Branding Your Website

Large corporations spend correspondingly large amounts of money establishing and supporting their brands. They do it because it works. Users of their goods and services do so for a number of reasons that all correlate to the establishment of the brand. Establishing a brand involves developing customer recognition, preference, loyalty, and trust. On Wall Street the value of a brand is usually measured in its future earning power - its potential energy. Successful brands are assets. The financial values of a well established brands can be stunning. When Philip Morris Company paid $12.9 billion dollars for Kraft Foods it was said that 90% of the value was in the brand equity of products like Kool-Aid, Jell-O, and Kraft Dinner.

Branding a website is a relatively new idea. What is interesting is how few brands have been effectively established in web space so far. Compare the lack of successful web brands like amazon.com with what you find in the grocery store. Grocery aisles are full of recognized brands and they make the shopping chore a little easier. When I want to buy mayonnaise, I know the brand I trust to always taste great, never be too oily, etc. In comparison, there is very little established branding on the internet. Of course, there are lots of people working very hard and spending a lot of money in the attempt to create recognized web brands. They buy expensive ads in magazines, spend millions on SuperBowl spots, sponsor contests, and even sell their products below costs. Still, the internet is wide-open for small developers to create the web brands of the future.

Take this site for example: Could DesignStop.Com be recognized as the place to go when you need support in creating your own creative website? Sure it could - really! ( Really it could ). I'm working on it. I can't rely on SuperBowl ads so I have to stick with the things I can do - things that you can do for your own site.

Here's some things I've consciously done in my effort to create the world famous DesignStop.Com brand. Note the following points are not ranked in order of importance - I believe they are all important:

It has been developed from the ground up with an attempt to provide consistent quality. This is important because it helps a visitor develop favorable expectations regarding areas of the site they have yet to visit.

It has its own look and feel - its own personality. This is important because it helps the site standout from the crowd - it is a distinct entity that satisfies the visitors need for "landmarks" for lack of a better word.

I'd like to think that the site makes a good first impression. This is important because it helps establish the visitors' expectations. Those expectations can then be reinforced as the visitor browses deeper into the site.

The site attempts to deliver all that it promises. This is important because if I want visitors to put trust in the site I had damned well better deliver on my promises.

The site attempts to exceed visitor expectations. This is important because it is a pleasant treat for the visitor and it makes a strong impression - building visitor loyalty.

Since this is a content oriented site, I've attempted to provide enough layers of pages to allow the visitor who dives in deep to continue to find useful information. The idea is to reward the attention they've given the site with some hidden "pearls". I believe this is important because it is those visitors who are most likely to tell others about the site and help it achieve "brand" status.

All in all, what is significant about all the above efforts is that each one puts the visitor first. The efforts also relate to an attempt to provide that visitor with a high quality product. By having a quality product you have something to work with when it comes to building brand awareness, encouraging loyalty, and establishing trust. A brand is a complex set of meanings and associations which you don't have to leave to chance. It's your site and you're in charge. Think about what your visitor experiences at your site. What does your visitor think and feel about your site? Analyze what you can do to improve or reinforce the qualities your website has; tune it so it can make beautiful music.

Provide your visitors with a website that satisfies their needs. Address their dreams and aspirations. For example - I'm developing DesignStop.Com around the idea that fundamentally this site's visitor want his or her website to be something in which they can be proud. They want their website to be successful and admired. I'm attempting to deliver a "product" that supports them. I try to facilitate their website aspirations becoming a reality for them. If I do it well, then DesignStop.Com could just develop some of that elusive brand magic.

In conclusion I hope you see the value of creating your website with some thought to branding ideas. That being said I really hope you'll always put the visitor first. If you do that thoughtfully and creatively I think you will be doing much of what it takes to establish a strong brand. Focus only on brand creation and your priorities will get in the way of it ever happening.

I've created this page to share my thoughts and observations. I'm a student of the web, not an expert on branding and I know I've much more to learn. I hope you'll share your ideas with me - your input, whether advice or criticism, is important to me. I encourage you to .

PS An very important element in branding any website is your choice of domain name. I've created a page focused specifically on choosing and registering domain names. You can find it here.