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branding

 only in terms of aspects of the 

brand

 identity such as the name 

or logo associated with a company or products, but branding gurus seem agreed that it is 

much more than that – it is dependent on a customer’s psychological affinity for a prod-

uct. A brand is described by Leslie de Chernatony and Malcolm McDonald in their classic 

1992 book Creating Powerful Brands as:

an identifiable product or service augmented in such a way that the buyer or user perceives 

relevant unique added values which match their needs most closely. Furthermore, its suc-

cess results from being able to sustain these added values in the face of competition.

This definition highlights three essential characteristics of a successful brand which we need 

to relate to the online environment:

● 

brand is dependent on customer perception;

● 

perception is influenced by the  added-  value characteristics of the product;

● 

the  added-  value characteristics need to be sustainable.

De Chernatony (2001) has evaluated the relevance of the brand concept on the Internet. He 

also believes that the main elements of brand values and brand strategy are the same in the 

Internet environment. However, he suggests that consumers on the Internet become active 

co-producers of value where they can contribute feedback through discussion groups to add 

value to a brand. De Chernatony argues for a looser form of brand control where the com-

pany facilitates rather than controls customer discussion.

A further method by which the Internet can change branding that was suggested by Jevons 

and Gabbot (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 environment, the customer can 

experience or 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 experience 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;