One of the things that strikes me is how quickly things change on the Internet. Web 2.0 is less than four years old and yet is really one of the most important forms of marketing now that every Internet business must do.

Today people are changing the way they surf the Internet. With social communities popping up all over the place people like to be a part of something and get their information that way. If your business is not involved in marketing itself in some way to social communities you are missing out on valuable traffic.

Today when people show up to a website or a blog they want to be entertained. Think about that and what it means to your business. No longer can you just throw up a webpage with a bunch of useless information in a couple of Google ads and say you’re in business.

Now Web 2.0 marketing means being interactive with your customers and your visitors. You entertain them by making your page appealing to them. Certainly useful content is important, but so are things such as graphics, audio, video, polls, and so on.

If you are not really sure how to do this go and take a look at what some of your competitors are doing. You will quickly see a successful website and how they have adapted their marketing strategy to today’s marketplace, compared to a website who still living in the dark ages, so to speak.

The other thing you need to do is to learn everything you can about Web 2.0 marketing and how you can apply it to your business to make it more successful.

What are the objectives that you hope to achieve with your brand?

Your brand should be comprised of the company personality, image, core competencies and characteristics. The impressions that you make as well as the words people will use to describe your company to others, are the basic framework of your brand.

With a strong brand you build credibility, have more influence on your market, and motivate customers and clients to purchase from you.If done correctly your company will be looked at as a leader not a follower.

To determine your brand objectives ask yourself the following question:

• What is it that you want your brand to do for your company?
• What do you want others to know and say about your products or services?

Sample objectives may include:

• Being recognized by receiving a specific award
• Picking up a certain number of choice projects
• Gaining a specific number of new clients in the next year
• Positioning your company as an industry leader in the next five months

You will find that by defining your objectives it is easier to develop a plan of action to achieve those objectives.

ASDI is the Trademark logo for Pure Designs unique methodology in building brands

By defining your objectives you are able to map out a plan on how to achieve those objectives. Say for example your objective is to position your company as an industry leader. How can you go about doing this? You could:

• Have members of your team speak at Trade Shows
• Schedule lectures at professional group gatherings within your industry
• Write and publish articles in newspapers, magazines, or online media

Once you’ve determined your objectives the next step is to build and develop your brand strategy by listing out how, when, and what you are going to do to accomplish and meet your those brand objectives.

Use the questions above to determine your brand objectives. List each objective and map out how you plan to accomplish and succeed in meeting those objectives. Don’t stop there! Once you’ve finished take time to list out what you can do in the this month or this quarter to meet that objective. Be specific and schedule those action items in your business calendar (2007 About.com, Inc., a part of The New York Times Company).

Imagine you attend a much anticipated dinner at a hot new restaurant. The restaurant’s staff is extremely courteous, you are seated on time, the drinks are cold, dinner is delicious, and a good time is being had by all.

When it comes to dessert, however, an unidentified insect is reposing right in the middle of your tiramisu. That four-star restaurant came so close, but ultimately, so far from making a positive impression, let alone warranting a recommendation to your friends. That restaurant has lost you forever.

Now imagine you caught that clever Super Bowl ad by yet another dot-com and you visit its site. The site loads quickly, the design is exquisite, content seems robust, but you can’t find the product you are looking for. The navigation is confusing and there aren’t shortcuts or site maps to provide clues, so after two minutes you give up and click over to its biggest competitor, where you find your product in three clicks.

In the Internet space, branding means creating a great user experience. Internet branding moves beyond logo, tagline, key messages and graphic identity into the customer’s real-time interaction with the brand, for the entirety of the online experience.

Building brand equity via the Internet requires all the positioning skills of an ad agency, but perhaps more importantly, it requires the keen foresight of an information architect or usability guru. Internet brand strategy requires the expertise of a human factors engineer to plan web site construction and management around how and why people use a particular web site in the first place.

Every company seeking to use the Internet to further establish brand equity should focus on offering utility that is not found in the physical world, while guaranteeing key functionality speed, intuitive navigation, ease of use, content quality, personalization, customer service, and security and privacy assurances.

