Lots of factors contribute to a successful online presence for a brand in today’s clued-up consumer world. No longer can you say something on a tv ad (through a celebrity or half-naked model) and we’ll buy it – both what you say and you product. These days people – experienced, slightly-cynical, digitally-networked, and information-rich consumers – will do alot more research to buy most things. Probably the item’s value corresponding to the amount of research done. And researching is so easy. Thanks to the continual advancement of search engines, and the web as a whole, 10 minutes in front of a PC is enough to unearth all the bad things people have ever said about your product, brand, CEO, website, or service. That’s right, once it’s out there it’s there to stay. But it’s not just the access to more information, demos, (price) comparisons, professional reviews, images, and so on. It’s the increased access to people, those we know and those we don’t.

People have always asked for the opinions of their friends and family when researching purchases but the proliferation of instant messenger (MSN), internet telephony (Skype), forums, social networking (twitter, facebook), and articles and user comments mean real opinions are never hard to find. Even online playback of tv shows like iPlayer or on YouTube mean tv shows you miss can be re-watched on the web. In this type of consumer world the brands are faced with potential time bombs in every thing they do, customer-facing or not. Do something fishy and there’s always someone on hand with a camera phone and a one-click-publishing button just waiting to post it online and be the creator of the next big brand-bashing viral piece. It’s like David slaying (or slightly embarrassing) Goliath. There’s only one way brands can win. It’s ground-breaking and possibly controversial but they’ll just have to be nice to their customers …