Defining Online Branding – Part 1

Control, Consolidation, Communication, Culture and Creativity

Closely followed by television, the Internet is the most important marketing channel in existence. And if you ask, “what is online branding”, there are no easy definitions coming to mind.

Building a brand online is a challenge for any PR and marketer. While the “once you go online, you go Global” assertion is somehow true (when basically anyone on Earth with a PC and Internet access could stumble upon your website), the Web also overwhelms with information. A world of mixed cultures, technologies and languages awaits at a click of a mouse.

This puzzle of brands, inconsistent content, trends and news, makes communication with the targeted clients even more difficult. Building up an online (and offline) brand is imperative to succeed in this world of assorted choices, standards and communication channels.

It’s all about control: you need to control your audience (who are they and what do they need?), the message you send out (random, inconsistent messages might damage credibility), the channels you use (using inappropriate channels means swimming on dry land), the moment (is it the right time to start a promotional campaign for your brand?) and your competition (what makes them special?), in other words you need to control brand identity (what makes you special). You’ll need to compete against powerful companies, that have amazing websites realized with the hottest technologies, by the “most wanted” web designers, promoted online by top online PR experts. You have to understand as well that this “control” is not about “enforcing” your brand by all means, but about having a flexible approach of the online world.

Once you “control” the way you communicate your brand, you need to consolidate it by consolidating your efforts towards a comprehensive delivery of your message. The Web exhibits a whole universe of brands: just call it chaos. What makes a brand stand out of this chaos? What makes it different? To consolidate your message means to get all your efforts focused in the same direction: both COs and employees should use online and offline resources to decipher trademark requirements and meet market’s expectations: gaining customers awareness, capturing their interest, breeding desire and inducing them to take a desired action.

After consolidating your strategies, the next logical step is to communicate your brand to the public: customers, media, and potential business partners. Using online marketing channels is, at first sight, not such a difficult process. But, as already stated above, it’s challenging. Which online channels should you employ to clearly communicate your brand? How to strategically orchestrate your budget to generate the effect you expect? How are you going to determine how your audience will perceive the brand? Online a brand is often associated with a website. Are you ready to go Global?

Going Global means meeting the needs and expectations of people with different social backgrounds, different religious and cultural history. Culture is important in building up a brand. It determines how a brand is perceived (can you imagine a Fiat “Pinto” in Brazil, where “Pinto” is slang for “male chick”, although the meaning of the word is “a spotted or calico horse or pony”?) When you create your brand you should always consider what resonance this name will have in the minds of the customers, what the brand will say and how you can match the cultural attributes of value and reliability in different targeted countries.

Creativity is the key to successful branding. And this is one of the most challenging factors as well. Online branding is not reduced to the simple release of a “branded website”. You need to be creative, you need some original approaches to mesmerize your audience and achieve your most important goal: brand consolidation. And that would be: “gaining customers awareness, capturing their interest, breeding desire and inducing them to take a desired action”.