- c3r weblab>
- web brand equity
Websites can build or destroy brand equity
A global bank maintained a very efficient website. Consumers could log on, apply for loans, and get decisions online. However, their conversion rates remained dismal. Prospects would come to their website, look around, and then jump off to competitive websites.
A study in our WebLab showed the bank's customers and prospects had a better image of the bank before they visited their website. A few minutes on their website, they left with lower image and lower intention to apply for a loan.
The Website was destroying brand equity!
The I3R Model of Web Brand Equity
The primary mission of a website could be to provide information, entertainment, or shopping fulfillment. Each of these "central" tasks on the website could be overlaid with a branding agenda such that in each step on the website, the brand is being reinforced cognitively or emotionally. For example, how do we entertain on the beverage website such that consumers get emotionally connected with the brand? Brand learning and consumer information theories suggest a website has primarily three available channels through which branding effects can be delivered. The three primary channels are Information, Interactivity, and Image. These three channels, in turn, drive site equity and brand equity as shown below:
The Information channel builds brand equity by providing selective information in a manner that the consumer finds useful for making a brand decision, cognitively easy to understand and process, and stands out in a competitive context.
The Interactivity channel can build a brand subconsciously by engaging the consumer with the website and inducing a state of "flow" – a state in which a consumer may forget time and is open to branding influences.
The Image channel can transfer brand Image and personality subtly while the consumer is engaged in some conscious task on the site since a website can simulate a human personality and interact with the consumer as if the site was a real human being.
The outcome of a successful branding effort on a website would be felt at two levels:
Site Equity Since the website is both the medium and the message, the first sign of success would be a buildup of site affinity – a sort of "site equity" – where the consumer appreciates the site and would be willing to return. In cases where the site itself is the brand such as Amazon.com, the site equity is the brand equity. In other cases, such as the beverage website or the financial services website, we would like to see a positive shift in the equity of the brand itself.
Brand Equity Often, a positive site affinity should lead to positive brand equity. However, in many cases this link may not happen simply because the drivers that build site equity may not be the same as the drivers that build brand equity. We have many cases of misguided website strategies where we think capturing eye balls on the site automatically will result in enhancing the brand and building brand sales. As we know through anecdotal evidence, many websites have high traffic but poor impact on sales precisely because the link from site equity to brand equity was weak or ineffective.
