Page 230 - Electronic Commerce

Marketing on the Web

Element Meaning to Customer
Learning
Differentiation In what significant ways is this product or service unlike its
competitors?
Cengage
Relevance How does this product or service fit into my life? 205

Perceived value Is this product or service good? 2015
©
FIGURE 4-11 Elements of a brand

If a brand has established that it is different from competing brands and that it is
relevant and inspires a perception of value to potential purchasers, those purchasers will
buy the product and become familiar with how it provides value. Brands become
established only when they reach this level of purchaser understanding and acceptance.
Unfortunately, brands can lose their value if the environment in which they have
become successful changes. A dramatic example is Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).
For years, DEC was a leading manufacturer of midrange computers. When the market for
computing shifted to personal computers, DEC found that its branding did not transfer to
the personal computers that it produced. The consumers in that market did not see the
same perceived value or differentiation in DEC’s personal computers that the buyers of
midrange systems had seen for years. This is an important element of branding for Web-
based firms to remember because the Web is still evolving and changing at a rapid pace.

Emotional Branding vs. Rational Branding
Companies have traditionally used emotional appeals in their advertising and promotion
efforts to establish and maintain brands. Branding experts Ted Leonhardt and Bill Faust have
described “brand” as “an emotional shortcut between a company and its customer.” These
emotional appeals work well on television, radio, billboards, and in print media because the
ad targets are in a passive mode of information acceptance. However, emotional appeals are
difficult to convey on the Web because it is an active medium controlled to a great extent by
the customer. Many Web users are actively engaged in such activities as finding information,
buying airline tickets, making hotel reservations, and obtaining weather forecasts. These
users are busy people who will rapidly click away from emotional appeals.
Marketers are attempting to create and maintain brands on the Web by using rational
branding. Companies that use rational branding offer to help Web users in some way in
exchange for their viewing an ad. Rational branding relies on the cognitive appeal of the
specific help offered, not on a broad emotional appeal. For example, Web e-mail services
give users a valuable service—an e-mail account and storage space for messages. In
exchange for this service, users see an ad on each page that provides this e-mail service.

Affiliate Marketing Strategies
Of course, this leveraging approach works only for firms that already have Web sites that
dominate a particular market. As the Web matures, it will be increasingly difficult for new

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