The Unsung Hero of Internet Marketing

Branding should be a key aspect of every business Web site, according to IBM Global Services Innovation Center senior manager Anthony Farah, who will speak at the IBM e-fair 2002 this month in Malaysia.

Successful online branding means drawing in customers through value-added features, such as recipes on an online grocery site, Farah says. Instead of just listing grocery items, the site could allow customers to order all the items necessary on the recipe once they print it out. The aim is convenience, bolstering brand equity, and earning customer loyalty. Farah also stresses the need for a consolidated branding strategy that crosses all media channels. A transportation company whose message is speed of delivery should not have a pokey Web site, for example.

As the Internet emerged as a marketing platform in the late ’90s, it offered a distinct advantage to marketers. Unlike other media forms, the Internet enabled advertisers to trace the entire customer acquisition chain from impression to click to purchase. This allowed marketers to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of their media, creative, and product offers and optimize accordingly.

However, the high degree of focus on the direct response value of Internet media has led many advertisers to ignore on line’s efficacy as a branding and offline sales driver. According to Jupiter Research, only 15 percent of marketers conduct formal online branding measurement-a fact that suggests marketers are underestimating the Internet’s full potential.1

While the Internet’s capacity to establish and reinforce key brand perceptions in the minds of consumers has always existed, historically our ability to evaluate its effectiveness has been limited. However, an arsenal of recent studies demonstrates that the Internet is, in fact, a powerful branding medium. The following information highlights some of the available research and proven tactics advertisers can deploy to successfully market their products and services online.

Is Online Branding Effective?

Results of brand effectiveness studies illustrate how online media can effectively embed a product’s message into the minds of consumers. Following is a small sample of the many available studies proving that the online medium can produce positive shifts in consumers’ brand perceptions and purchase intent.

• IRI and Procter and Gamble generated a study-based on surveys and actual buying patterns of consumers-showing that banner advertising bolstered sales for a Procter and Gamble snack food brand by 19 percent.
• In October 2000, Volvo chose to bypass traditional broadcast media and launched their sporty S60 on AOL. The S60 promotion-the first new car model launch to rely exclusively on online media-increased awareness among “next 30 day” car buyers by 64 percent (pre- vs post- campaign measurement) and drove 45,000 sales leads to Volvo retailers.
• The breakthrough Dove Nutrium Bar Case Study conducted by Unilever, IAB, ARF, and MSN shows that online, coupled with traditional media, lifts key brand metrics more than any single medium can on its own. The Dove study not only affirms the Internet’s power to reinforce messages delivered by traditional media, but also suggests that online is a more cost effective medium than TV and magazines. The case shows, according to Forrester Research, that “spending 15 percent of the online budget would provide a 24-percent lift in branding metrics, compared with a 19-percent lift for a plan with the same total budget, which spent only 2 percent online.”
• In May 2001, Dynamic Logic paired up with eBrands@dlkw to demonstrate online’s impact on brand awareness and trial generation. Their research tracked results for a promotion of Yes Sir No Sir, a personal concierge service. The two-week campaign, promoted exclusively online, showed a 175 percent lift in awareness for the group exposed to the ad (measured against the control group).