There is was an extremely interesting post on Boxes and Arrows about branding on websites and how a brand may be built into the information architecture of a website in various ways. It is so important to carry a brand message through every piece of marketing work, and the web is obviously a really big focus for that in this day and age. (his post was from 2002 - so I'm living in the dark ages :-) ) There are so many ways to do this, but without really focusing on the core brand values and understanding that before applying the information architecture to the website, the project is doomed. If it's not doomed, it will be happenstance that the brand message is carried through and that the site is an effective marketing tool for that particular company. As Dan Saffer simply explains, the difference in a brand online is as simple as the nomenclature for various site links and sections. Do you call the "shopping cart" a "shopping cart" or do you call it a "shopping bag"? Do you call account infomation "account information" or do you dub it "my account"?
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