38 replies to this topic

[bragadocchio]

What is in a brand, and how can it make such a difference?

Dirk Knemeyer points out Starbucks as folks who took a brand, and built it so that people would pay a couple of dollars for a cup of coffee, and their stores would be doing that on street corners all over the US.

But he goes beyond that. He looks at brands and the web, and how the web can be an integral part of a brand experience:

Brand Experience and the Web

How important is interaction to the building of a brand online?

[Grumpus]

Pretty important. But it can come back and bite you in the butt, too. For example, when I see a Starbucks (or, more common in the Northeast, a Dunkin' Donuts) I'll glance around and see if there's another coffee shop in my line of vision because I'd prefer not to pay that extra dollar for the brand.

To me, the brand "Starbucks" or "Dunkin' Donuts" means "a lot more money for a slightly, if at all, better product."

Obviously, I'm an exception to the rule, but...

G.

[DCrx]

What is a brand?

It would be interesting to give a fictional company to one hundred designers and ask them "how would you brand this?" A rough guess would be ninety-five would come back with a logo, a tagline, and a custom built web site which looks like just about every other web site. Most brandable interaction is going to have a tough go of it. Two examples illustrating the range of the problem: Amazon's One Click and Flash sites.

More examples...

Fair/needs improvement: Cannon Product Selector
Took me a while to figure how this one worked. Two lines of instruction or a simple visual diagram could have fixed this, so points off for this interaction. To gain a Very Good rating from me they should have done something like this camera comparometer.

Good: Moen design your own kitchen. Why? Design within context. Set the walls, countertop, cabinets to your own colors -- and then select your faucet and sink.

The point is branding requires a different kind of design. Flash isn't required, and neither is fancy code or rampant creativity. One reason I cite J. Peterman is because they don't use product photos, but illustrations. This sets a tone, a design theme if you will. And, as I think differentiation is also a key element for building a brand, it differentiates the site design.

"A brand is a living entity - and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures." 

--Michael Eisner,
CEO, Disney via AdCracker

If Eisner is right, many of the sites which think they are "branding" really are not. The logo/tagline thing is simply the easy route.

With Starbucks, you are not just getting the coffee, but a place to drink it. But think also about this -- you are also taking that branded cup around with you. You are saying something to the mall goers, or the people you work with. As a consumer "you are what you consume." You are the brands you associate with and as such take on some of that in the quest for branding "you."

It isn't as far-fetched as it seems. These people are crafting personas.

[Caissa]

Great article bill! I am looking forward to the conclusion. I am praying it will help me.

I struggle with branding. I have read nunerous books and articles on the subject, but still can not quite understand how to get from a "name" to a "brand".

Does one first conceive of what you brand's attributes are, then imbue the brand with these attributes? Is there a step by step process one can go through that will lead to the branding of a company/product?

When Amazon branded itself as the world's biggest bookstore did Bezos decise that "big" was the attribute he wanted oor did that just happen? Why did he choose big? Why not cheapest or sophisticated? Starbuck's took upscale (their coffee is ICK so they couldn't choose the best!).

BTW, who stold my picture?

[Grumpus]

Your "brand" is really nothing more than "the perception of or feeling about your company, it's products, and its services the public takes away after having an interaction with you in some way." (I just made that up, but it's pretty close to a good description as I can get in a single sentence).

Your brand isn't your logo or company name (as is a common misconception in people that I talk to). The Golden Arches aren't McDonald's brand. Google isn't Google's brand. The swish isn't Nike's brand. No, these are associative symbols designed for people to quickly and easily associate with a brand.

When a customer has a good experience on your site, and they tell someone about it - whatever they tell that person about the experience (assuming that they've never heard of you before) will be the initial brand in that person's mind. I tell Joe Surfer that they got the 10th Edition of Chessmaster at ChessCentral (to use Caissa's site as an example). The product was a bit more expensive up front, but shipping was good, it was fast, and it was sent the same day I ordered it. I had a question when I got it and e-mailed Caissa. She replied that same day and all was good.

