Success factors for brand sites
We identified a ‘brand website’ as one of five classes of website or parts of sites which support different organisational goal.
Although other types of sites were mentioned, including transactional sites, relationship building sites, portals and social networks all seek to provide a favourable brand experience. In the case of manufacturer ‘brand sites’, the manager of the site needs to carefully think of the best way the brand can engage with consumers given lack of content naturally associated with low-involvement products. For the site itself, it is not the quantity of visitors that is important; rather it is about the quality of visitors, since brand sites are most likely to attract brand advocates, who can be important in influencing others to make them aware of the brand or trial the brand.
suggested that it is important that brand sites provide a home for the brand loyalists and advocates. It follows that brand owners should determine the type of content on a brand site which will encourage brand loyalists (and also the brand-neutral consumer) to visit and then return to the brand site.
Flores has said that encouraging visitors to return is key and he suggests different aspects of a quality site experience to achieve this.
Some of the methods he suggests to encourage visitors to return include:
● creating a compelling, interactive experience including rich media which reflects the brand. The research by Flore showed that a site which delivers an unsatisfactory experience will negatively affect brand perception. He notes that some brand sites which often contain rich media or video, although visually engaging, may have poor usability or download speeds.
● considering how the site will influence the sales cycle by encouraging trial. Trial will often be fulfilled offline so approaches such as samples, coupons or prize draws can be used. These response activators should be integrated throughout the site. For example, car brands will all have prominent options for taking a test drive, receiving a brochure or the option to win a car or a visit to a race circuit.
● developing an exchange (permission marketing) programme on your website to begin a ‘conversation’ with the most valuable customer segments. Permission-based email or text messages can be used to update consumers about new products or promotions. Additionally we would stress the importance of achieving customer engagement with brand sites to encourage participation or co-creation of content. For example, brands can encourage users to share and submit their comments, stories, photos or videos.
Once engaged in this way, visitors are more likely to return to a site to see others’ comments. Gives a good example of how the opportunities for a consumer brand to engage its audiences have been well thought through. Some of the approaches they used are indicated by titles on the menu bar and the associated goals can be inferred.
For example:
● Buy things. Goals – increase product usage. Provide content for brand advocates.
● We make. Goals – increase sales for new adoptions since product distribution is not as widespread as some brands.
● Win stuff. Goals: encourage trial and reward loyalists. The company has not used sampling to date, but instead has run prize draws related to the rural nature of its brand, e.g. win a Land Rover, win trips to flower shows, photo competitions. The current featured promotion is the ‘naturally light-hearted challenge’ which is a seven-day permission email supported programme to eat more healthily.
● Blog (the notice board). Goal: engage site visitors and encourage involved customers to keep brand ‘front-of-mind’ through comments and posts.
● Get in touch. Goals: encourage feedback and dialogue.
● Online shop. Goals: Direct sales of cereal and branded merchandise such as cereal bowls.
● Social media Goals: interact with target audiences and extend reach and customer understanding.
● Sell our cereals. Goal: Find additional distributors. The success factors a brand uses should closely interlink with the brand’s identity. Brandidentity also emphasise the importance of developing a plan to communicate the key features of the brand identity and increase brand awareness.
Brand
Identity is again more than the name. These authors refer to it as a set of brand associations that imply a promise to customers from an organisation.
Brand names for online brands suggest two rules for naming online brands
1 The Law of the Common Name – they say ‘the kiss of death for an Internet brand is a common name’. The idea is that common names such as Art.com or Advertising.com are poor since they are not sufficiently distinctive
2 The Law of the Proper Name – they say ‘your name stands alone on the Internet, so you’d better have a good one’. This suggests that proper names are to be preferred to generic names, e.g. PinkMoods.com against Woman.com.
More recent research has found that the characteristics of the word chosen to represent a brand can influence consumer behaviour and be linked to the propensity with which a buyer will engage with a brand.
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