Brand on the run

A great Brand is, to quote Swiss Toni from the Fast Show, “like making love to a beautiful woman”.  The brand should have a characteristic, consistent personality, one which you enjoy the company of and want to get to know better.  It needs to say the things you want to hear, and should make you feel good to be associated with it.  And, of course, it needs to look really great.

Or does it?  The biggest brands in the world – Nike, Starbucks, there are plenty more, all have instantly recognisable, brilliant logos that people willingly display on their shoes or coffee mugs.

But what of our big online brands?  How many of us think it’s cool to wear a Google cap or an eBay sweatshirt?  The logos of both of these companies, in my opinion, are far weaker, and have less impact, than most established ‘real life’ brands.  So how is it that they’re so damn successful?

The answer can be summarised in one of two, almost opposing statements:

• The experience (ease of use, etc.) of a site is more important than the brand.
• The experience of a site IS the brand.

To reinforce this, when I mentioned the two companies above, you probably already formed phrases in your head that described the companies – fast, useful, ubiquitous, whatever they were, their brand is embedded in the way that we use them.  I suspect neither company (well, not so much eBay) has invested heavily in marketing (compared to the other previously mentioned ‘real life’ companies), and yet we are all aware of their brand values.

This evolution of branding is a welcome step.  For companies to be judged on results and usefulness, rather than perceived image or marketing budget, can only mean good things for customers.