BRAND BUILDING THROUGH SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: AN IMC TOOL

BRAND BUILDING THROUGH SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: AN IMC TOOL Author s Name: Swati Gupta Author s Name: Geetanjali Gulati Department: Amity School of Business Name of Organization: Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, India Abstract: Building Brands, establishing them in market and creating an unaided recall value for them is a job easy said than done? Marketers undertake humungous efforts and invest large amount of resources to create a standing for a brand. Apart from giving a brand performance related attributes, brand managers also need to confer upon the brand the imagery related attributes. In order to communicate both performance and imagery attributes various IMC tools are used. There is a lot of innovation that has happened in the Marketing Communication Mix, one of them being SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. This term paper investigates the impact of Search Engine Optimization on Brand Building. Search Engine Optimization is optimizing your site and the content of your site to get high rankings in the search engines when a search term or a keyword is entered for finding about a product or a service. Since the number of internet users has increased drastically over a period of time, the relevance of search engine optimizers has become all the more useful for marketers and brand managers. In this paper, we attempt to answer questions like the importance of Brand Building for the organizations, the importance of SEOs as an IMC tool, how SEOs can help in Positioning a Brand etc. Key words: Brand Building, Search Engine Optimization, Integrative Marketing Communication, Brand Management I. INTRODUCTION A. BRAND BUILDING: Building a brand ensures identification of brands with customers and creating an image of brands in customers minds with a specific product class or customer need. The concept of brand building converts the brand response to create an intense, active loyalty relationship between customers and the brand. REPOSITIONING: Repositioning occurs when a brand tries to change its market position to reflect a change in consumer s tastes. INTERNAL MARKETING: management should make sure that the employees of the organization are well aware of the brand and understand its brand value and position. There are several factors that are crucial for building successful brands. They are: LONG TERM PERSPECTIVE: This leads onto another important factor in brand-building: the need to invest in the brand over the long-term. Building customer awareness, communicating the brand s 82

message and thus building customer loyalty takes a long time period for the organization. B. INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION: COMMUNICATION: To create a clearly defined A concept of marketing communications image and correctly positioning the brand in the minds planning that recognizes the added value of a of the target customers, the organizations need to comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles communicate the awareness to the audience. of a variety of communication disciplines - for Therefore, communication plays a vital role in the example, general advertising, direct response, sales brand. promotion, and public relations- and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact. FIGURE1 - Factors of brand building QUALITY: Quality is a vital ingredient of a good brand. Remember the core benefits the things consumers expect POSITIONING: it is about the position that a brand occupies in the minds of the customers. It also takes into consideration: a. Competitive Frame of Reference b. Points of Parity & Points of Differences c. Brand Values attributes & benefits that characterize a brand d. Brand Mantras the brand DNA FIGURE 2: Integrated Marketing Tools. Apart from the above mentioned tools there are 2 more communication that can be used for successfully promoting and creating brand. They are: Social networking sites- Through social networking slowly and steadily not a business can create a brand of its own but also can derive a lot of additional traffic, which otherwise would have been difficult or nearly impossible to attain. Return may be slow at the first stage, but social online marketing is considered as great free advertising tool that can build a solid 83

