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From Bricks to Clicks
From Bricks to Clicks arms businesses with an effective five-step program to help take their company's brand online. Perhaps more importantly, Timacheff and Rand have authored a book that clearly explains the entire branding process from the ground up. With the help of case studies and interviews, the authors clearly explain the five essential steps of brand development: (1) Discovery, (2) Framework, (3) Verbal Articulation, (4) Visual, Physical, and Sensory Articulation, and (5) Execution.
The book makes its argument clear within the first few pages: 'A company may have the greatest support team in the world, the best products, or the most fantastic service yet available. However, if the image is presented on its home page fails to compel the viewer, if it looks cheap, if it's culturally insensitive, if it's impossible to decipher, or if it's really slow, the brand takes a direct hit admidships.'
Timacheff and Rand point out that 'the brand on the Web is like the Marines on the beach.' If you don't successfully secure the beachhead with your brand, then 'the big guns will not succeed and the troops won't be able to land.' This is something that many companies just do not fundamentally understand. Companies also need to understand that promises made by a brand in the offline world need to be carried out on the Web as well. As the book points out, 'The goal of every brand on the Web needs to be keeping promises, not making them.'
What follows next are a series of chapters that demonstrate how best to use the five steps. Each chapter takes the reader through the step-by-step process of developing their brand from scratch. Along the way Timacheff and Rand point out potential pitfalls and provide anecdotes to drive their advice home.
The 'Discovery' chapter focuses on tying the brand's promise with the company?s core message and business plan. The goal of this stage is for everyone to understand how the company's brand will uniquely position itself in the marketplace. Timacheff and Rand stress the importance of this stage because it establishes 'the foundation upon which the brand will be built.'
The Framework chapter focuses on how the brand will be structured, and what role parent or sub-brands will play in the company's future. It is at this point that the company's core message is finalized, and where clear brand standards are established. The way a company structures its brand ('branded house' vs. 'house of brands') can greatly influence the direction of their online branding activities.
The 'Verbal Articulation' chapter focuses on developing company, product, and service names. Legal issues including trademark and URL registration also take place at this stage. Several examples of company name and URL confusion are highlighted. The authors also discuss the need for consistency across all communications, including collateral materials, press releases, presentations, and the Web.
The 'Visual, Physical, and Sensory Articulation' chapter focuses on the look and feel of the brand. The corporate logo, style guide, and visual characteristics ranging from product packaging to trade show booths are developed during this stage. Designing for the Web with the brand in mind is a delicate balance of both form and function. From Bricks to Clicks emphasizes that 'launching a Web site without any serious consideration of the branding and brand process is corporate suicide in the New Economy.'
The 'Execution' chapter focuses on launching the brand to the targeted audience. The Web site is launched, the advertising appears, and all other corporate and marketing communication begins. The importance of brand 'pruning and maintenance' are highlighted to keep the Web brand healthy and thriving. Companies may occasionally need to repeat the branding process to 'understand the brand as it is now and to know what change is on the horizon.'
What makes From Bricks to Clicks such a valuable book is its detailed description of the brand development process. Do not be fooled by the cover. This book is not just for companies looking to transfer their brand online, but instead can be used by companies who are trying to either develop or resurrect their offline brands. From Bricks to Clicks is as much a book about the fundamentals of branding as it is one about taking your brand to the Web.
If you have your brand clearly defined, then this book will help you to make the right moves to leverage it online. If you have a brand that's seen better days, then this book can help you to get it back on track before going online. If you are starting out with no brand at all, this book can help you to start developing a brand for both the online and offline worlds.
Finally, From Bricks to Clicks can also be a very useful resource for companies that aren't interested in undertaking do-it-yourself branding. The book is right on target with its advice on how to choose the right firm for both branding and Web site design. I must admit to placing a red sticky-note flag on the page where the authors state: 'Look for process. Demand process. Don't pay for a design or a Web site. Pay for a process.' Amen! Anyone who seriously cares about their company's brand should add this book to their must-read list.
You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.
Did PetSmart pay for that link? That is beyond strange. We go from using e2 tags to linking to petsmart.
I think these guys have been hitting the code red just a little too hard.
-S
We Apprentice Developers and Designers
Really?
Fucking goddamnit, my school must have bought the clearance-bin textbooks again.
Don't forget - if you really want to be an up-and coming dot-bomber, you have to order a couple hundred of those $700 chairs, ao that there is a little something to auction off when the bankruptcy becomes finalized.
I think the people above me are having sex - or they're sleeping restlessly and agreeing with each other a lot.
http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html and best of all - its free - unlike this book! Spend about 15min online, capture each sentance, call up Simon and Schuster and Say - Hey gimme a book deal. Thanks to slashdot I have a vertically integrated distribution channel as well!! whoo hoo (ps I know there are mispelings - who cars :)
-Bone
My name isn't really Jenny....
Oh, and it actually has to be something people will like. Dr Koop's need not apply. And you will still have to have a realistic business plan.
You're using her as bait, Master!
