Branding
Much has been written on the subject of branding in the context of the impact of the Internet on publishing, but the issues can be summed up quite succinctly – branding is the ultimate (and only) solution for publishers in the Internet age.
Every branded product and service has a lifecycle and the emergence of the Internet as a news and information medium, combined with the change in habits vis a vis reading (and watching television) brought about by the PC, especially the home PC, has put traditional newspapers and magazines on a potential downward slope.
All is not lost however. There are an infinite number of examples as to how trends in a brand cycle can be reversed. In these situations much depends on the strength of the brand and here the publishing industry is in a strong position. Newspapers and magazines – whether international, national, regional or local, or general interest or specialist, tend to have strong brand franchises and high levels of reader loyalty, expressed regularly in repeat purchase.
The ‘relaunch’ strategy for the publishing industry is to export this brand franchise to the Internet – creating an online presence which mirrors the publication itself and transforming circulation and readership into the new mantra ‘total audience’.
This approach should have given the publishing industry strong high ground online –and some titles have succeeded very well. Alas, for the majority of the industry, hesitation and a willingness to compromise with the Internet specialists – the ‘pure players’ as they are known, means that opportunities have been lost and strong Internet brands have emerged, competing successfully for both news coverage and advertising.
Fortunately for the publishers which have delayed or formed alliances which are ultimately doomed, it is rarely too late in an industry as fundamental as this. Brand franchises can disappear overnight in fickle consumer markets – but it has been estimated that an unresponsive publishing industry would have lost its last reader in 2044 and, whatever the basis for this prediction, logic tells us that there are no ‘overnight’ threats to the publishing industry and that under-threat brands can be revitalised – but the sooner the better.
Once the basic strategic requirement is established, publishers have a clear direction and a series of choices.
The direction is an ‘own brand’ presence on the Internet, the choice is ‘how many websites?’
Much of the successful execution has followed classical publishing techniques – content and display advertising together, classified advertising in an area of its own.
The conclusion is simple. A 400 year-old industry has run into serious competition and, in less than 20 years, centuries of growth have become decline.
The solution is branding – and the battleground is the Internet, where ‘own brand’ websites closely linked to traditional print formats give publishers a multimedia advantage which only a few have fully exploited, as yet.
