A further method by which the Internet can change branding that was suggested by
Jevons and Gabbott (2000) is that online, ‘the first-hand experience of the brand is a
more powerful token of trust than the perception of the brand’. In the online environ-
ment, the customer can experienceor interact with the brand more frequently and to a
greater depth. As Dayal et al. (2000) say, ‘on the world wide web, the brand is the experi-
ence and the experience is the brand’. They suggest that to build successful online
brands, organisations should consider how their proposition can build on these possible
brand promises:
the promise of convenience– making a purchase experience more convenient than the
real-world one, or that with rivals;
the promise of achievement– to assist consumers in achieving their goals, for example
supporting online investors in their decision or supporting business people in their
day-to-day work;
the promise of fun and adventure– this is clearly more relevant for B2C services;
the promise of self-expression and recognition– provided by personalisation services such
as Yahoo! Geocities where consumers can build their own web site;
the promise of belonging– provided by online communities.Summarising the elements of online branding, de Chernatony (2001) suggests suc-
cessful online branding requires delivering three aspects of a brand: rational values,
emotional values and promised experience (based on rational and emotional values). We
return to the notion of brand promise at the start of Chapter 7 since this is closely
related to delivering customer experience.
An alternative perspective on branding is provided by Aaker and Joachimsthaler
(2000) who refer to brand equity, which they define as:
a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol, that add to or sub-
tract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firm’s customers.
So, brand equity indicates the value provided to a company, or its customers through a
brand. Assessing brand equity on the web needs to address the unique characteristics of
computer-mediated environments as Christodoulides and de Chernatony (2004) have
pointed out. These researchers set out to explore whether additional measures of brand
equity were required online. Based on expert interviews they have identified the addi-
tional measures of brand equity which are important online, as summarised in Table 5.1.
As we would expect, this includes attributes of the digital medium such as interactivity
and customisation which combine to form relevance and a great online brand experience.
Content is not stressed separately, which is surprising, although they do mention its
importance under site design and it is also a key aspect of other attributes such as cus-
tomisation, relevance and the overall experience.PRODUCTBrand experience
The frequency and
depth of interactions
with a brand can be
enhanced through the
Internet.
Brand equity
The assets (or
liabilities) linked to a
brand’s name and
symbol that add to (or
subtract from) a
service.
Table 5.1 Traditional measures of brand equity and online measures of brand equityTraditional measures of brand equity Online measures of brand equity
(Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000) (from Christodoulides and de Chernatony, 2004)
Price premium Online brand experience
Satisfaction/loyalty Interactivity
Perceived quality Customisation
Leadership popularity Relevance
Perceived value Site design
Brand personality Customer service
Organisational associations Order fulfilment
Brand awareness Quality of brand relationships
Market share Communities
Market price and distribution coverage Web site logs (see Chapter 9)