Internet branding (also referred to as Online branding) is a brand management technique that uses the World Wide Web as a medium for positioning a brand in the marketplace. Website creation and optimization, web search social media, blogs, online press releases, and video marketing are all methods used for online branding purposes.
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The aim of internet branding is to create value for consumers through enhancing customer satisfaction and persuasive, promotional offers. Branding online allows companies to be able to gain the majority of the competitive market by creating the emotional part of online shopping. Consumers potential purchasing behaviours can be influenced by brand knowledge and familiarity (Chen and He, 2003; and Park and Stoel, 2005).
The internet has identified and promoted the way in which consumers associate themselves with a particular brand. There are reasons behind consumers behaviour and loyalty to a certain brand. Therefore, companies must adjust their online branding strategies so as to accommodate the ever-growing connections between customers and brands. After a customer has purchased a product, the way for a brand to be promoted further is through word of mouth. Customers communicate to other potential consumers as to how great their experience was. This encourages them to purchase from the same company for they have trust in the brand (Edelman, 2010). Internet today is escalating at a rapid growth. This is forcing companies to adapt by promoting branding strategies as a marketing communication tool and a cost-effective way to promote brand loyalty (Goswami, 2015).
Successful Companies
An advantage of building a brand over the internet is a way in which relationships with customers and prospects can be strengthened (Chiagouris & Wansley, 2000). Amazon.com is a prime example of how to build good connection with customers over the internet. Customer connection is the key to business success. The way in which Amazon.com has established these connections by way of book purchases, gives Amazon.com an insight into authors the consumer may like so are therefore able to recommend suggestions. Over time, they suggest these to consumers. This keeps the relationship between Amazon.com and the consumer because it is keeping them enticed and interested. It shows the consumer that Amazon.com care about their needs and wants. According to Vice President David Risher, Amazon.com are on the way to targeting specific consumers (Chiagouris & Wansley, 2000).
In the business-to-business world an example of a company which has built relationships is Dell computers. Dell is a brand that has promoted its brand on the web (Chiagouris & Wansley, 2000). Dell computers came up with a strategy to target their larger businesses like Boeing.co which allowed them to provide more efficient ways when ordering their PCs. David Dix the public relations manager at Dell has stated that $30 million of their business is established over the internet.
Barnes and Noble, Toys R us and Gap aim to provide a different type of internet experience for consumers, seeing them stick to the originality of the brick and mortar model. These companies not only want to establish their brick and mortar experience for consumers but also their internet experience. Gap is the leading company that has successfully used E-branding. This gives customers the opportunity of ease when shopping. They have installed computers instore, thus allowing customers to search and purchase later if the store is not able to provide a product at the time of the store visit. This differentiates Gap from its competitors and established a connection via the internet. The success of an internet brand relies on whether one is able to bring the customer back for further interaction (Chiagouris & Wansley, 2000).
Online branding techniques
Some professionals believe that the goal of online branding is to have consumers continually recognize a brand. Others focus on integrating online branding with the overall brand experience of customers in relation to a company, product, or other branded entity. From this perspective, brand recognition is viewed as one component among many, such as brand differentiation (from competitors) and the "Collaboration Age" brand dialog facilitated by Internet and mobile communications. Website development is a key component of online branding as a website is used by companies and individuals to present products and services of a brand. Focusing on a website's appearance, functions, and company message to provide a positive experience to visitors is all part of online branding. Website development for online branding also includes utilizing a blog to generate content for readers interested in topics related to the brand. It has been both recommended and advised against to guest blog on other websites for the purpose of online branding. In 2014, Matt Cutts, the head of Google's Spam team, stated that guest blogging has become more and more spammy and recommended against using guest posting for building incoming links to a website.
Internet branding also involves social media interaction and integration. Display and content networks used with repetition are one method of integrating a brand with social media. Behavioral targeting, re-messaging, and site-specific targeting are used as a way to keep a brand in front of a target audience. Branding through social media involves sharing knowledge about the brand and continuously interacting with customers. Using sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube to share knowledge about a brand is a popular form of online branding through social media.
Social Media
Over time consumers are more in tune as to how brands conduct themselves ethically. This is something they are expecting more and more from developing brands, especially over the internet (Jack Yan, 2011). Consumers are wanting to be more in tune with the brands they support. More over, technologies will continue to change over time and social media is one way in which consumers can interact with brands. Social media can be used to market products to specific target markets allowing companies to communicate their brand the way it should be marketed (Jack Yan, 2011).
The potential for Facebook to be commercially recognised was present from the very beginning when Mark Zuckerberg in 2006 allowed non college students to also make profiles. Over time Facebook has become more and more commercialised in order to obtain business connections and make profits from advertising (Krishnamurthy and Willis, 2009). This is a scenario that shows how Facebook was set up to connect friends and family however over time Facebook was used by organisations for groups and fan pages. Facebook allowed consumers to interact and communicate directly with organisations. This created close customer connections. Their main aim was to close the gap between organisations and consumers. The downfall for Facebook and Twitter is that it is hard to change the look and feel of sites for their large audiences. Therefore, they can add some visual branding but they have to stay within the websites boundaries (Jack Yan, 2011). It is important that organisations connect with their users so as to enhance a sense of importance and ensure they are engaging with the brand itself. Just like Facebook, the web and email also attempted once to close the gap and it showed it was successful (Jack Yan, 2011).
Blogs, Facebook and Twitter are a great way in which people behind brands can be revealed for their aim is to satifsy needs and wants of consumers through connecting with them. A consumers need is to be associated and connected with a brand (Jack Yan, 2011). The goals of many organistations is to obtain corporate social responsibility, a way in which successful brands promote their ideas (Ind and Bjerke, 2007). A brand like Facebook is strengthened by the promotion from external users allowing the audience to be involved and identified with it. Social media applications like Snapchat and Instagram are platforms for the personal branding of individuals.
Online reviews
Online brands are exposed to scrutiny from consumers through various review and complaint websites with fake reviews being used to damage brands. In 2014, a restaurant owner in Enid, Oklahoma refused to serve a patron in a wheelchair. In an interview, the owner stated that he does not serve "freaks" and made prejudiced remarks about homosexuality. Within days of the interview, people left fake reviews on Yelp about the restaurant in what the media described as "online justice." Social media is also used as a medium for people to leave fake reviews or defame brands. A hotel owner in the United Kingdom won a defamation lawsuit in 2014 against a former employee who set up a Facebook page solely for the purpose of damaging the inn's online brand.
Companies have also manipulated brands by leaving positive online reviews. In September 2013, 19 New York businesses agreed to pay $350,000 in penalties and stop writing faking online reviews about their businesses in an agreement reached with the New York Attorney General. The same year, Yelp sued a lawyer from San Diego for writing fake reviews about his solo practice on the site. Yelp has also posted messages on company pages within its site that have been caught paying for positive reviews. This was after the site conducted a sting operation on Craigslist to find companies paying for reviews. It has been argued that companies posting fake online reviews about their own business violates false advertising laws. United States law requires that people who receive compensation for endorsing a product actually endorse it. The company Legacy Learning Systems was fined $250,000 in 2011 by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for paying people to post fake reviews.