Dummies Guide to Startups - Online Branding

An Introduction

I've recently had some really kind offers of help with designing logos, so this is probably a good time to start sharing the basics around brand building...

The success of any branding or marketing strategy is primarily down to exploiting the medium to your advantage. The net has transformed the nature of communication. With a multitude of options just a click away, branding needs to be designed to capture those 'sticky eyeballs' and focus them on your product or service.

As with offline marketing strategies around positioning, brand building and target marketing also apply to the virtual market place. Anyone extending products and services to the virtual world must adopt a branding strategy that will synchronise with any existing or future terrestrial banding. This is not only to ensure higher brand equity, but also to achieve the necessary differentiation of products and services.

The key however, is to think differently and not simply replicate terrestrial branding models. The online audience is different and interactive, and has greater choice coupled with a lower threshold of patience. Online branding is therefore about an experience rather than the traditional one-way bombardment of messages.

Offline, branding is about crafting careful visual and textual images that potential buyers passively consume. Branding on the Web is entirely different, because it needs to be active and not simply about associating a colour, phrase or character with a service. Everything you do online becomes part of the brand building experience, with people forming an image of brand based on their experience and the messages they perceive.

The point to note is that a brand will acquire an identity through association and interaction, whether it is proactively planned or not; so it makes sense to develop branding strategies that allow you take control of this process.

The next few posts in this series will walk through the basics you need to know to build your brand. I'll try and update these at least once a week. Probably every Thursday, so hey now you have a reason to come back! If you have any questions, leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer it.