Beyond the Blur: Correcting the Vision of Internet Brands

In the absence of solid evidence about what drives value for online brands, managers have relied on their gut instinct and prevailing wisdom to guide multimillion dollar e-Branding programs. Rules of thumb were followed, not because they were true, but because a constant drumbeat suggested they were. Clearly, companies facing the challenge of building more effective online brands needed better information about what constitutes value for online consumers. So Accenture recently examined the online buying habits of 2,000 US consumers across 17 industry segments in order to find the facts behind brand value online. This unprecedented study, conducted with Online Insight, an eCRM technology company, found that the facts are, in many cases, exactly the opposite of the mythical assumptions on which many branding decisions have been based.