceived quality, lifestyle promise, etc., all just examples in
the text, but still hard to find anything more than subjective evaluation figures about. Is it
realistic to talk about a financial forecast, generated from a strategic business plan, that ideally
covers a period of five to ten years in dynamic and turbulent situations as we find in many
markets today? What do we really know about 2006 or 2010) The final outcome depends heavily
on weak information. Is a model based on such very loose forecasts and unreliable data of any
more use than holistic judgement? The problem of finding reliable and relevant input to the
model as well as the problem of predicting future earnings by a brand is completely neglected in
the text. Instead, the reader is brought to the conclusion that by using this model, the co-branding
partners are able to assess the value creation of their brand in the mutual venture and to manage
that value with respect to the co-branded business as well as the brand¶s main businesses.

In spite of these weaknesses, the book is useful both for practitioners and students, however,
academics may find many parts too shallow, as important aspects of co-branding are just briefly
covered and references are not made to former contributors in the field. For an academic
audience, the lack not only of references, but also of a positioning of the contribution of this
book in relation to the literature in the field, is a major limitation, something many reading
managers may thank the authors for not taking the time to include. The book focuses on a hot
topic and is possible to read in a limited amount of time, perfect for a business trip with a few
hours available for reading. Several co-branding examples make the text easy to understand and
the book also contains a few illustrations. If the purpose is to bring the reader an overview, the
topic is well covered, however, the lack of discussion and depth limit the value.