foundation for the brand if implanted properly. interest groups, and the general public. The brand Numerous marketers successfully are strategically managers and the marketers now understand the value using social marketing to increase the appeal of their of strategically integrating the various communications business. There are also examples of successfully functions for promoting their product or their brand getting into a Joint Venture Partnerships. What it rather than having them operate autonomously. means, it is easier to find out business minded people interested in similar niche in the online IMC tools make it very easy and convenient for a world. Successful entrepreneurs use social networking company to maximize the return on its investment in sites to spruce up their network of friends with marketing and promotion. The changing environment, common interests. They share ideas, exchange the up gradation in the technologies and the power of information and in the long run establish relationships the consumers has made it necessary for the marketers and take it to the next level then promote by becoming to make effective use of various alternatives present partners or referring someone interested in the venture. with them for promoting their brand and communicating the clear message about itself to the Search Engine Optimization- Search engine target market. optimization is optimizing your site and you re content to get high rankings in the search engines. When Therefore, making the use of IMC is all the more people go to a search engine, they enter their search important from company s point of view. terms or keywords for a product or service. Sites that appear in the top results get the majority of the D. ROLE OF IMC TOOLS IN BRAND visitors. So websites BUILDING optimize their content to outrank their competitors and Integrated marketing communication tools are get more customers. used by the organizations to create a brand identity of a product or a service in the minds of the target C. IMPORTANCE OF INTEGRATED audience. This identity is created by constantly making MARKETING COMMUNICATION the customers aware of the product or the service through marketing activities like advertisements, sales Integrated marketing communications promotion, personal selling, internet selling, social approach seeks to have a company s entire marketing networking sites, search engine optimization etc. IMC and promotional activities project a consistent, unified tools are effectively used by the brand managers for image to the marketplace. The IMC approach helps the making a brand successful and therefore acquiring companies to identify the most appropriate and more market share. Through the consistent promotions effective methods for communicating and building done by the organizations, the brand recall and relationships with their customers as well as other recognition value increases and customers remember stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, investors, 84

the brand or a particular feature of the product/ brand III. LITERATURE REVIEW during their purchase. Therefore, helps in gaining brand equity. Vertexera (2003) has studied the benefits of search engine optimization as a tool for building a E. ROLE OF SEARCH ENGINE brand is discussed. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) OPTIMIZATION IN BRAND BUILDING is a plan implemented to increase a site's visibility. It involves selecting keywords that will generate targeted Search Engine Optimization helps in optimizing traffic, researching search engine policies and your site and the content of your site to get high guidelines, and understanding customers. In addition, rankings in the search engines when a search term or a SEO involves dealing with design and content keyword is entered for finding about a product or a problems that might hinder a site's results ranking. service. Sites that appear in the top results or the first Search engine optimization is an integral part of web page get the majority of the visitors. So, optimizers are site promotion and no company can afford to ignore it. hired by the organizations to make changes in the con Search engine optimization is a tool that markets the tent or the webpage so that it appears before the link of brand in a cost effective manner. This term paper has their competitors or right next to it. This helps in also discussed the various benefits that companies can creating greater brand exposure to a large number of draw from the use of SEOs as their marketing tool. internet users about the company and thus creating a With the drastic change and up gradation of the brand identity for them. A successful SEO campaign technologies, the companies have got various will not only improve your search engine ranking but alternatives for the successful promotion of their also put you in the same bracket with the best and products and services and one of them is Search largest players in your industry. Being at the same Engine optimization. platform with biggest names in your industry will surely increase your brand value. Wenyu Dou (2006) has talked if the companies would be benefitted of using search engine optimization for positioning their brand or not. Integrating theories II. OBJECTIVES from various research domains, it was found that To analyze the importance of brand building for an search engine results can serve as a meaningful vehicle organization. for creating brand positioning in the e-commerce To know how Search Engine Optimization helps in world. This mechanism appears especially significant building a brand when Internet users search engine ranking schema To study how Search Engine Optimization is used gets activated (e.g., through a brand feature priming as an IMC communication Tool. mechanism), and it is particularly salient for lesssophisticated To analyze the different benefits that organization Internet searchers. Also it was draw from Search Engine Optimization. highlighted that although a brand positioning strategy 85

