Building a Brand Online

Your Brand is in the Eye of the Beholder.

My definition of a brand was recently quoted in an article in Senior Market Advisor. This is a good opportunity to clarify and elaborate on that topic.

When asked to define brand, I said, "There are two things we generally refer to as a 'brand.' One is the physical representation -- the company logo. The second is the bundle of qualities that we hope people have in mind when they see our brand image or think about the brand name." It is not a monumental task to create a brand logo, and with advertising and PR you can build brand recognition, but building brand perception, that "bundle of qualities we hope people have in mind when they see our brand name or image," -- building brand perception takes the full force of the enterprise.

Brands can be built or undermined by our employees, our PR firm, our ad campaigns, our business letters, our business partners, our customers and now, our websites, our affiliates, and the way we handle email.

Over the next few posts I will share the insights and opinions about branding on the Internet drawn from ten years of online marketing.

In the meantime, I am sharing my full e-mail interview about branding with the reporter from Senior Market Advisor, Amanda Buchanan.