As the Internet is an interactive, user-initiated medium, Internet brand strategists must also be exceptional listeners, especially since digital consumers are no longer passive recipients of marketing messages. Because increased dialogue is the by-product of exceptional web development, Internet brand strategists should be judged on how well they interpret and utilize customer feedback.The Cluetrain Manifesto

As The Cluetrain Manifesto explains, “Markets are conversations. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter and getting smarter faster than most companies.”

If great brands speak to the mind, senses, and heart, great Internet brands will hurry up and also speak to our diminishing attention spans. One of the challenges of any Internet business is the exponential growth in the number of web sites competing for the attention of time-starved individuals.

As web viewers are overwhelmed by too much information, increasingly chaotic schedules, and millions of marketing messages, competition for their notice has become a short-attention span theater, where the victors are fast sites with “sticky” content and applications, intuitive navigation, and a user-friendly interface. These sites offer real value to those perpetually short on time.

The great irony of the dot-com advertising explosion is that TV, print, and radio offer phenomenal value in driving web traffic the first time. However, the spike in traffic will be short-lived if content and functionality are not compelling enough to encourage repeat visits, and unless the user experience provides the information the user needs when he needs it. If the user experience fails that simple test, the offending site has probably lost another customer forever (By Robert Manning, The ClickZ Network).

These include not just salespeople and customer service staffers, but those who deal with billing issues, Web site inquiries, requests for return authorization or technical issues. Without properly educating and training these brand evangelists, you are losing valuable opportunities to retain your existing customers and maintain consistent messaging about your brand. Ultimately, this will erode both market share and profits.

An organization’s two most valuable assets are its employees and its brands. A brand often accounts for between 50 percent and 70 percent of an organization’s total financial value while internal ambassadors that keep the brand alive and strong make up the rest. So it’s critical that your employees aren’t just enthusiastic about the brand-they also need to understand it. If they don’t have a clear idea of what the brand stands for, they can’t communicate effectively and deliver the kind of service you require.

Consider that the cost of acquiring new customers is vastly greater than the expense of retaining existing customers-sometimes costing as much as 20 times more. If you take the time to educate all of your employees that deal with customers, you can greatly enhance consistency in brand messaging. This reinforces that customers hear the same thing about your brand. Some fundamental ways to accomplish this include bi-monthly or quarterly town hall meetings, formal service introductions or training for new products, and sending monthly newsletters.

You’ve invested in branding your product or service to your target. But you may not be applying the same level of investment to your internal team. Take some thought and care as this is a high-value area you need to include in your marketing strategy and budget. For example, develop a program to align the behavior of your employees with the brand promise; develop a culture that fosters suggestions for improvements and create rewards or incentives based upon the result of increased customer satisfaction or retention.

You and your employees need to become students of the customer mindset. One cost-effective way to accomplish this is by surveying your customers and clients. Doing so will, one, help you gain invaluable insight of what works, what doesn’t and what you should be doing differently; and two, send your customers a message that lets them know you are listening.

Consumers obviously want their voices to be beard and moreover, it’s clear they want to participate, given the proliferation of blogs, chat rooms and social networks like MySpace and Facebook. Your customers, who can help make your product or service better, are no exception. Always consider using a third-party survey resource to gain objective feedback.

So the next time you allocate your budget towards brand-building, set funds aside to educate and train your internal brand employees. Without properly investing for the long term, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table that your competition may grab right from under your nose (John Foligno.National Jeweler. New York:Mar 2008. Vol. 102, Iss. 3; pg. 50).

Nutrition guru and New York University professor Marion Nestle points out that sometimes profits are placed above values. She calls this the “organic-industrial complex.” Her point is that business priorities force some companies to focus on profitable growth at the expense of responsible behavior. This corrupts the concepts and gives marketing a deservedly bad reputation.

Some companies incorrectly assume they can focus on profitability or sustainability but not both. The Sustainability Opportunity is not an either-or proposition. We do not have to sacrifice marketing with a conscience at the altar of profitability.

Exploiting trends is not the opportunity. Instead, the Sustainability Opportunity means we all have a chance to provide the essential leadership that responsibly helps consumers do the right thing.

Ikea knows that doing the right thing is the right thing to do for business and for society. Ikea has set a sustainability objective requiring that all activities have an overall positive impact on people and the environment. This objective affects not only the products it markets but also store design, transportation and store lighting. Its measurable goal is to become 100% reliant on renewable energy and to cut overall energy costs by 25%.