Now, Joe Surfer has an image of what "ChessCentral" (the name we are trying to brand here) is all about and that image is all good. The price was a few dollars higher than others, but you get support and assurance in what you're getting for that extra dollar.

Everything you do helps develop your brand. Putting up that FAQ with all the shipping questions on it.... Answering your e-mails on the same business day or first thing the next morning (and having your brand name in the "From Line" and also in your signature)... Taking a horrible situation (UPS ran over the package and it came broken) and fixing it in a timely and efficient manner - taking responsibility without placing blame on yourself, nor on anyone else (because if someone needs to be blamed then something is wrong and that's not good for your brand)... All of these things that you do every day builds your brand.

Your images and presentation on your site (or whatever) affect your brand. If Caissa had a bunch of pictures on her site and everyone depicted on it was a pimply kid with a cowlick, zits, a striped shirt, and coke bottle glasses, then it won't be so good for her brand because it insunuates that you're a nerd like these people if you like the product.

You use your web site - at least portions of it - to help shape your brand into what you want the perception to be. It's the same with TV commercials - they are shaping your image or building their brand. Back to Nike for this example, they aren't selling the "swish", rather, they are telling you what that swish stands for - that doing things that are difficult like climbing a mountain or running a marathon have great rewards. Don't think about it or your chicken out. Just Do It - and, of course, that it's a little less difficult to do it if you are wearing Nike shoes.

The first examples I gave are things that once you've set them up, you don't really have direct control over anymore. You just do your best to make sure that the system is in place to make sure that the person ends up feeling good about their purchase once they finally have it in their hands.

In the end, every experience a person has with your company will have some good points and bad points. If the good points outweigh the bad points, then you've got a good brand. If the bad is winning, then you've got to do a whole lot of mountain climbing commercials to overcome it. So, if your shipping company is dropping the ball 10% of the time - you've got to get a new one, because your brand is going to suffer. If people just can't seem to get past the idea that you charge a dollar more for coffee, then you can't charge that much (and if you waited to long, you may have to make a big deal about how little you're now charging).

It's not necessary to do anything to build your brand. If someone is exposed to you in some way (whether they bought something or not) then your brand is being built. The trick is to understand that everything you do and everything the public experiences is building upon your brand. So, the trick to building a good brand is to make sure that every "point of contact" delivers as positive an experience as possible (for as many people as possible - you can't please everyone).

It, of course, also helps to have a nice short name or a swish or a golden arch or whatever that you put out there for people to "attach" their impression of you to. Remember, most of the time, a brand is built over multiple experiences. I may buy something from JoesWidgets.com and have a great experience, but a news article about how the president is under investigation by the feds and a friend telling me his widget came broken, and another person telling me that they got double billed and, my "impression" of them is now going to be "Whew - I got lucky!"

There's a lot more to this, but this thread is getting pretty long. I pretty much suck at explaining things succinctly. My first paragraph and that sentence up there is they key to it all. Everything builds your brand. Just make sure it's good and that there's a name or something easy to remember for them to attach that good impression to. And then, one day, you'll suddenly have a brand that is recognized by many.

G.

[DCrx]

Does one first conceive of what you brand's attributes are, then imbue the brand with these attributes? Is there a step by step process one can go through that will lead to the branding of a company/product?

While there are probably many ways, I'd suggest to look for gaps out in the marketplace when looking at the category. This means if Starbucks is upscale and high tone, I would suggest anything but high tone upscale coffee. Of course, this assumes Starbucks will remain focussed on coffee -- and the evidence is they're thinking about expanding into unrelated products. My guess is this will dilute the brand, opening up a position for a focussed competitor true to what Starbucks once was.