Hmmm, it's called planning ahead. That way when one bag of food runs out, you already have another! Imagine that!
Actually, I thought pets.com ruled--they gave you a $10 off coupon with every order (not to mention all the coupons on the web). My pet food budget was at at all time low while they were around!
Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?
1) Bend metal
2) Put in fire until red
3) Place against side of cow
The moral of the story is that any web store that charges sales tax and shipping better make up for the double surcharge in some way. The product prices are supposed to be lower because the costs are supposed to be lower. If it costs you as much money to stock inventory for a web store as it does for a brick-and-mortar store, then you're doing something wrong.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Unless your distributors allow you to run your business out of your house (some don't) or you're the only employee you have, you're paying brick and morter costs. Have you priced a 4/C ad in a national mag? Way more than the monthly lease payment of a modest studio, so you have to be pulling in money to pay for the paper advertising.
Pets.com was and is a great idea. If you plan ahead, and they can beat or match the average prices for there products. which applies to most web purchases.
quit frankly if pets.com budgeted better, and was given time, it would have been successful. most business, including web business, take 3 to 5 years to begin to be succesful.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
In all fairness, pets.com was probably more an example of great branding, lousy product. Sort of like Britteny Spears.
Beware typoes.
Erik
"You," Bite me.
"Each and every one of you." Bite me.
Everyone jumped on the internet band-wagon and then a lot of companies failed. Everyone says that this is due to the way the internet is made and that it is because these companies don't have real-world store. One word: bull. Mail-order companies have never had physical stores and the good ones survive. I suppose part of the reason companies like MicroWarehouse survive is because they use sensible advertising, ie they use the magazines in you average computer magazine to show off part of their catalogue, and then send you to their web page if you need more.
Advertising a name only works if you are established, such a Coca-Cola, until then you need to advertise what you sell and why people should buy it, otherwise you might aswell try selling uncontained air.
What makes the difference is a smart business plan based on the long term, with short-term steps. A short-term only business plan is only valid for get-rich-quick people and suckers, and have all the risk of bungine jumping without the cord. You don't need an MBa to realise this, just being intelligent is enough, and I think most people keeping away from the pot are capable of this.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Am I the only one that thought the headline said, "From Bricks to CHICKS"?
Oh, you mean like BlueLight.com?
sulli
RTFJ.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com? Talk about hot air.
Most definately... The money saved by typically not having to have as much, if any, of a bricks and mortar presence should allow for the capital needed to afford more than just traditional web advertising for marketing.
- tre
http://piclabs.com
Chief Knowledge Officer. Now what an Expidant is, I have no idea.
an example of great branding, lousy product. Sort of like Britteny Spears.
... first of all, because it's spelled wrong ... (beware typoes holds true) ... but also because the "product" of Britney Spears is a success because it appeals to many different people (and age groups) for many different reasons. Little girls want to be her, dirty old men want to have her, teenage boys wank it to her, and flaming guys want to dance like her. Who's not happy?
That's the most innacurate thing I've read all day
Simple business concepts working on the effect of the dismal economy. Great book marketing.
Really though. Isn't this pretty much common sense that everyone should be aware (geeks and suits alike) Unfortunately is so American to get caught up in the trend and the trend the past couple years was venture funding ridiculous ideas. Thank goodness that's over. As George Carlin once said. "We americans are known for two things. Taking a good idea and running it into the ground and taking a bad idea and running it into the ground.
I'd venture a guess if I actually read this book, it would provide the information found in any 300 level marketing class but written in the the style of the "Dummies" book series.
Still, it'd probably a good read since most geeks could give two shits about the sales and marketing side. You must realize though it's always going to be a team effort. We can't live without eachother so we might as well understand eachother and get along.
I'm thouroughly impressed by fellow sales and marketing folk who share the details of their jobs as we (the geeks) explain the systems that run the show under the sheets.
</drivel>
HTH, HAND, and to the CKO: FOAD
"Customers who bought From Bricks to Clicks also bought Chicks with Dicks and From Dicks to Clits".
"...if it looks cheap..."
Thank God, maybe people will figure out that gaudy multicoloured textured backgrounds and fusia text just doesn't cut it ^-^ I've seen my share of commercial sites that had useful stuff, but the page so so bad that no one knew it was useful at all
I wonder if the book will talk about names too... I mean "Site du jour of the day" just wasn't thought out too well.... sorry, I don't have the link to that page anymore or I'd post it!
~Windfinder
It's important to note that web sites should not try to rely entirely on online promotion. An article in AdWeek a while back pointed out that the most effective dot-com advertising campaigns were those that used a mix of traditional print and broadcast, as well as online. Too many websites think that they can do it all with banner ads, search engines and word-of-mouth, but with a few hundred million web pages out there, it's tough to stand out.
"appeals to readers' interest in the marketing and cash-flow side of online business"
Doesn't that mean "learning how to prepare for chapter 11"?
Who's not happy?
Uhh, people who have to listen to her?
