Offline Versus Online Brands - The Winners and Losers (page 2 of 2)

A survey conducted by Time and CNN among 13- to 17-year-old kids shows that only 13 percent of all kids trust the Internet -- compared with 39 percent trusting TV or the newspaper. On the Internet everybody can be a dog.

The enormous choice and an increase in discerning online buyers will require trust in an online brand before users are willing to release personal details to the organization representing the brand.

It is not surprising that online consumers tend to visit their preferred main brands on the Internet within a relatively short period of time, predominantly for curiosity, but also because they already have a positive relationship with the product in the offline world.

For many users, brands will act as a trusted "consumer guide" to the Internet -- a development that will make greater demands of the online brand. And this might be the offline brand's survival kit.

One of the emerging problems of today's Internet world (and a major opportunity for offline brands) is the lack of trust consumers have in web sites and online brands.

Leveraging Real-World Brand Equity

Only a few international brands have managed to transfer offline brand values to the online world without cannibalizing the existing brand.

Disney is one of the few "real world" brands which has managed to control its brand image worldwide when it extended its business online. The difference between Disney and the "online-only" brands is that Disney not only represents a depth, but it also portrays "trust" -- a key value which no other online brand has been able to represent in the same way.

You can't buy goodwill and trust -- you earn it over time. Considering no online brand can represent more than a five-year history there have been only a few online brands that have earned consumer trust such as Yahoo, Amazon, AOL and Excite.

It could be said that "real world" trusted brands such as Disney have a free ticket to consumer trust on the web while the online brand market is still immature. However, established brands like Disney realize the need to extend the same brand management and respect for the customer from the real world to maintain the "Disney-esque" trust in the online world. Disney takes all that's good about the company (family values, safe community and trust) and transfers it online.

Who will be the winners and the losers in the online versus offline brand war? Ultimately, the consumer will decide.