Whose brand is it anyway?
Some time back I was catching up with an old friend of mine who is a self proclaimed branding guru. As the conversation progressed, we started jokingly making fun of each other's profession and in no time things got heated up. Finally he said "you techies should stick to coding and let us worry about branding". Well, he may have said it in a fit of rage, but it made me wonder. Is there an impact of technology on the way branding is done, especially online branding? Do the brand gurus need to be aware of where technology is going and also the other way around.
Take the example of online branding. Initially online branding meant having a unique domain name and website. But slowly organizations realized the value of unique branding on their website as more and more business shifted online. User Experience Design became a major ingredient of all website development and everything from logos to images to colors to information architecture was revamped to establish a unique branding for the website. All was going well for the brand conscious organizations, when almost suddenly technology pulled the carpet out from below their feet. In came search and feeds.
Search meant that users don't anymore spend hours browsing your website. They spend more time searching for what they need, look at the snippet and visit your site only if they feel its relevant. Feeds meant that they may not even visit your website anymore. They might just use a feed reader or a video player (depending on the kind of feed) to consume your site content, without ever visiting your site. This change in information consumption pattern blurred the concept of brand for the user. The same page might have content from multiple sources, and the most prominent brand will be of the feed aggregator or search provider.
So does online branding need to adapt? Yes, of course. The fundamental shift is in what is being branded. It used to be entire web pages, but now it is every small unit of information which can be accessed in an alternate way like search or feed or video. But how do you brand such small pieces of information? Well here come some emerging standards to the rescue.
One such emerging standard is Microformats. It is already being used for business cards and calendars, and browsers have started providing support for it. A new microformat named 'hbrand' could be defined with maybe the logo, company website link, company information etc. which might be shown on the page itself alongside the content or as a tooltip on hover. HTML5 also provides support for similar concepts through Microdata specification which is evolving.
What is more, the consumer base for such specifications is also growing. Google has started supporting Rich Snippets where Microformat, Microdata and RDF tags are read and used to display useful information along with the search result snippet. Feed readers and video players could follow soon.
So organizations need not just worry about branding their websites. They will have to start ensuring that every piece of information they send out in the form of feeds or search results are also branded. But how do you ensure this? Maybe a branding gateway component which intercepts all content being sent out and tag it with the branding information defined as a Microformat or Microdata. Search engines, Feed Readers and video players will the start using this data to create a unique branding for the content wherever it is displayed.
So will technology revolutionize the way online branding is done? Maybe, as my friend said, maybe I should worry about coding and leave the branding to the likes of him.
Ritesh Radhakrishnan
Comments
It seems to me that all the things you propose for hBrand are already catered for by the existing hCard microformat.
Posted by: Andy Mabbett | June 22, 2010 4:47 PM
Hi Andy, thanks for your comment. I agree, there are already similar microformats which we can use. The only reasons for proposing a new one was to give a uniqueness to branding. It would be important if in the future, to protect brands, it is necessary to make it mandatory to display branding information on feed readers, search engines etc.
The important point I was trying to make is that brand managers need to start thinking about how to brand such content and consumers like feed readers need to start thinking about how to start supporting them.
Posted by: Ritesh Radhakrishnan
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June 23, 2010 8:14 AM
Hi, Ritesh,
I can understand where Andy is coming from in wanting to keep things fairly simple/basic with hCard. However, I agree with you on the concept of hBrand
But, even more important to me in your article is the intimation of getting IT and Marketing/Branding to understand each others' futures with respect to getting the most out of good branding.
Excellent post, Ritesh...
Posted by: Vincent Wright | June 24, 2010 2:54 AM
Thanks for your feedback Vincent.
Posted by: Ritesh Radhakrishnan
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June 24, 2010 4:12 AM
Your blog post here describes branding as another standard format of expression. It's akin to inventing a new printing / inking technique in the age of printers. No respectable branding expert will bother or even care about the fine-ness of the print in question.
You are clearly talking of 'labeling', so please don't mistake the two. Branding or Brand Management (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_management) is the art of applying marketing and communication techniques to increase a product / service perceived value.
Labeling on one hand has its place in technology while branding is the art of the conversation. The basic difference between copywriters and printers (to crudely depict).
So, you are right, you probably should leave branding to the experts as you say; and maybe assist them in the labeling process.
Posted by: Preetham Venkky | August 3, 2010 2:53 PM
Hi Preetham,
Thanks for your comments. Firstly, thanks for clarifying the terminology (what would we do without wikipedia, and experts like you). I guess apart from the academic exercise of getting the terminology right, I could not understand from your post if you agree or disagree with the point of view. Do you think this is a new idea or something that is already being done? Do you agree that this form of tagging will gain relevance in the field of branding/labeling going forward or you feel you have got it all figured out? Would sure like to get some constructive feedback.
Posted by: Ritesh Radhakrishnan
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August 4, 2010 6:03 AM
Terminology is unfortunately not an academic exercise. There's a difference between using terms 'good' and 'nice'. For a layman they would look to mean the same but in a conversation they make a sea of difference.
Clearly, branding and labeling are two totally different aspects; likes of which are yet to be grasped. Like I mentioned earlier, brand managers are NOT going to bother with the formats in question because they will just go ahead with what is widely utilised.
With regards to your response to Andy's concerns; I think he's right. Since hCards are widely utilised, all it needs is a new style sheet to make it unique to depicting brands, it definitely does not warrant a new format. Formats with minor increments have always failed; case in point JPEG vs JPEG2000.
With regards to hCards and microformats becoming highly relevant, here's my take on the issue and mind you I may not be right, but it will definitely be a good sensible guess of its future: If hCards become commonplace, applications (such as feed readers etc.) will ensure they block such an action atleast for information on brand labeling. Users don't care for labels / logos anymore, but what they do care for is the relevance of brands (and their communication) in their lives.
What I'm trying to say is that as more and more companies get onto using this labeling technique, filling our screens with hCards, user fatigue and frustration (same as with pop-up windows) will set in and technology will move forward to disable (or hide) such actions. What you propose for hBrand is even worse, it will make it easier for application to block these display actions, or even worse, display their own in its place. Points to ponder over.
Oh! and as a side note, there's something wrong with the 'technology' behind this esteemed blog. It doesn't seem to intimate the comment author when you respond to his/her comment. And that by the way is not new technology!
Posted by: Preetham Venkky | August 4, 2010 10:26 AM
Thanks for the comments Preetham. Its good to get a different point of view, especially from a practitioner.
Posted by: Ritesh Radhakrishnan
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August 10, 2010 9:46 AM