is the most sensible one for SMEs, large firms may be optimize your site based on a short, static keyword list, interested in the impact of search engine rankings on your SEO results will remain static as well their overall brand evaluations. Graham Charlton (2002) discusses various benefits Seoguru technologies team (1998) talks the various that a company can get by using SEOs as a tool for benefits that a company can get by the use of search promotion and brand building. Use of search engine engine optimization technique for the promotion of the optimization can give greater visibility, increased brand. Search Engine Optimization is an efficient and return on investment and can have a long term effect a cost effective way for the communication and on the minds of the customers. This paper basically creation of brand identity. It also helps the analysis the various benefits that an organization can organization in increasing their sales and ranks their achieve by investing a small amount of money as webpage at the top and with the main players or the compared to the profits. competitors. Through the use of SEOs, a company can leverage upon their rank on the search engine. Laric, Michael V. University of Baltimore (2010) Edward Charles (2010) talks about the myths about the ponders upon the importance of integrated marketing optimization of the content are discussed. The myths communication tools in building a successful brand. are about how people think that their content would be Communication is a vital part for any organization to changed and how actually they are done. Thus the create awareness about itself among the consumers myths are to be cleared and a proper understanding and rightly positioning itself in the minds of the about the process for optimization should be provided customers. This communication can be made more to the companies so that there is no controversy in effective with the use of various communication tools future regarding the rank of the web page. As the called integrated marketing communication tools. optimizers do not provide any guarantees regarding the rank on the search engine. IV. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION Word Stream Inc(2009). says that Search Engine Optimization is the best practice to be used by the A. Role of integrated marketing communication in organizations for building a successful brand. It gives brand building. the best promotional results in a cost effective manner. Search marketing is a powerful and cost-effective Integrated marketing communication tools are means of expanding reach and acquiring new used by the organizations to create a brand identity of customers, but the world of search is getting more and a product or a service in the minds of the target more competitive and harder to master. SEO is not a audience. This identity is created by constantly making one-time activity; it s an ongoing process. If you try to the customers aware of the product or the service through marketing activities like advertisements, sales 86

promotion, personal selling, internet selling, social TITLE tag with unnecessary keywords. Only focus networking sites, search engine optimization etc. It on main keywords. creates awareness about the brand in the market which influences people or the consumers and persuades b) Keywords in the content or the body- Don t them to buy the product or induces trial purchase. indulge into Body text keyword stuffing. It will Using social networking sites for the promotion or only lower your rankings. There are no fixed rules, advertisement of the product creates a buzz about the but keep your content natural and it should brand among the audience of different target markets resemble what text you have in your TITLE tag. thus creating brand identity. Public relation protects and promotes the image of the company to the market c) Keywords in domain name- You should always and adds value to the imagery attributes of the brand. use less number of keywords for best results. Like www.keyword-domain.com. Brand identity is the sum total of all points of encounter or contact that consumers have with the d) Keywords in image titles- The keywords within brand, and it extends beyond the experience or Image Titles and Alt text are useful for image outcome of using it and these contacts can also result search rankings. from the various integrated marketing communication activities like mass-media advertising, sales promotion e) Age of your document- Most of the webpages offers, sponsorship activities at sporting or which are old and have quality content will rank entertainment events, websites on the Internet, and higher. However, in the past few months search direct-mail pieces such as letters, brochures, engines are showing more inclination towards catalogues, or videos etc. Search engine optimization Fresh pages with quality content rather than old helps the organization in building a successful brand pages. and provides various different benefits to the organization. f) Quality of your website content- There is an old saying in SEO industry that Content is king. If your content is good, then you will automatically B. Process of search engine optimization- gain links. The process includes various simple steps that are used by the optimizers for optimizing a company s g) Frequency of change to you content- If your website. These steps are: website s content gets updated regularly (i.e. addition of new content), then you can expect a) Keywords in the title tag- Choose TITLE tag some Bonus points from search engines. wisely, and do not overload or overstuff your 87