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
And if you do go to their site, you'll see that it's all MS Active Server Pages. Yeah, this guy's got his finger on the pulse, all right...
Just junk food for thought...
A dog may not need one but his master might. My friend's dog carries two six packs in his back pack and swims along during canoe trips. Keeps the beer out of the sun and cool. That's one dog that loves it when it's master decides to down a few :)
Oh yeah, let's order a $3.99 20 pound bag of cat litter, the shipping will only be $10.
Online pet supplies is one of the dumbest dotcom ideas out there.
Am I the only one to think a Slashdot post titled "Book Reviews: From Bricks to Clicks" should have a Lego brick logo instead of a dollar bill ?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
...I don't mean to be critical of the reviewer, but I do think for the sake of Expidant that he might want to take some of the messages about branding/communications to heart.
Personally, I found the homepage of Expidant to be somewhat at odds with some of the basic branding theory discussed in the review. A Management Team section which shows no Management Team? A Corporate Overview section called "Then/Now/Next" which doesn't state what the company does (but brags that it very well and gets paid good money to do so)? A company name that is meaningless, unfortunately forgettable, that feels like a misspelling of "Expedient", and could as easily be used for a subcompact Japanese automobile or a new sports drink. A self-description as "An Interactive Foundry" (shouldn't the name, then, nod to metal-working? All the "alloy" and "alchemy" domains already scooped up by other interactive foundries?)
I hope my opinions are perceived as constructive criticism. On the positive side, I do think the site was pretty clean, easy to navigate, and that this testifies to their skills despite the shortcomings. I don't doubt that the company gets a lot of business, and hope that they continue to do so in this harsher economic climate.
I also know this constitutes a "review-of-a-review", and that this sort of meta-commentary-on-commentary is all-too-often the rule in the solipsistic community of opinionated pinheads that is Slashdot (not throwing stones, I live in this glass house, too). So please forgive me if I'm playing to the stereotype, and if by doing so, I am actually furthering the stereotype here by offering a review-of-my-review-of-a-review. And stop me before I descend into an infinite feedback loop. Because I don't mean to be critical of the reviewer, but I do think for the sake of Expidant that he might want to take some of the messages about branding/communications to heart...
First of all, the web is still evolving so fast that there isn't really any kind of formal university degree that is right for designing and implementing huge on-line ventures. Ultimately as a corporation you kind of have to get lucky in your hiring process to get the right information architects who can relate to the target demographic. Techies have a tendency to design a site the way THEY would want it, which is rarely what the web neophyte wants. So you have to find these brilliant information architects, but they need to have enough technical knowledge to work with the database coding people to build the site properly. I think this book offers a lot of good advice, but even so, the Internet arena is not the place to launch a multi-million dollar marketing campaign IMHO. On the Internet, I think the best plan is to start small and grow to your market size instead of taking these huge risks which quite frankly don't seem to offer a lot of added value from traditional businesses. Granted, big corporations make big investments in hope of big (and fast) returns, but I think it's unrealistic to believe that a website and on-line advertising can generate reliable returns with the current state of technology. The more I think about it, the more I believe that the Internet will continue to be primarily a communication and information tool for years to come. Sure you can sell things on-line, but most people would rather shop at a store...
What happens with the IS department head gets delusions of adequacy.
What's a CKO? Chief KDE officer? Chief Krap Officer?
...like a fish needs a rocket launcher.
Here are some questions I have after reading the review:
Did the book's authors give one or more examples of what they consider a successful online/offline brand? Or are the supporting anecdotes given from lots of different companies? I don't see any examples from the book in the review itself.
What are the (book) author's qualifications for writing such a book? Are they themselves in charge of building an on-line brand for a bricks&mortar outfit? Are they web branding consultants?
Overall, why do they consider on-line branding any different from off-line branding? Isn't the general idea the same for either: "what does your company make, and why should we buy from you vs. your competitor?"
Here's my mini review...
Expidant, Inc.? Never heard of it.
'nuf said.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Seriously, folks, do you think you're impressing anyone by choosing random syllables and attaching them to each other? Any two-year-old can do that. Maybe you would need a twelve-year-old who just took a SAT vocabulary class to pick out "impressive" "bold" "corporate" yet "soft" "fuzzy" syllables, but please! Can't your name have some content?
Yeah, I know, trademarkable, yadda yadda. Well, there are still "new" companies with good names. In fact, some of them are bankrupt and surely willing to sell the names to the highest bidder!
sulli
RTFJ.
The last year can best be summed up by:
From Bricks To Clicks to Bricks
Or
From Bricks to Clicks to Hitting the Bricks
It concerns me that much of what I'm reading on Slashdot these days is more along the lines of "Worst case scenario" of making and sustaining a profit from the internet (i.e. Microsoft XP bleeding profits out of consumers because they give consumers what they're dumb enough to want in the first place [or Microsoft is lying...would they do that?])
Kudos for the review.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Some track record he has. I spend most of my days online, and I've never heard of him or any of his brands.
Batteries.com? Whoopee.
I think his book is about a year too late.
hello folks!