Do you have any control over your brand anymore?
At a time when consumers have hijacked brands through user-generated content such as blogs and videos, clients are asking this very question about their own brands. It becomes especially acute in the digital realm, which can seem like a consumer-generated free-for-all of YouTubers, bloggers and Facebookers all telling the world what they think of you 24/7.
And yes, your brand matters – more now than ever. The Web is a blessing to your brand because, by definition, its social and interactive nature open up new possibilities for companies to create immersive experiences for consumers to share . The power of “brand” in shaping consumer opinion or perception is as influential as it has always been.
While small brands and new brands – think MySpace – can come out of nowhere to capture market share and spark the fringe imagination, don’t underestimate the power of a blockbuster brand. Top-selling name brands still rule, and brand preferences are fickle creatures.
In an increasingly complicated and atomized world — where brands are multiplying like bunnies and appealing to impossibly narrow niches — the curatorial power of brands is more important than ever.
And On The Sixth Day There Was Broadband
The Broadband Web is the most ruthlessly Darwinian medium in history – a channel that demands brands to innovate or die at the hands of more nimble competitors, or be pecked to death by ducks in the blogosphere. Within the user-centered world of Web 2.0, it’s survival of the fittest.
And to put brands on even more dangerous ice, the Web is also the thinnest of the thin-slicing media – where consumers are only a “back” button away from the exit. In fact, Dr. Gitte Lindgaard, a researcher from Carleton University in Ontario, did an extensive study of how rapidly Web users formed impressions of home pages. She and her team found that impressions about brand credibility, usability, visual appeal and – ultimately – buying intentions are determined in 50 milliseconds.
Fifty milliseconds is not a long time. It is about one frame of a video, or half as long as the blink of a human eye. But that is all that takes for a visitor to a Web site to decide how appealing the site is. The study shows that people not only make up their minds about the quality of a website in an eye-blink, but they subsequently stick to these first impressions.
As depressing as it seems to those of us who spend months building Web sites, people make an immediate, intuitive decision whether they like a digital experience or not, without reading one word of content. And from this first snippet of experience on, the entire interaction with that site is colored by that first impression.
Like it or not, users are in control of brands to an extent never before imaginable.
Those Genes Make You Look Hot
As all brands become increasingly digital, we need a new way to measure effectiveness. As a result, Avenue A | Razorfish has identified seven core characteristics of brands that “get it” online. We call these attributes the digital genes:
Fresh – Does it inspire a feeling or emotion? Is the brand’s digital home new, current, beautiful, smart, fearless, impactful?
Adaptive – Does it respond to your involvement? Is the brand’s behavior mutable, intuitive, quick, interactive, Web-native, data-savvy?
Relevant – Is it useful or appealing to you specifically? Is the site or campaign tailored, meaningful, useful, targeted?
Transformative – Does it raise your expectations of the brand, or the Web? Is the digital experience disruptive, innovative, surprising, memorable, pioneering?
Social – Is it worth borrowing, sharing or contributing to? – Is the brand designed to be modular, portable, engaging, communal, shareable, buzz-worthy, newsy, democratic?
Immersive – Do you lose track of time? – Is the experience seamless, involving, entertaining, usable, convenient, multi-sensory?
Authentic – Does it seem genuine? – Does the brand feel transparent, coherent, consistent, humane?
You can use this as a kind of litmus test. If your scores are high, chances are you’ve hatched a truly digital brand experience. If your scores are low, there’s room to push the experience to a more interesting place.
As a road test, we decided to harness the wisdom of crowds: We asked almost 800 Avenue A | Razorfish staff, from multiple disciplines, to rank 20 “household name” brands using the Digital Genes Scorecard. The results identified the top five digital brands as Google, Apple, YouTube, Nike and Flickr.
Why is all this talk about brands important? Because increasingly, your online home is becoming the deepest, richest, most accessible, most participatory expression of your brand. And you are the architect of that home. Every decision you make about every component throughout the process can either reinforce your brand…or damage it.
Dave Friedman, president of the central region for Avenue A | Razorfish, is a monthly contributor to Chief Marketer. He may be reached at Dave.Friedman@avenuea-razorfish.com.
Network
