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Internet Branding: Signpost or Business Platform? by Bill Nissim

What is the value of Internet branding for a brick-n-mortar business that already has a direct relationship with their customers? What about those companies that exclusively conduct business on the Internet? If you are a start-up, could Internet branding help develop a presence and in turn, attract needed capital? This article will explore these questions through the “eyes” of three, small businesses.

In Al & Laura Reis’ book “The 11 immutable laws of Internet Branding,” they conclude that an organization must decide if they are a “business” or a “medium” as it pertains to the Internet (Ries & Ries, 2000). If you are a brick-and-mortar business, you may use the Internet as a “sign-post” to get the message out about your offerings or directions to your facility. Conversely, an organization that conducts commerce primarily on the Internet utilizes this space as a business platform. It’s not to say that a business cannot operate in both worlds. For example, take Barnes & Noble. They started out as a brick-n-mortar and added www.bn.com after the overwhelming success of Amazon.com. The two were not compatible under one roof and the Internet side of the business was spun-out with a different management team.

The following article will consider several small firms and their unique situations as it pertains to branding and the Internet. The following proprietors were interviewed to understand their origin of inspiration and transformation into legitimate business concerns. Next, we’ll examine each organization to understand the significance and application of Internet usage as it relates to their respective brand. Finally, we will compare and contrast each model and assess the relevance of branding and its importance to business success. Let’s start this process by considering a company that solely resonates on the World Wide Web.

Internet-Based Business:
Let me introduce you to Susan and her company Living Water Color (www.lwcolor.com). She is artistic by nature and majored in art, drama, and dance at Cal State Fullerton. Her interests in oil painting took flight at the age of 12. Through the years, she continued to study a wide variety of art forms including sculpting, charcoal, ink, pastel, oil pastel, acrylic, oil painting and water color. She also taught art classes in elementary schools. One of her short-term goals is to write a children’s book and illustrate it using water colors. Needless to say, Susan’s life was steeped in the convergence of color and life onto a blank canvass.

Of the many art forms she studied through the years, Susan was most amazed at the transparency and luminosity that watercolor displayed. Although watercolor was extremely difficult technique to master, she decided to study this medium with a prestigious instructor to refine her talents. For the first time, Susan decided to commercialize her works and has sold many paintings simply by word-of-mouth. Recently, she has been commissioned by private collectors to paint individual pieces based on mere photographs (www.lwcolor.com/commissioned.html).

When the question was posed, “what is so special about watercolor,” she responded with these words.
“This medium is inherently hard to control. You can never paint the same painting twice. The liquid color moves and does things that leave the artist either excited or displeased. You can spend hours on a painting that you believe to be perfect and then mess it up in an instant; never to recover the freshness. The fact that watercolors flow in unique ways allows the painter to enjoy the process - seeing what it will do next.”

Internet and Brand:
Susan has recently developed an Internet presence primarily to showcase her collection. Several galleries on her web site were developed to categorize her offerings: commissioned, paintings for sale, and those associated with scripture verses. Her “About Us” page clearly articulates a value proposition that differentiates her from other water color artists.

Since she lacks a physical gallery and paints from her home studio, the Internet provided her with a commercial platform. Her business model is simple in design – present commissioned and other original works of art for global viewing and purchase. The application of Pay Pal provides a means of exchange for good and services. In short, the significance of the Internet provides a legitimate business platform for conducting trade – without this venue, Susan would be severely limited in both reach and future commercial viability.

What about her brand Living Water Color? In the field of other web-based watercolor artists, Susan differentiates herself by blending a unique artistic style with commitment to her faith. This point of both parity and differentiation clearly separates her in a broad field of artisans. Her source code on her site creates parity with other artists during broad-based Internet searches. The company name “Living Water” is commonly associated with the Christian faith – this both differentiates her from other artisans and nicely aligns with her value proposition. In short, all elements of Susan’s brand image (words, paintings, messages) forms a coherent, consistent, and strong perception in the “minds-eye” of her audience. In this case, the persona of Susan’s ideals expressed through art is the brand.

Brick-n-Mortar Business:
Let’s turn our attention to an organization that relies solely on the “off-line” world. I’d like you to meet Dr. Ed. He is a Doctor of Chiropractic by profession (www.mckenneychiropratic.com).

While Dr. Ed was attending a prominent New England University, he was working nearly full-time at UPS to put himself through college. One day, he injured his back and sought traditional medical treatment including pain medication to cure his aliment. It wasn’t until Dr. Ed visited a chiropractor that he experienced sustainable relief. This salient event became the driving force behind Dr. Ed’s future career path.

After graduating with a Biology Degree, Dr. Ed searched the field of Chiropractic Universities and selected one in Georgia. While attending school, he continued to work part-time and lived with several roommates. After graduation and back in New England, he worked for a chiropractic business to put into practice his newly minted D.C. degree. He and another chiropractor formed an alliance and started their own private practice - McKenney Chiropractic and Sports Injury.

Being an independent small business owner is not as easy as it sounds. Dr. Ed crafted a business plan and presented it to numerous banks, hoping for the much needed funding to launch his practice. In each case, the banks turned them down. While Dr. Ed continued to work for the other chiropractic business, his associate quit her then job and together they started McKenney Chiropractic. With leased equipment and second-hand office furniture, this new concern took time to develop into a viable business. Now, after 17 years and a location they own, McKenney Chiropractic is a venerable “brick-n-mortar” business – but what about the Internet?

