Stacy Williams wrote a very nice blog post about search engines and their influence on branding in a recent post that I wanted to share. I agree with almost everything the post says; I just think she’s using the word “brand” in a way that might not resonate with people who are actively involved in the creation of the things.

Here’s the essence of the article: search engines create two major effects for a company. First, they give validity to any company that ranks highly for that product category. Second, they level the playing field for other brands of the same type by giving search engine uses a chance to immediately and implicitly compare products in a result.

I’m not particularly impressed with first category of findings. But the second are very exciting. The most compelling finding in the post was this one:

People using search engines are more likely to consider multiple brands (77% did so) than Internet users that don’t use search engines (70%) or non-Internet users (46%). On average, searchers considered 2.5 brands before making a purchase (5).

Yow. That is a big, big, BIG deal.

Why does it matter? In product categories with low differentiation such as cleaning products, cereal foods, and other household items, brand preference is by the far the biggest determiner of purchasing decisions. Some studies suggest that people who have a brand preference choose that brand seventy percent of the time over other brands, more so by far than price, promotions, or comparable benefits. So, the opportunity to get them to even consider other brands is a chance to not only break that preference, but create a loyal consumer who is equally hard tempt away in the future.

Yet are the numbers Stacy describes really associated with branding? I would say they’re not; I would, instead, argue that what she describes is awareness, which is necessary step in branding, but really a very different beast at the end of the day.

A brand is organized around how people feel about a product–how its smell, shape, appearance, or image impacts on them emotionally. Right now, at least, a search engine doesn’t really impart those things to a user. Only the product itself, and the vivid image and marketing message around it, can do so. Without an appealing product whose impact resonates psychologically with a user, the only outcome of awareness will be consideration, then rejection.

A good example of this are studies showing that coupons used in isolation from other methods have almost no impact on long-term brand preference. Any spikes that occur through coupon use generally subside shortly thereafter into the previous brand preference patterns. They are a kind of “awareness”, but they don’t cause a change. It’s this reason that the only measure of advertising effectiveness in branding that has ever resonated with me is advertising’s ability to get someone to switch from another preferred brand.

So, a search engine doesn’t really change the core challenge of branding: getting people to switch. What a search engine does do, however, is create more opportunities to switch for companies with smaller budgets. With a search engine, marketers can introduce a new product to people to at price points that were unheard as compared to television, which remains the primary–and most expensive–medium for generating brand awareness in the United States.

THAT is exciting. THAT is new. THAT is worth all kinds of effort and investment.

Thanks for the article, Stacy! It sure got me thinking.