Brand Identity and Brand Loyalty

By Sangeeta Pandey, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
May 2001

It is necessary to establish a strong, distinct identity for your Web site and the products or services you offer, so that potential users or customers think of your organization first when they're searching for a particular product or service. With all the competition on the Web for the attention of prospective intended audiences as well as the casual Web surfer, you need to both differentiate yourself as well as become "the source" in your particular field(s) of expertise. Creating brand loyalty implies creating a growing and loyal Web community of people who identify your Web site with a particular product or service and return to it again and again. So, how do you actively develop a strong/distinct online brand and a community of people who are loyal to it?

Brand identity can be developed and applied in a number of ways.

Physical design of the Web site

Consistent design of the Web site is very important. A uniform projection of the organization can be done through consistent use of the logo, and a catchy blurb on the vision and mission of the organization. There should be consistency in colours used on the Web site. Without being boring, colours can be used imaginatively while maintaining the uniformity of the Web site. Different schemes and formats may be used depending on the intended audiences for each section. For example, a children's section would be more interactive and colourful and simpler in text. The basic template, positioning of the logo and the colour could be a unifying factor for the whole site.

Style of writing

The style of writing should be consistent and distinctive—differing according to the intended audiences; so audiences can associate a certain type of information easily with your organization. The use of words could make a visitor feel welcome to the Web site and feel as if they are part of a like-minded group/community.

Easy navigation

Set up your site so it's easy to navigate. User-friendly sites attract more visitors a second and third time.

Make yourself easy to contact

Show your physical address and contact information, including phone, fax and e-mail address. And respond when you're contacted.

Use testimonials

Get testimonials or good reviews for your product or service. Make them available on the Web site; repeat them in annual reports, brochures and other corporate materials.

Naming your Web site

A Web address (or URL) is the best way to establish an online identity. A Web address or domain name is your permanent street address on the Internet. It's a unique name used to identify, among other things, a specific Web site. Your Web address (yourorganization.org) directs visitors to your home page on the Web. It can also be used as part of your e-mail address to reinforce your online identity. For example: info@yourorganization.org

Your domain name should be simple and easy to remember so that people can find your Web site easily. Many domain names have hyphens, which break them unnaturally, or strange spellings. Sometimes you can't access them without searching for the correct URL.

How do you register a domain name (Web address)?

• Getting a Web Address is easy. Web sites such as that of Network Solutions http://www.networksolutions.com/ will provide the technical information on how to go about it. You can also get information from your local Internet Service Provider or Web hosting company.
• You can register a domain name as well as get free Web space on sites such as angelfire.com, but you usually end up with a long URL that is difficult to remember and visitors often make mistakes in typing.
• A unique domain name can be obtained for as little as US$25 or less. A small price to pay for creating a Web identity for your organization.
• Registering your domain name on time is very important in view of the proliferation of cyber squatting on popular Web sites. It may take months of costly legal action or negotiations to get the cyber squatter off, if at all.

Should we add a country prefix?

Unless your organization is country-specific and people know that it is based in a particular country, avoid using country prefixes.

Example

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), based in Kathmandu, Nepal, has its Web site hosted by IDRC's PanAsia program server in Singapore. As novices to the Web game, they asked PanAsia to register a domain name for them and PanAsia registered the domain name with SGNIC. Result: http://www.icimod.org.sg/

This created a lot of confusion because the organization is international and based in Nepal but the URL indicated it was in Singapore.

When they realized the mistake, ICIMOD attempted to register http://www.icimod.org, the simplest and most logical URL for the organization, only to discover that a cyber squatter had already registered the domain on the pretext that they had a network with the same acronym. Fortunately, ICIMOD happened to own the copyright of the name ICIMOD and had grounds to fight to get the domain from the cyber squatter. It was still a very long process of requests, subtle threats and negotiations until they finally got the domain name after nearly eight months.

Example

After almost two years of using http://www.farn-sustentar.org as a domain name, FARN decided to change it for http://www.farn.org.ar. Why? This is the story...

The first funds for starting to build FARN's Web site in 1997 came from a new training program called SUSTENTAR, which was expected to be in the middle term a separate "institution" from FARN. For that reason, FARN chose the domain name http://www.farn-sustentar.org, and SUSTENTAR's information was placed at the same level than the homepage. After a year, it was evident that SUSTENTAR didn't grow that much. In fact, it begun to be presented as another FARN's program: It no longer has its own logo or its own envelopes/sheets for correspondence, and its information in the Web page was moved to a less important place. Due to this, the domain name became out of place: it generated confusion about the importance of SUSTENTAR (some people thought that it was an institution associated with FARN), and was difficult to remember for people that didn't know the program.

On other hand, FARN noticed that the domain was difficult to spell: many times people put an under-score or a dot instead of the score. And when writing the URL close to the end of a line, the line usually wrapped in the middle of it, just in the score. Another problem: many people thought FARN was an international organization, because its URL did not have a country prefix.

After reflection, FARN decided to move to http://www.farn.org.ar, which was definitely easier to remember and to spell, and mirrored the organization better.

Letterhead, envelopes, business cards, logo

The consistent use of the logo and blurb on the vision and mission of the organization, with the URL(s) and mailing addresses should be used on all non-Web materials of the organization such as letterhead, envelopes and other forms of stationery; promotional materials such as calendars, brochures, bookmarks, publications and CD-ROMs, etc.

Brand loyalty

Creating brand loyalty, creating a community or group of people on the Web who identify your Web site with a particular product or service and return to it again and again requires a lot of hard work and research.

Well-known reviewers and satisfied visitors/clients can help substantially in establishing credibility. Their comments regarding the benefits of the product or service can be posted on the Web site as well as in promotional off-line materials. If the clients identify with and believe in your product enough, they can also help you by talking about it among their peer groups and networks.

Check out the competition

Are there any other organizations out there dealing with similar or the same issues and providing similar products? To get a competitive edge over the others, you need to add value—create a niche for your organization. What can you provide that is different from what the other offer. Offer an advantage of information or services from you rather than another similar organization.

Create online communities

Create online communities or groups of people interested in various issues covered by your Web site and find ways of making them feel part of a "like-minded group" that will come back to you Web site time and again. It's not enough just to hit the intended audience with messages. Messages need to do more, to have an interactive capability and a direct response capability. To make the site interactive, the tools you can use are:

• interesting, current, issues-based quizzes, polls and surveys;
• bulletin boards so that users can interact with each other;
• discussion lists;
• focused e-conferences;
• calendars;
• automated e-mail follow-up that keeps reinforcing your brand name; and
• downloadable screensavers, etc.

Interactivity helps build a community of users who identify your Web site with a certain product or type of content, for which they will come back to you again and again.