Marketing with a conscience means providing ease of choice, ease of use and ease of mind. Putting people’s minds at ease calls for more than merely communicating truths; it boils down to creating trust.

Trust is not a result of how big we are; trust is a result of how big we act. Truth speaks, but trust is why people listen. Consumers are skeptical unless truth comes from a trustworthy source.

But trust in all established institutions is in trouble. Marketing is no exception. People fear that through the power of marketing, their control over their own behavior is being lost, or at least being manipulated. When trend exploitation prevails over responsibly responding to consumer concerns and desires, then it is not surprising there are opinion-influencing critics of marketing who think marketing is inherently harmful.

We should not be afraid of marketing’s power. Through effective marketing, we can make a difference. The question is: What kind of a difference do we wish to make?

The Sustainability Opportunity is a great chance to change the perception that marketing is contributing to social problems to a belief that marketing can be an effective part of the solution. The Sustainability Opportunity presents us in marketing with the chance to help people live more sustainable lives.

Based on the famous Brundtland Report on our common future, the mission of marketing with a conscience would be defined as “marketing that meets today’s consumer and community and business needs without compromising the needs of future generations.” The Sustainability Opportunity is a marketing leadership opportunity to commit to the idea of demonstrating that effective marketing with a conscience is responsive, responsible and profitable (Larry Light, Advertising Age (Midwest region edition) Chicago: Nov 12, 2007. Vol. 78, Iss. 45; pg. 34, 1 pgs).

The focus on sustainability is not just an awesome opportunity but also an enormous responsibility. The Sustainability Opportunity is not just about being eco-friendly or offering biodegradable packaging or chemical-free tomatoes. Rather it is an opportunity to responsibly respond to.

It does not mean marketing that confuses and confounds consumers for quick profits with no view of what it is doing to consumers and to society over the long term.

Unfortunately, some marketers view every development as an opportunity for trend exploitation. As marketers, we must commit to not only producing the right results but producing the right results in the right way.

Some marketers, however, see an opportunity to exploit the language of sustainability. And that’s reprehensible. Some marketers are overhyping their communications, exaggerating consumer benefits and building misconceptions with communications designed to confuse rather than clarify consumer derision making.

For example, the language some marketers use in the food business is being concocted and corrupted. We know that people want fresh foods. Fresh is fabulous. But what does fresh really mean? Does it mean freshly made? Freshly made in front of me? Made from ingredients that were once fresh? Prepared fresh every day? What does “packaged for freshness” mean? Some restaurants use highly processed foods but say their food is fresh. Is freshly assembled food fresh?

And what about “natural”? Unlike organic, natural has no legal definition. So “natural” is used everywhere, on everything from food to drinks to dishwashing soap to cosmetics. In fact, one retailer markets fresh, natural cosmetics. There are pretzels that are labeled “naturally baked.” Can pretzels be “unnaturally” baked?

Then there’s “organic.” At least it has a set of legal rules. Consumers think they are doing the right thing by buying organic. Rightly or wrongly, consumers continue to equate “organic” with “healthful.” Research from the Organic Trade Association indicates organic-food sales grew 22% in 2006 to nearly $17 billion. And it isn’t just about food and beverages. You want healthier hair? How about organic shampoo and conditioner?

Yet even organic can be misleading. Organic doesn’t necessarily mean sustainable. One dairy company sells organic milk that meets the legal definition, but the cows the milk comes from are confined to concrete floors their entire lives. They don’t graze on pastures, and they don’t see the light of day(Larry Light, Advertising Age (Midwest region edition) Chicago: Nov 12, 2007. Vol. 78, Iss. 45; pg. 34, 1 pgs).

Can I make a difference by changing my light bulbs? Buying a front-load washer? Carrying my own shopping bags to the grocery? Driving a Prius? Recycling?

Sustainability is the focus of so many of today’s personal, social, corporate and legislative challenges. The Sustainability Opportunity has big implications for brand relevance.

Healthy, wellness, fitness, fresh, free-range, organic, natural, reduced, reusable, recycled, biodegradable, green, global warming, climate change, carbon footprint, eco-friendly, locally sourced-these are no longer fringe ideas.

