Branded websites? that’s so 2003 right? living in the age of social media many believe a brand having a website is no pretty pointless ; some think they’re virtually archaic.
Personally, I don’t believe this I just believe they aren’t used well.
I’m not talking about e-commerce, I’m talking about the new generation of brands who know they have to be so much more than just retailers to survive online and offline.
The brand as a publisher trend is one set to increase throughout 2013 but all the work these brands are putting in to keep their audiences engaged feels pointless if it’s not showcased properly.You don’t go into a bookshop to buy one page of a book- you buy the whole story. Some brands online seem to be forever seeding different content across social platforms without having a focal point.
Content creation is no doubt engaging but I feel its success relies upon a focal hub. Utilizing the brand website to gather all this into one place gives a campaign direction in an environment that a brand can control far more than on social media.If you’re an e-commerce site, it directs people towards it. If you’re not, it gives people a place to discover to admire and hopefully participate in a brand. For marketers it gives you a way to measure the effectiveness of the content you’re creating and for the audience it enables them to experience content in a cohesive format.
Louis Vuitton for example are a brand who do this on their homepage, whilst the homepage design could perhaps use tweaking it showcases the content they create in a clear and accessible way that still manages to make the user feel firmly in control and with great content like the Art of Packing and films like L’Invitation Au Voyage it’s no wonder they’re a great luxury brand making waves online.
The point I’m really trying to make is that if you think that a website is just a website that’s all it will ever be, you have to see it for all it could be. It’s pretty clichéd to quote an ad but when it comes to the web I believe the Google tagline- the web is what you make of it.
