Brands and their web sites.
In my mind a brand is always associated with a logo. Though knowing this is not true, lots of brands have no logo, most logo’s are representations of the brand. Sometimes they are synonym to the brand name, like the Nike logo, which doesn’t need the name ‘nike’ to sell. Or some brand names are logo’s themselves, and can’t be imagined without this certain style, like 
But what is a brand? Tybout and Carpenter give us a possible answer; "A brand is a name or some symbol or mark that is associated with a product or service and to which buyers attach psychological meanings."(Iacobucci 2001) So first of all, it is a name or symbol or mark. This means that by seeing or hearing a name, or seeing a logo, or hearing a jingle we associate this with the brand it stands for. Secondly, we attach the products or services the brand applies to the brand. So by seeing a Pepsi logo we firstly see just the brand, and then we think of the drink. Then we attach a psychological meaning. So maybe we think ‘I don’t like this drink’.
Now we now what a brand is we can look at some web sites ant look whether the term ‘brand’ can or cannot be applicable. Furthermore I look at how the people behind the brand try to achieve their goals. These goals can be, if we look at the sentence cited above, trying to sell products or services (direct marketing), or making sure the psychological meanings people attach to your brand is positive, with as desirable consequence selling more products or services (indirect marketing). I thinks ‘selling’ is the key word in branding, as we might see in the coming examples. I’m also going to look at the level of participation the brand gives, on it’s web site, to it’s users or customers. Participation can be a strategy, for a brand, to achieve it’s goals.
John Kerry’s Weblog (http://blog.johnkerry.com/)
This site is a weblog of candidate for presidency, John Kerry. In the left above corner we see it’s logo; the words ‘John Kerry President’ with a part of the American flag in between. At the left of the site you see a lot of links where you can find downloads and information about Kerry. In the middle is the actual blog; the web builders write about what Kerry did that day. At the right side are links to other people’s blogs, and an ad for John Kerry, ‘Put your money where your mouse is’. In other words ‘give John Kerry Money’.
This site clearly shows that John Kerry can be considered a brand. It is a bit strange to say this about a person. But we have to know that there are two kinds of John Kerrys; the man, father, husband, and friend, and the candidate for presidency. And, as we know the second one is not alone; a lot of people around him help him to polish his image, like speech writers, web site builders and documentary makers. These people, even Kerry himself, are all employees of the brand John Kerry. So what is it they are selling? It looks more like they want to buy things; votes. This is one way you can see it, the other one is that they are trying to sell a president! The way they do it is indirect marketing, as I named it above, giving Kerry an image that all, or at least most Americans like. And if most people like him more then the other candidates the brand wins, and Kerry becomes president. That this site is about a brand can be seen in the fact that John Kerry as a person isn’t pictured at all at the main page, just the logo.
George N. Dafermos says that a weblog can be considered an online kind of diary. (Dafermos, 2003) This means that weblogs should be personal, and therefore not easy to use for a brand. Though Dafermos gives examples how a weblog can be used for a company to sell products, those weblogs are still personal, and not the brand’s weblog.
Kerry’s weblog is not personal, he doesn’t write anything on it himself. And therefore is not a kind of diary. This site is actually an example of a brand’s weblog; different kind of people, who are employees at the brand, keep this site up to date. The write about what Kerry did and said that day.
The target audience is the entire American population. That’s why this site looks like every average web site, so that everybody knows how to manoeuvre on this site. The forum at this site makes it possible for people to participate. Since you have to registrar to post a topic, this is probably only done by Kerry fans, in political interested people. Bad topics are probably censured, so everything you read at this forum is positive about Kerry. As a participant you can only participate if you write good, what turns you into a advertiser. A free advertiser for the brand John Kerry. In this way participation can be seen as a form of labour. The participant probably don’t mind, because they want their candidate to win, and want to convince as much people as possible.
If the elections are over the brand image of Kerry would be a bit less I think. There is not much to sell to the public, except maybe a president for the next elections. Though it still remains a brand in the sense that his name will still produce some psychological meanings. But if he is the president there is not much you can do about it, but wait for the next elections. And the vision of Kerry is still produced by a lot of people; some decisions are made for him. So the split between John Kerry as a man and Kerry as a candidate/president remains.
E-online http://www.eonline.com/
This is the web site of the television show ‘E!news live’ that is shown every day in America. By the looks of the site I can draw the conclusion that this show is gossip-like. It probably features all the latest news about the big stars. The Dutch equivalent might be RTL-Boulevard. The site shows a lot of pictures, and it has a lot of options, even it’s own stars database, on witch you can find al the information of your favourite star. Even Dutch stars like Rutger Hauer.
The site is an advertisement for the TV show which can be considered a brand. The service they are providing is gossip news. And this counts for the web site as well. And I’m sure every American attaches a psychological meaning to this brand. Some people hate gossip, and some others love it. So E online stands for gossip and news around the biggest stars.
The target market is all the people who love gossip about stars, probably teenagers and women (Correct me if this is sexist). But for a tv show there is another target market, the advertisers. They actually sell an audience to advertisers. On the site as well, every user sees some banners. The web site makes sure the target market of the tv-show stays large, and the other way around. And a large audience assures income from advertisers. The advertisers are of course not spoken to on the show or the site, so the target group interesting for this article is the audience.
The site appeals to the target audience because it offers quick information. The opening site shows a lot of photo’s with headlines you can click on. And the search function works like a database on which you can find gossip from the past, and lots of other information. By signing up as a member, you can get newsletters with all the latest gossip news.
Participation is possible through the message board. Most post are not about stars however, and the post don’t get a lot of responses. This part of the web site is rubbish. Strange, because you would think that gossip makes people want to react, verify or deny things said about their stars.