Safeway is focusing on developing a line of organic products branded simply with the letter “O.” Wal-Mart is selling organic foods, moving organics from Haight Street to Main Street, and is the largest U.S. seller of organic milk. A new American vodka brand, 360 Vodka, is positioned as the world’s first environmentally friendly vodka. is packaged in an 85% recycled-content glass bottle, and all labeling, packaging and promotional materials use 100% recycled paper, along with water-based inks.

GE has made eco-imagination the focus of its future. The Sundance Channel has an initiative called “The Green” with programming and tips on eco-business, eco-innovations and eco-automotive initiatives.

Jerry Powell, editor of Resource Recycling magazine, pointed out in The New York Times, “What used to be done by a guy who wore Birkenstocks and drove a Volvo is now being done by someone who drives a Ford 250 with a gun rack” (Larry Light, Advertising Age (Midwest region edition). Chicago: Nov 12, 2007. Vol. 78, Iss. 45; pg. 34, 1 pgs).

Desai and Keller (2002) argued that the main advantage of a brand alliance is that a product may be more uniquely and convincingly positioned by virtue of the multiple brands involved, thereby generating more sales and reducing the cost of product introduction. However, an unsatisfactory brand alliance could have negative repercussions for the brands involved.

Most of the extant research focuses on how consumers’ attitudes toward the brand alliance and the images of the allied brands interact with each other. Park et al. (1996) compared co-brands to the concept of conceptual combinations in psychology and revealed how carefully selected brands could overcome the problems of negatively correlated attributes. Argawal and Rao (1996) argued that a brand alliance could signal product quality when the loss of reputation (future profit) or sunk investments were significant enough for the branded allies. Simonin and Ruth (1998) found that consumers’ attitudes toward a brand alliance could influence subsequent impressions of each partner’s brands, although these effects also depended on other factors, such as product fit or image congruity.

Co-branding is a special case of brand extension in which two brands are extended to a new product. In a co-branding alliance, the participating companies should have a relationship that has potential to be commercially beneficial to both parties.

Various theories have been used to explain how consumers reconcile their attitudes towards co-branded products. For example, cognitive consistency suggests that consumers will seek to maintain consistency and internal harmony among their attitudes (Anderson 1981, Simonin et al. 1998). Similarly, the theory of information integration suggests that, as new information is received, it is processed and integrated into existing beliefs and attitudes (Schewe 1973)

Empirical research on co-branding is limited to relatively few studies that have usually examined product concepts or fictitious products rather than real instances of co-branding. Park et al. (1996) examined the effects of product complementarity to evaluate co-branded product. The results revealed that product complementarity is the key appeal in co-branding because it allows the co-brand to inherit the desirable qualities of each brand. The pairing of high-quality or high-image brands is another area that has received attention in co-branding literature (Washburn et al. 2000, McCarthy et al. 1999, Rao et al. 1999).

Companies form co-branding alliances to fulfill several goals, including:

1. Expanding their customer base
2. achieving financial benefits
3. responding to the expressed and latent needs of customers
4. strengthening competitive position,
5. introducing a new product with a strong image
6. creating new customer-perceived value,
7. gaining operational benefits.

One industry in which co-branding is frequently practised is the fashion and apparel industry (Doshi, 2007).

The basic principle behind co-branding strategies is that the constituent brands assist each other to achieve their objectives. Utilizing two or more brand names in the process of introducing new products offers competitive advantages. The purpose of the double appeal is to capitalize on the reputation of the partner brands in an attempt to achieve immediate recognition and a positive evaluation from potential buyers. The presence of a second brand on a product reinforces the reception of high product quality, leading to higher product evaluations and greater market share.

Co-branding may also affect the partner brands negatively. James (2005) showed that combining two brands may cause brand meaning to transfer in ways that were never intended. Thus, the potential benefits and risks associates with co-branding strategies must be explored and carefully examined. However, little research has addressed co-branding strategies, examined the factors to determine a successful strategy, or assessed the impact of two or more merged brands. Currently, a conceptual framework of co-branding is still lacking. This framework may offer researchers the freedom to study co-branding phenomena from various perspectives and provide guidelines that will help highlight similarities and differences among various co-branding strategies. The present paper advances research by proposing a typology using co-branding aim, category, and effect to research co-branding strategies. The typology indicates the importance of co-branding strategy and furnishes a starting point for future research.