Internet versus Traditional Branding

Have you ever noticed that Internet branding is actually very different from your normal offline branding?

Well it is.

Look at the majority of your web applications. The names often do not have a business affiliation, or is anecdotal at best. From large to small (Twitter to Zimbra), there is really isn’t some sort of great reference to the business itself even though the company might be extremely successful. Moo.com is a great example of an entirely wonderful business that has a name that doesn’t really reflect the business itself. Unless someone is going to tell me that the sound a cow makes happens to relate to printing somehow.

In any case, the branding style of the Internet is different in this sense because it’s actually more based on the number of syllables and how easy it is to type into your URL. The majority of Web brands are two to three syllables. Just take a look at this name generator and you can see what exactly is going on.

Now there are definitely different schools of thought on whether or not you should attach another word to your brand to reinforce the industry that its from. My feelings are that the motto or tagline is a great place for this but don’t make it a part of the name since it holds your business back if you confine it too much from the beginning. Just as a pitcher’s throw is all in the wrist, branding is all about the marketing.

I believe that this is something that any Internet marketing has to take heed of since the markets and trends of the Internet are vastly different to the traditional platforms due to the differentiation in participants.