Internet & Brand:
Like most small firms, the Yellow Pages or other directories were deemed the best promotional channel to market. Being listed in city-wide venue served the purposes of being recognized in the community as a legitimate business concern.

During the early years, Dr. Ed relied on word-of-mouth as the primary vehicle for patient generation. He tried many forms of advertisements to create interest and traditional telephone directories seemed to provide the best return on their investment. Although he hasn’t tracked the number of referrals from such mediums, the current methods seemed adequate. He also had a basic web site through the paid directory, but not one he could customize. Recently, Dr. Ed developed a website that provided the information he believed his customers would value. The website included an overview about their business, directions, payment options, hours of operations, and articles on commonly asked questions. Although his site requires further development, Dr. Ed views his URL as more than a “sign post” on the Internet, but a means to provide essential information for potential patients to make educated decisions concerning their health care.

In this case, a brand was developed and solidified in the local community via signage, advertisements, and word-of-mouth referrals. The challenge for their web site is to convey the off-line experience into words and images that will help build “on-line” brand image and equity.

New Venture:
What if you are seeking Venture Capital to take an idea from Solid Works (engineering software) to a commercially available offering? In the next example, we’ll demonstrate one such business concern.

First, I’d like to introduce you to Steve (www.showereze.com). Steve grew up in his father’s machine shop and by the age of 18, had five years worth of precision metal cutting experience under his belt. This business applied automatic and screw machines that shaped metal stock rods into pneumatic fasteners for Robert Shaw Controls and Amflow. Steve’s many tasks on the shop floor included machine set-ups, tool grinding, and daily business activities from shipping to interfacing with customers.

Having mastered all aspects of his father’s business, Steve went back to school and received a Bachelors of Science degree in business. After college, he started his professional career in high performance plastics and rose from the ranks of operating sophisticated CNC’s to organizing entire machine cells. Management quickly took notice of his high productivity and began to map his processes. Not long after, he was training other operators to engage in “best practices” he helped to develop. Steve’s idea, which he presented to management, was to centralize the fabrication of a completed product in one area and thus driving accountability and quality back to the operator. In short, he wanted to “build quality” into the product, not inspect it after the fact!

Having succeeded in organizing and managing manufacturing cells for a global concern, Steve moved into sales to understand the commercial side of this business. Here he learned about customer requirements by selling highly engineered products and configuring them to specific applications. After spending five years in the field, he instinctively knew what customers required, but felt frustrated that his company couldn’t consistently produce quality products. As a result, Steve moved back into operations to help develop an organization that could deliver world-class products.

Two years ago, Steve was at home observing an event that seemed ordinary in nature, but stone-age in practice. He suddenly had an epiphany – he considered a process that everyone engages in and how this particular product hasn’t changed since it was first mass produced. Being an inventor at heart, Steve took his cumulative years of “Best Practices” developed in the engineered product world and combined them with his understanding of commercial needs. His evenings were suddenly consumed with designing a technology that he believed would improve consumer’s daily lives.

Fast-forward to today. Steve and his team are undergoing validation testing of this revolutionary component and are seeking venture capital to fund his newly-formed business Showereze. He and his team are funding the project out of their own pockets to deliver beta units to potential suitors. It’s just a matter of time before Showereze, in Steve’s mind, becomes a house-hold name!

Internet and Brand
Clearly, this young organization is not unlike many start-ups in the business world. Although this company will design, develop, and ship product off-line, it’s clear their life-line to the capital community and initial branding activities will be driven through the Internet. This evolutionary process of slowly unveiling their technology and building associations is a strategy that provides a controlled delivery to the marketplace.

Although not fully developed, the Showereze brand has great potential to pervade both the on and off-line worlds. The close association of name and product will help build brand equity over time.

Compare and Contrast:
We’ve presented three, distinct business models for your consideration. In each case, the Internet served a distinct purpose to validate, augment, and create opportunities to ensure commercial success. With respect to Living Water Color, this business could continue to prosper off-line with the use of other promotional vehicles, but clearly the Internet provides a dimension that Susan could not realize from her home studio. Creating a business platform on the Internet changes her business from local to global, from word-of-mouth to a 24-7 online store.

Conversely, McKenney Chiropractic continues to thrive in the “off-line” world and would use the Internet as just one facet of its promotional scheme. In addition to commonly asked questions, the ability to educate and provide free information to prospective customers enhances their value in the customer’s mind. Additionally, Dr. Ed knows that possessing an Internet presence is a mandatory requirement in today’s economy.

Finally, Steve’s journey to bring his dream from a computer model to a commercially available product may hinge on Internet networking. This combination of promoting his firm and unveiling this technology could inspire feedback that may lead to novel channels to market, partnerships/joint ventures, and new applications that Steve had yet to conceive. In a marketplace of ideas (Internet), the ability to harness business solutions, develop alliances, and capital acquisition is vast.

Conclusion:
In summary, the Internet can indeed serve two masters; signage for on-going concerns and a viable business platform. The success of e-Bay demonstrates this very point – millions of individuals conducting daily transactions through a web-based portal. Conversely, the Internet by itself will not subvert other communication mediums. Not unlike newspapers, radio, TV, cable, and other promotional venues, the Internet serves its purpose to both educate and communicate and join together a community of buyers and sellers.

Bill Nissim consults with organizations on strategic branding imperatives. His website www.ibranz.com contains reference materials, links, and helpful articles on the many facets of branding. In addition, Nissim released his first book “The Brand Advocate” to provide a tool-kit for the marketing practitioner.