• by Seana Mulcahy , October 24, 2005

I'm on a plane coming back from a company meeting about 45 minutes away from Corpus Christi, Texas. Although I'm tired, my mind is racing with ideas. I grew up in the world of advertising; like learning to swim by being pushed into the deep end. I guess if you are reading this, you may share the same sentiment: We're a quirky bunch.

We spend countless hours, days, weeks and (some of us) years trying to get into the minds of consumers. We all know that getting one bit of a consumer's attention is like an X Game of hoop-jumping. We seek out the intersection of the rational and emotional. For instance, you buy a car because you need to commute to work. You buy a Hummer to be cool, hip and show status.

I've found that we sometimes get hung up on "getting inside the heads" of our target audience. Many agencies and marketers alike spend boatloads of time and money to scratch below the surface of consumer insights. For instance, what are the pyschographic and behavioral elements of a target audience in regard to awareness, consideration, and purchase intent.

When we are presented with new RFPs, presentations and campaigns, we go through this process, using a whole litany of research tools to find out the demographics, psychographics and technographics of our target. We know the percentage of this population that goes online, researches car information (in the Hummer example) opens e-mail, forwards links to friends, refer to blogs for opinions, experiences and advice as it relates to car buying, driving, performance, pricing et al.

I guess the wake-up call is that we really need to take a step back. While this targeting and research has become a critical backbone of our strategy, it is not strategic. This, too, is thinking in a vacuum.

Consider this. If a brand has been established (as most have) in the offline world, how does it translate (if at all) today to the online world? If you step back and take a closer look, you'll most likely find that it doesn't really translate. Consistency in brand standards like using the same color palettes, fonts, logos, taglines, etc. is the duh factor. However, this is not branding. You can argue that these are all elements of a brand, and I'd agree. But again, it's not branding.

Branding online is a moving target. As marketers and advertisers we need to look at what would appeal to our beloved target online. We must first know in our gut that the modern online world is nonstop and a sliding landscape.

No matter what the client or brand, I subscribe to the notion of determining and/or establishing the following:

--Are your targets aware of your offline brand (if there is one)?
--What are the key venues and moments where they can potentially connect with your brand? For instance, radio while driving to work, over e-mail marketing, through impact units online, taxi tops and bus wraps at lunch, billboards on the highway driving home, product placement on their favorite shows saved on their digital video recorders, from another parent at a soccer game... the list goes on.
--The mind-set is becoming more and more on-demand. New media and old media turned on its head need to be recognized as opportunities, not challenges. For instance, video on demand, streaming video and audio, podcasts and the like.
--Often there is no one-size-fits-all plan. Consumers look, act and surf the Web very differently from each other.
--The "duh" factor. Don't impose, intrude, or inconvenience. Be clear, concise, consistent and content/creative rich.
--Be nimble. Change is good. Ideas shouldn't get stale if they are designed to enlighten, entertain, inform, adapt and evolve. There is no need to reinvent if the brand is established, translated, stewarded and protected well. Think classic offline icons like Tony the Tiger, Charlie the Tuna and Mrs. Butterworth. These great symbols have been used for years. Sure, companies have modernized these icons, but without changing their focus and brand value; they're just translated and extended for other media.

So have I gotten your wheels spinning? Let me ask you this. Name some great online brands and tell us why they're great. Post 'em to the Spin Board--but I'll tell you that, IMHO, this exercise is not as easy as it sounds.