C. Role of Search Engine Optimization in Building word of mouth that spreads like fire in the Brands. consumer market. Be at the top- It quite evident that if you are looking to build a brand at the World Wide Web, your site must feature at the top result pages of the leading search engine and most likely in the first result page itself. It will not only guarantee increase of traffic to your site but also effectively build your brand image. To get that coveted top ranking at the organic search results of the leading search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN, search engine optimization is the most viable solution you have got. Break the digital divide- A successful SEO campaign will not only improve your search engine ranking but also put you in the same bracket with the best and largest players in your industry. Being at the same platform with biggest names in your industry will surely increase your brand value. Leverage from your ranking - With the top ranking at the leading search engines, it is quite evident that traffic to your site will significantly increase. The best part of this traffic is that most of them are pre-qualified customers and hence major part of these leads will convert in sales. So, with a search engine ranking your customer base will increase rapidly. This increase in the sales will not only give you a financial gain but also build an interest and reputation of your brand thanks to the recent trends of blogs and online reviews and of course Improve the page rank - With more visitors, greater sales volume, the importance of your site is improved significantly. With this improving reputation at the online world, your site is all set for a top ranking for longer period of time that will result is a sharper increase in the brand value. Be consistent in your SEO objectives - With a consisting ranking at the leading search engine result pages, you create a long lasting and strong influence on the mind of your customers. This will guarantee the brand loyalty of the customers. Therefore, it is important that instead of one time SEO campaign to take a long time program for your SEO initiative that will definitely contribute to your brand equity. Brighten your online image - Online reputation management that is the buzz in the present context can be successfully done with the help of SEO. By providing better ranking of pro brand sites and eventually lowering the ranks of the boycott or flame sites you can achieve better brand management through SEO. V. CONCLUSION Brand building is a very important concept for the marketers and the brand managers for successfully positioning their brands and thereby making profits. An established brand is the one which has a clear and a good image of itself in the minds of consumers. The brands which 88

can successfully communicate the desired message about REFERENCES the brand to the target audience, becomes the preference of Research papers: the people and gain brand equity. Building brand becomes [1] Vertexera(2003), Lead Generation Programs vital for the companies to survive in the competitive world published Benefits of Search Engine Optimization, in the long run. The successful communication can be done journal of marketing research. with the effective use of integrated marketing [2] Word Stream Inc.,(2009), search engine communication tools. Integrated marketing communication optimization, best practices, ANA Educator tools are used by the organizations to create a brand identity Procedures. of a product or a service in the minds of the target audience. [3] Edward Charles, (2010), myths about working of This identity is created by constantly making the customers SEOs, 4ps aware of the product or the service through marketing [4] Wenyu Dou, (2006), brand positioning strategy activities like advertisements, sales promotion, personal using search engine marketing, business todayselling, internet selling, social networking sites, search marketing journal. engine optimization etc. These marketing tools help in the [5] Seoguru technologies team, (1998), Branding creation of successful brands. There are new IMC tools through SEOs. apart from the earlier ones. They are: Social Networking [6] Laric, Michael V. University of Baltimore (2010), Sites and Search Engine Optimization. the role of IMC in Brand Building [7] Graham Charlton, business benefits of SEOs, Search Engine Optimization is used for optimizing the journal of advertising. website so as to get higher ranking on the search engines Books: used for finding about a particular product or service or [1] Kevin lane keller, strategic brand management, 2 nd brand by the increasing number of internet users. A edition, pearson publication, 2007. Page 70 76 successful SEO campaign will not only improve your search Websites: engine ranking but also put you in the same bracket with the [1] http://www.seohawk.com best and largest players in your industry. Being at the same [2] http://www.visibilitysquad.com/ platform with biggest names in your industry will surely [3]http://brandpersonalization.com/services/searchengine-optimization-services/#axzz1UhLPEdgi increase your brand value. Therefore, Search Engine optimization- the latest IMC tool helps in building a brand in an efficient and cost effective manner. It helps the organizations to be in the first 10 links on the search engines or on the first page of the search and keeps the growing organization in the same bracket as the well established competitors if optimizing is done effectively. This in turn helps in giving a high exposure of the brand to the rapidly growing number of internet users therefore, creating the brand recognition and recall value. Search engine optimization has become a vital part for the promotion which cannot be missed by any organization. 89