Re: Branding and Marketing

From: Rob Frankel <rob_at_robfrankel.com>
Date: Thu 08 Mar 2001 10:53:14 -0600

SIMON SWANWICK <SSwanwick_at_aol.com> WROTE:

>Sites wishing to brand spend millions advertising
>and marketing offline. This makes their sites expensive
>to advertise on. If they are selling a product their
>acquisition costs for a purchaser are ridiculously high.

Um, no. Those sites may be spending money on advertising
and promotion, but I guarantee you they're NOT spending
it on branding. And even if they are spending their money
frivolously, it very likely has little direct impact on
their rates. In my travels, I have found that more often
than not, advertisers set rates by either what they think
they can get or what they think they should get. Both are
hopelessly irrational, but go far to show how many inmates
are running the asylum.


>Branding and marketing online can involve a CPA or CPC
>campaign. Brilliant to get your name out. Almost worthless
>to a publisher. Publishers must learn to say NO to these
>campaigns!

Again, you're talking about advertising, not branding.
First you create the brand, then you raise its awareness
through advertising and PR. Two totally different concepts
(see below).

>We have a consumer health site, HealthlinkUSA. It should be
>cheaper to advertise on a site, like ours, that has not spent
>millions on branding.

No, it shouldn't. Unless you can provide a compelling
rationale showing the cost linkage.

>HealthlinkUSA gets 1,250,000 monthly visitors. Its a great
>audience to inexpensively market to. They are all genuine,
>non forced, valuable health visitors. Perfect for health
>advertisers and, with a 75% female audience great for
>womens oriented advertising.

If all the above is true, and these visitors are loyal,
chances are that branding has worked well for you -- despite
not having spent millions. And now, hopefully, you can see my
point: you can't "buy" your way into a brand. You have to
build it. That takes some money, but certainly not millions
 -- unless you're into serious overpayment.

Rob Frankel, http://www.RobFrankel.com
Big Time Branding Guy and Author of "The Revenge of Brand X:
How to Build A Big Time Brand on the Web or Anywhere Else"
& "The Frankel Tapes -- Volume One" on sale now at
http://www.RevengeOfBrandX.com



Received on Thu Mar 08 2001 - 10:53:14 CST