Brands may not play by the same rules as positioning, but I sense certain similarities. Long story short, unless you're a branding genius, stick to a narrow focus. I think Starbucks thinks they control the brand, but the whole point is for the brand to exist in the mind of customers. It would be a better perspective to have an ingrained understanding among Starbucks employees that brands are shared with customers. And once "niched" in the customer's mind, it's hard or impossible to break out.

I suggest Starbucks is on the verge of finding out what brand dilution is.

One: Gap analysis. Who's got "big" "upscale" and so on in the customer's mind. Which gaps are open? Starbucks branding creates a counter position which I'll term "plain honest coffee." This is different from the obvious choice of cheap downscale coffee. The focus you choose gives you some control. Call this the cola/uncola position.

Two: From this, you can flesh it out into "The real thing" and older generation. And "The choice of a new generation." This slices demographically and suggests a set of attributes. In other words you're looking at who holds the idea of the brand in their mind. What words are associated (young, sporty, fresh, traditional, trend setting) from which you can construct an attribute map.

Again, this means nothing to many designers. Unfortunately they're building the stuff that has to back up the brand. Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini gets get it...

»Since the year A.D. 618 the Japanese have been creating beautiful Zen gardens, environments of harmony designed to instill in their users a sense of serenity and peace. (…) Every rock and tree is thoughtfully placed in patterns that are at once random and yet teeming with order. Rocks are not just strewn about; they are carefully arranged in odd-numbered groupings and sunk into the ground to give the illusion of age and stability. Waterfalls are not simply lined with interesting rocks; they are tuned to create just the right burble and plop. (…)
Kansei speakes to a totality of experience: colors, sounds, shapes, tactile sensations, and kinesthesia, as well as the personality and consistency of interactions.«

[Tog96, pp. 171]

Then Tog comes to software design:

»Where does kansei start? Not with the hardware. Not with the software either. Kansei starts with attitude, as does quality. The original Xerox Star team had it. So did the Lisa team, and the Mac team after. All were dedicated to building a single, tightly integrated environment – a totality of experience. (…)
KPT Convolver (…) is a marvelous example of kansei design. It replaces the extensive lineup offilters that graphic designers traditionally grapple with when using such tools as Photoshop with a simple, integrated, harmonious environment.
In the past, designers have followed a process of picturing their desired end result in their mind, then applying a series of filters sequentially, without benefit of undo beyond the last-applied filter. Convolver lets users play, trying any combination offilters at will, either on their own or with the computer’s aid and advice. (…) Both time and space lie at the user’s complete control.« [Tog on Software Design, pp. 174]

Kansei is branding compatible, where the norm is for technologists to throw the product over the firewall to marketing, which then "makes people buy it." This is a critical flaw as 1) Marketing can't make people buy stuff. 2) Branding isn't slapped onto a product, service, web design or anything else. There isn't even an English word for it, but maybe saying the product has to embody the brand comes close.

Remember the thread topic is Not Branding. It is having the brand come through in customer interaction with the web site. This means interaction furthers branding efforts. ...it isn't neutral or indifferent to branding, but embodies and carries out the branding process.

[bragadocchio]

BTW, who stold my picture?

I haven't had a chance to read Stock's response, or to look at DCrx's links yet, but i can give you an idea on the picture.

It is showing up in your profile, but it's a little on the big side. I think that if it's bigger than 100x100 pixels, it might not show up. Right now, your's is 100x116.

I can resize it for you if you want, unless you want to do so.

[Caissa]

Wow!

G you are so wrong (you rock)! By jove I think I understand!

Between G and DCrx I think I have this staightened out, I have been mixing branding and positioning. Branding is more controllable. You take care of your customers and they build you as a brand of good experience.

Positioning is the "upscale" and "big" and "sophisticates". Correct? This is the niche within your niche that you decide is your unique selling position.

Am I there yet?

