From Bricks to Clicks

Reader Steven MacLaughlin, CKO of Expidant, Inc, contributes this review of From Bricks to Clicks: : 5 Steps to Creating a Durable Online Brand, a book which straightforwardly appeals to readers' interest in the marketing and cash-flow side of online business rather than the programming side. If you have established (or are just working for) a site with the goal of making money from it, you may want to pay attention to this stuff, because the last year especially has shown that the best laid sites of mice and men need a lot more than a clever idea to succeed.

From Bricks to Clicks author Serge Timacheff and Douglas E. Rand pages 303 publisher McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing rating 8 reviewer Steve MacLaughlin ISBN 0071371893 summary Presents one aspect of making a prosperous online business by methodically showing the reader how to choose and establish an appropriate brand.

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.

Comments

Brick to Clicks - Straight from the B.S. Generator

[jmagilto]

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 :)

Re:www.pets.com was clever?

[geekoid]

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.

Beachheads

[evilMoogle]

'the brand on the Web is like the Marines on the beach.'

The Dot-Com Bubble's beach was Omaha.

Crappy sites

[Windfinder]

"...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!

Logo for the post

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

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 ?

Not intending to be harsh...

[smirkleton]

...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...

The last year

[ackthpt]

... because the last year especially has shown that the best laid sites of mice and men need a lot more than a clever idea to succeed.

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.