Generally, when you think of the largest companies in the world, you don’t tend to think of an internet company.  You’ll probably think of Microsoft, GE, GM, and a few other household names.  After all, who can deny knowing these brands’ logos at a glance?  What these companies aren’t telling you is that they are scared…well actually, terrified, of internet brands. But why?

1. Time

The average “connected” American spends several hours a day on the internet.  This is only going to go up, because more and more of our lives are lived out, documented, and entertained online.  With the exception of just a few offline brands (like Microsoft), do you have contact with any brand for hours a day?  And what offline brand wouldn’t want you staring at their logo for a few hours each day?

2. Experience

Too often we think of good branding as “how well” someone can recognize the brand.  This may have been true 30 years ago, but today brands come alive and have many more elements to them.  They are no longer just graphics on a page, they have become an “experience”.  When you visit a website, the entire usability of the site, as well as the subjective experience of interacting with the brand are “fair game” for your beliefs about a brand.  On the negative end, if a company has branded themselves with a slogan like “we make things work”, or “we work fast” and then they have broken images or long forms to fill out, we take notice - and it affects how we view their brand.  On the positive end, we can use an site intuitive navigation, short useful forms, and great product help and walk away feeling like “this is the company for me”.  Either way, experience of the brand is here to stay, like it or not.

3. Being “With It”

Everyone likes a winner.  Especially with the advent of Web 2.0, the feeling of “cool” and “hip” have never been more synonymous with the internet and it’s revolutionary brands.  When you think of GM, I doubt it gives you warm feelings and an enthusiasm beyond description.  However, if you ask most people how they feel about MySpace, Google, and Amazon, they’ll have some great things to say.  A stronger brand is one that causes positive emotions.  Just think of the iPOD…need I say more?

4. Community

The internet has allowed loyalists of brands to cluster together, in communities, and share tips, stories, and anything else related to the company.  Just like any other group setting, there is a silent social force in action, which brings you back over and over.  The long-term result is the creation of a “lifestyle” that is partially kept up by your relationship to the brand.  The communities surrounding sites like SecondLife, WordPress, WikiPedia and other internet brands has made the publicity reach corners it would never have reached on its own.

5. Control Of Environment

The internet allows a company to have near complete control over the environment of its customers while purchasing or researching.  This can be used to minimize events where “negative branding” occurs.  Say you walk into a GM dealership and want to buy a car.  If that day happens to be busy, and the salesperson doesn’t come right up to you to help, GM is the one that will bear some of the “negative branding” that just occurred - even though GM wasn’t there.  On the web, however, as a company, you can control the experience your visitors have.  This includes making your site very usable, customer service that is intelligent (”Oh, you have bought from us 5 times before? Let us offer you a discount on this purchase”), and even no “traffic jams” on the way to the store.  The result of this is much greater than what you are thinking - you can actual behaviorally condition your visitors.  They will remember how they feel throughout the experience, as well as how to navigate your “company” to get what they want.

In many ways, internet brands just aren’t competing on the same field as offline brands.  The online environment has some “built-in” advantages over the real world, and offline brands are (rightly) worried about what the future holds for them.