PS. Bill I will take care of the image. I don't look like that any more (actually I never did !). Ah the hard decisions, should I be a blonde, redhead, or green spiked :?:

[Ron Carnell]

From a writer's perspective, I think a brand is a bit like a stereotype. My villains may be villainous and my heroes heroic, but each needs to be recognizable to the reader. If I put my villain in a black hat and my hero in a white hat, I have essentially branded them with something readers have long been trained to recognize. In writing, that's not necessarily a good thing because readers like to be surprised. In business, however, it often is because shopper do NOT want to be surprised.

Brand, I think, is developed through consistency.

To again use Caissa's site as an example, her brand is currently centered around chess. Good and bad are irrelevant, I think, or at least difficult to define, as demonstrated by Stock's reference to McDonald's. We've learned we'll find clean restrooms and consistent quality at McDonald's (good), but the jokes about the size of the burgers are nearly legion (bad). Good or bad, we know what to expect. That's brand.

If Caissa starts selling Monopoly games next week, she may have to rebrand her image. It will no longer be centered on chess, but rather on games. If she starts selling gardening equipment next month, she'll likely dilute her brand beyond easy repair. Her policies and service may remain the same as they've always been, but she will no longer be easily recognizable. Without a hat, she'll get lost in the crowd.

Stereotypes, such as black hats and white hats, are built through long exposure and consistency. If the cowboy shows of the Fifties and Sixties had been broadcast in color, we might have had a different signal to differentiate the good guys from the bad, but you can be darn sure there would have been such a signal. One that would have been very consistently invoked.

[DCrx]

Personally I think it's less like a sterotype black hat than your favorite villain. This would (?) be like brand preference. I think the mix is 90% or more brand consistency. The remainder is brand innovation. (perhaps what gets you to buy the next book. You know who the villain is. You know you like the villain -- but's what's he up to this time.)

Cutting Edge Chess. I note you sell go and other "chess like" games. Maybe there are others, like Omega Chess, speed chess, and Strategic Chess. This would be for an association cutting edge = innovation in play. The goal is to understand this idea to the point you can at least suggest options customers can select from.

But the question is understanding what the customers mean when thinking about cutting edge chess. And how in the heck is this going to translate into interaction with the web site? There may be attributes mentioned which can influence the look and feel of the site, without interfering with more traditional ideas like usability.

[Caissa]

I guess most of you know, I kinda made up cutting-edge chess. The #1 site in chess information relies on mostly historical and stuffy chess. So I took the other side of the coin. To me it meant the latest in software and chess innovations (computers mostly). I try to make sure that any great software product in chess is available on my site and I let people know weekly about the new products.

But I thought from this thread that what I did was positioning, not branding? Am I getting confused again?

[Grumpus]

Yep. You've positioned yourself to handle the cutting edge market.

People need to associate you with cutting edge chess, though. When they do, they've been branded with that image. Basically, think of branding as branding a cow. You basically burn in image into their hide and it's there, unforgetable. When you develop your brand in business, it's the image you both chose to project and come off projecting through the person's experience with you that is "branded in their minds."

And, I hate to tell ya - you ain't cutting edge chess. I looked over there several months ago for a 3D chess set (a la Star Trek) and didn't see one. Get one some of those in your catalog and, not only will ya be cutting edge, but I can guarantee you at least one new customer next Christmas.

Seriously, though, you are getting the difference. You can position yourself in a market almost instantly. You say, "I want to be here and cater to this audience." Then you do it and you've positioned yourself. A brand though is something that can only be built over time. Sure, you can speed up the process by advertising (so the message you are trying to get out reaches more people more quickly) but branding takes recognition.

This is why I always suggest that people do their page titles in the following format:

<brand name> - <Page Subject> - <Any extra keywords that may or may not fit depending upon how long the subject is>

We do that here and in the cre8asite library. Every page title on every page starts with the word "Cre8asite" (And here in the forums, it says "forums" too). Then we give the subject of the thread or page. And then there are some common kicker words that sometimes don't appear on the search engine titles, but sometimes they do.

