Brand Building on the Internet

On the Internet today, a type of customer called “Information Seeker” may develop more easily, who tries to gather independent sources of information about different products prior to purchase and thus makes a deliberate selection rather than trusting sellers or brands. Therefore, the function of brands in transmitting information will lose significance, with enormous impact on brand loyalty, especially for information-based products. However, within a model of brand perception, we argue that non-describable aspects of products, experience and trust properties, will compensate for this effect. Thus, the importance of brands in transmitting non-describable information will rise leading to new success factors for brand building on the Internet. Based on this theoretical background, we empirically analyze the success factors for brand building on the Internet. We show how brand loyalty may actually rise despite the advent of the “Information Seeker”. Empirical evidence is taken from a sample survey of electronic commerce strategies among German companies.