Options for changing brand identity online
A further decision for marketing managers is whether to redefine the name element of
brand identity and how to vary associated positioning messages to support the move
online. Brands that were newly created for the Internet such as Expedia.com and
Zopa.com do not risk damaging existing brands. Existing organisations need to think
about how they differentiate their online services, and changing the brand identity is
part of that. There are four main options for existing organisations migrating their
brands online. When a company launches or relaunches an online presence, it has the
following choices with regards to brand identity:1 Transfer traditional brand online
This is probably the most common approach. Companies with brands that are well
established in the real world can build on the brand by duplicating it online. Sites from
companies such as Ford, Argos and Guinness (Figure 5.6) all have consistent brand iden-
tities and values that would be expected from experience of their offline brands. The
Guinness site has additional brand messages to explain the online value proposition
including online merchandise sales. Increasingly, companies will also replicate their
offline branding campaigns online. Mobile operator Orange has achieved this since the
first edition of this book and others such as Ford have become adept at doing it, but this
unified messaging across channels is often not achieved by many companies, due to the
organisational and technical challenges of integrating messages into the web site. The
only risk of migrating existing brands online is that the brand equity may be reduced if
the site is of poor quality in terms of performance, structure or information content.
There may also be a missed opportunity to use the online channel to add to the experi-
ence of the brand, as explained below.PRODUCTCore identity (its key features)
- choice – millions of tracks
- value for money – under £10 per month subscription for as many tracks as you can listen to
- easy-to-use – Napster runs as a separate application built for purpose
- listen anywhere – on a PC or other computer, MP3 player or mobile phone
- listen on anything – unlike iPod, Napster is compatible with most MP3 players rather than being
tied into a specific hardware manufacturer
Extended identity - personality – flaunts what is standard for existing music providers thanks to its heritage as a peer-
to-peer file-sharing service - personalisation – Napster Radio based on particular genres or based on other songs you have
downloaded - community – facility to share tracks with friends or other Napster members
- symbols – Napster cat logo
Value proposition - functional benefits – ease of use and personalisation
- emotional benefits – community, non-conformist
- self-expressive benefit – build your own collection of your tastes
Relationship