Why Cre8asite first? For brand recognition and reinforcement. A person in the web industry tends to do searches that will bring pages from this site up over and over again. Sure, they may be 6th or 8th or 3rd place. Sure, the person may go a year with seeing our pages come up in the results and never make a click - but they see our name over and over again, for all different types of searches related to this business. Eventually, they are going to suddenly start noticing the "cre8asite" and even if they still don't click it - they'll notice that it keeps coming up. Finally, one day, they say "I see them all over the place - I wonder if they are any good?" So, they'll click it and, hopefully, the page they click on has the answer to the question they had in mind (or at least the answer is somewhere in the thread).

Now, the next day, they do another search and there we are again. They spot our name 8th on the list and skip over all the rest. Why? Because "they see us all the time" and "we helped them before". Why try the other 7 results ahead of us, when they have a good idea that we'll be able to help?

The same is true with just about anything. Just seeing it repeatedly (and on a search engine, you are repeatedly seeing it in context of something you are interested in) makes the "brand name" stick. It doesn't mean anything to them yet, but they know the name - they've got in their head the object we've chosen to attach our brand to - in this case, the word "Cre8asite". Now, when they finally have an experience with us, they will automatically attach their response to their experience here to our chosen object.

G.

[projectphp]

This is why I always suggest that people do their page titles in the following format: 

<brand name> - <Page Subject> - <Any extra keywords that may or may not fit depending upon how long the subject is>

I recommend the opposite, Grumpus. The branding benefit of a title is negligible, at best. How many people:
A. Notice it.
B. Remember it when they see it?
IMHO, Agnostic users (those that don't want a specific vendor) want a solution first, followed by a company. Those that want a specific vendor find them, irrespective of the position in the title of a company / entity name.

Titles are a traffic attractors, the attention grabber, in SE results. Titles that give the agnostics specifics up front, with the solution prominantly focussed upon, look better, nranking benefit disconsidered. The real branding is done with those successfully delivered visitors, via the copy they read and images they see. Titles should, I believe, be solution not brand driven.

Although, having said that, I have absolutely no proof

[Grumpus]

How many people:
A. Notice it.

More people will notice it when I put it up front than if I put it on the back end.

B. Remember it when they see it?

Seeing it once? None. But someone interested in the things my site offers (for business or for a hobby) will see it again and again. They may ask different questions each time, but the answer is the same:

<Cre8asite>: <The Answer To Your Question>

Remember, a huge part of branding is developed over repetitive exposure to whatever message you are sending. But, the person needs to have something to attach the various messages to. So, if you don't give them something to attach it to, then the message is wasted.

G.

[projectphp]

Yes, all true. Thing is, Coke don't use the same image to re-enforce their brand. Not all Press releases go out with the title / heading: Coke is it: <Press release> (or maybe they do!!) Nope, checked and they don't.

HTML page titles, as a branding tool, are a waste of an opportunity to talk to customers about them, not about you. Your message may be coke is it, but the problem coke solves is thirst.

Cre8asite is a better example. A specific article solves a specific problem, or provides information about a specific thing. That is what that article sells. If I knew nought about Cre8, I would be more interested in the information than in the supplier of that information.

Repeating a message is certainly important for Branding purposes. I juct think that the place to re-enforce brand messages is not in titles, that are the attention grabbers on SERPs, but rather on the actual site, in copy, in graphics etc.

I guess my view is best summed up as get eyeballs first, brand later.

[Respree]

Interesting discussion.

This article suggests you're both right.

<Company name - Keywords/Answer to your Question>
when the company is recognizable (i.e. Nike, Sears, Amazon)

<Keywords/Answer to your Question - Company name >
in all other situations

Shall we call it a draw?

[projectphp]

LOL. Nope, lets fight to the death!!!

While Shari Thurow is somewhat of a well known industry figure, I very much doubt that her opinion, like Stock's and mine, is based upon much more than personal opinion, and "gut feeling". I have no proof that "my way" is better, right or even effective, and I would seriously like to know.

