For business competitiveness and brand communication in particular, information technology is universally considered to be a crucial. This new language structure opens new expressive possibilities for companies to build meaning around their products or services. The unidirectional and traditional linear messages are unnoticed by consumers, who are engaged by more dynamic, interactive, and multimedia messages (Simmons, 2007). Considering the characteristics mentioned above, it is apparent that commercial messages must overcome an extremely competitive communication environment; promote interactivity between consumer and message while also connecting individuals; and build multimedia messages that create a unique experience in an online environment.
The study of the web has captured the attention of a considerable amount of academic research, as well as practitioners’ efforts to build competent websites. In this regard, most studies focus on the technical features of the website and user experience, but slightly fail to examine the web as a communicative environment to transmit a determined brand and its identity (Opoku, Abratt, & Pitt, 2006). However, the website as a brand image transmitter has garnered growing attention (Chapleo, Carrillo Durán, & Castillo Díaz, 2011; Dou &
Krishnamurthy, 2007). Some lines of research have approached the study of websites from a marketing perspective. According to Chiou, Lin, and Perng (2010, p.286), “the typical web visitor is not merely a web user but also a potential customer who needs product information, attractive promotional activities, convenient order process, and after-sales services.” Website communication not only needs to be accessible and well positioned, but it must also strengthen the marketing and branding strategy on all levels.
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Website communication success has no other secret than the correct application of the strategy behind it. However, as Simmons (2007) argues, companies must search for innovative online branding strategies to distinguish themselves in the virtual marketplace and also engage customers. In this regard, he identifies four main pillars that characterize online branding strategy, which he calls i-Branding: marketing communications, understanding customers, interactivity, and content, as seen in Figure 2.5. In his words, these are “critical in developing the internet successfully as a branding tool” (op. cit. p.545).
Figure 2.5. Four main pillars of brands’ online strategies
Source: Simmons (2007, p.545)
On a marketing level, Chiou et al. (2010) propose a Web-Marketing Mix based on the traditional 4P model and adding a fifth component: customer relationship. As the authors argue, reinterpreting the traditional 4Ps in the online context will enable marketers to strengthen their online strategy. They suggest the following definitions:
Product as the online information about and activities regarding the product or service.
Promotion as the particular activities that give visibility to the store or main source of information, such as the official website.
Price as the online experience of purchase; not only setting the value of the product, but also considering the online possibilities of purchasing.
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Place as the overall design of the information distribution or purchase platform. In this regard, matters such as navigation, security, structure, and easiness to understand and read the content should be considered.
A correct understanding of online marketing characteristics presents branding opportunities by creating three favorable conditions: major visibility, a closer relationship between consumers and brands, and the generation of mutual value (Rowley, 2004; Simmons, 2007). The latter two conditions are mainly promoted by the interaction possibilities of the web. In that same vein, Chiou et al. (2010) add a fifth component to the Web-Marketing mix: customer relationship. All these approaches refer to the importance of personalization possibilities to engage customers with more relevant messages. This demonstrates the importance of understanding customers.
Furthermore, online communication strategy must understand the supremacy of interaction:
“interactivity as a central component in efforts to engage customers online” (Simmons, 2007, p.551). By nature, online information consumption is interactive; the information network structure makes users build their own content by navigating from node to node (Kerckhove, 1999; Morville & Rosenfeld, 2006; O’Rielly, 2005); thus, any commercial communication must understand this dynamic. The web offers a wide range of interaction possibilities, from direct interaction in social network, blogs, and online communities, to interactive features within the official website itself. There is no doubt that brand managers must consider the way their brand will interact with its followers. All in all, making consumers interact becomes a three-stage challenge: attract, remember, and respond (Marcolin, Coviello, & Milley, 2005; Simmons, 2007). It is not enough to make users participate: the brand has the duty to listen, understand consumers’ contributions, and remember them to be able to offer appropriate and interesting responses (Marcolin et al., 2005).
Finally, Simmons (2007) proposes a fourth pillar of online communication less explored in academia: the content. The characteristics of postmodern communication have empowered consumers, who can select specifically that content in which they are interested while skipping the rest. Some authors relate this change of paradigm to a migration from push to pull strategies (Govers, Go, & Kumar, 2007; Rowley, 2004; Wilcox et al., 2012). Communication effectiveness is no longer a result of repetition, as it is in traditional media: instead, communication activities need to pique the customers’ interest; it is the era of content.
Furthermore, Simmons (2007) argues that it is not only a matter of creating interesting
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content, but also of structuring them and making them easy to access in an environment crowded with other messages. “If a web site user is interested in a particular item of information/transaction, what similar or related items of information/transactions would they also be interested in?” (Taylor & Engrand, 2006 cited in Simmons, 2007, p.554). Anticipating user interests is a major concern in online communication strategy in general, and in official sites’ communication in particular.