Researching this sort of thing is something I wish someone did more of. There is very little financial benefit for any individual SEO/SEM vendor to research this sort of thing, but it would be very helpful knowledge to have for the greater SEM community.

IMHO, this sort of lack of basic understanding of the way users interact with SERPs is a problem for the SEM community in talking to established Marketing people who, because they lack the internets precise tracking capabilities, have developed a body of kowledge around predicting user behaviour.

I am not sure that is precisely SEMPO's charter, but it certainly would be good to have a few more surveys / studies done on SEM that marketting people can relate to, with statistics and the like. That sort of thing would surely help promote SEM to the SEMPO target audience, marketing Managers, and no doubt be a positive thing from a SEMPO marketing perspective (links, old fashioned PR and the like).

Just my $0.02.

[bragadocchio]

Here's one that I like:

Customized and corporate color M&Ms

Hallmark's Hall of Fame did great things with television. Will a company attempt to achieve something similar online? Maybe BMW did with their BMWFilms series. (My favorite is the one with Clive Owens driving around Madonna.)

This PDF page, The key to effective CRM: Building an interactive dialog discusses Phillips' forays into the Beauty market and their customer relations management and brandbuilding efforts in creating a dialogue with customers using personalized emails and newsletters. Some interesting "lessons learned" and suggestions in there.

How many benefits are there to cross media efforts like the web sites of the UK Big Brother or the US Big Brother, or the Big Brother from Oz? I'm going to have to poke around the websites for all three and figure out if one is doing a better job than the others (to satisfy my own curiosity). Companies can point at their web site while on TV or the radio. The Web site is always on.

Some great comments above. I liked the talk of what a brand is, and how it differs from positioning within a niche.

The difference between carrying around a Starbucks cup, and a Dunkin' Donuts cup isn't lost upon me, and I have both stores within a short walking distance of me. It's kind of fun to carry around one or the other and see if people behave slightly differently.

The camera sites that DCrx posted were interesting. I like how you could spend half the day comparing cameras from the same company. They've made it easy to see the differences, and they've also created an impression that there really is one set of choices, and that's amongst the cameras that they sell.

I like Company Name first and then keywords/descriptive phrase in a page title. The thought of being just another page that starts out with the keyword phrase and description bugs me, especially in the context of search engine results. I like being the one company showing up in the top ten that starts with a company name, and then has the keyword phrase. It really made no difference in page ranks. I guess too many other factors were just too strong for it to harm us by making the change.

<added - like the new avatar, Caissa >

[Grumpus]

<Company name - Keywords/Answer to your Question>
when the company is recognizable (i.e. Nike, Sears, Amazon)

<Keywords/Answer to your Question - Company name >
in all other situations

I disagree. My job as a marketer is to "make the brand recognizable." Period. The only way I'm going to do that is to get my brand name out there in front of as many eyes as possible as many times as possible. Get it out there - and make them see it - even if it doesn't really mean anything to them right now. The idea is that when they do need something that I offer and they start to look around, when they spot my brand name, they'll say, "Oh, I've heard of them... Let's check it out."

The trick is in consistency. And, it's almost impossible to place your brand consistently on a page if you do it after the page subject portion of the title - that subject line isn't a fixed width.

----------------------<brand>
--------<brand>
------------------------------------<brand>

It's all over the place.

<brand>--------------------
<brand>-------
<brand>----------------------------------

Here's a fun little game. It'll take a few nights and it deals with a different medium, but the concept is the same. Next time you watch TV, bring a pen and a piece of paper. When a commercial comes on, make note of what company the ad is for, and then make a note of where the logo appears on the screen and what size it is. (It may appear several times in the commercial. We're also not looking for "where in time" but "where on the screen" or the "page" the logo appears. This will work with "where in time" but our experiment is exploring physical page location, not timing at this point).

Do this for several commercials - preferably ones that you know run different commercials frequently rather than a small local company that has just one stock ad that they run over and over.

Next time you're watching TV (or possibly even in the same night if it's a high profile ights, sweeps week or whatever) keep an eye out for a different commercial to run from one of the companies you have on your notepaper. Again, make notes of all the places on the screen that the logo appears.

When you're done, you'll notice that the logo appears in the same place on the screen every single time. It'll vary from company to company, but it'll always be in the same place.

You could carry it one step further and take screen grabs every time the logo appears. If you were to collect a half dozen or so screen grabs, set them to partially transparent in photoshop and have a look, most everything would be blurred, but the logo would be crisp and clear because it's always in exactly the same place.

With a search engine, you are limited in your ability to control where your logo (or actually, brand name) appears on the screen. It may or may not appear in the snippet - it depends upon the search term. You also have no control of where it appears vertically on the page because sometimes you may be first and sometimes you may be 8th. But, horizontally - you can - so long as it's the first word in the line. If it's not, the varying subject lengths will scatter it horizontally as well.

Again - I disagree with Shari in that I don't care if they've ever heard of my brand before. My objective is to make them aware of it. The only way I can do that (in a search engine) is to "brand" it. And to brand it, it needs to have some consistency - whatever consistency I can give it. With repeated viewing, people will start to recognize the brand.

This is why those ads at the top of Google's listings are so valuable. The person doesn't need to even click it, but if I've got my brand in there, they'll see it - and in that case, I've got some control of where it is vertically positioned on the page as well - right near the top.

Too many people, I think, are tyring to reinvent the wheel when it comes to internet marketing. They, for some reason, think that they have to come up with new and clever tricks. Fact of the matter is, though, that the same old marketing techniques apply - it's just that the methods of implementation vary slightly.

Now, with all that said, there are many web sites on the web who don't feel that their brand is important. I don't know if it's because they don't understand it, or because they are just out for the quick buck. It probably varies from person to person. But, let me ask you this - if developing a good brand (based upon the definition I gave in an earlier post) isn't your primary objective, then why bother starting a business in the first place?

G.

[bwelford]

Wow, another one of those 'blind men standing around an elephant' type of threads. Some great contributions so far.

Let me tell you what I'm seeing from where I stand.

First of all I think the most useful definition of brand is akin to what defines any person's personality. Most often if you really know someone there is no single thing that defines them, it's a whole package of things associated with different senses and parts of your brain. So it's the totality of the perceptions of that person that exists in your brain. In other words, two different people might have two different perceptions of what the Sony brand is. There is no right answer.

So Caissa the name Cutting Edge Chess is only one of the elements that attaches to your business and helps to define your brand. If you are consistent in the way you are sending out different signals about your brand, then a given person will develop a strong sense of what your brand is for them. Probably different people's perceptions of the brand will also be somewhat similar. This is a great advantage since then, any new branding initiatives can be more effective as you send the same message in some simple, direct way.

If this definition of brand is accepted, then it becomes more than just the sum of the parts. Cre8asite is not just a brand name that can be quoted and instantly everyone picks up the same association. I always feel that Cre8asite is like my local pub. If you say 'My local' or 'the mucky duck' or whatever it's called, there's a whole set of associations (synaptic circuits in my brain) that are instantly 'warmed up'.

I think most people's senses are very acute. So see the word Cre8asite anywhere in a sentence and your conscious or perhaps even your subconscious is triggered and ready. I don't think it needs to be at the start.

I'm therefore very strongly with projectphp in saying that the <Title>, that's the thing you forget about at the top of the screen, can have the brand name anywhere in it. It will also appear in a SERP as well, but again my brain will register it's there. So I want to do what it takes to get into that SERP. Common, current wisdom suggests that the keyword first is rated more highly by the Search Engine. So that's what I do. I want to get as high a position and before as many eyeballs as possible. I would be very surprised if the brand name is lost or in any way diminished by that practice.