Has Brand a place in a World of SEO?

[Trevor Cullen]

In a world where search dominates product selection or product research, does brand still have a place? Has google thought us not to be brand loyal any more, considering that once we search on the product type we are then looking at the most relevant results that are applicable, but that result is based on product information and not on brand awareness. Typically in talking with clients I know their audeince is reached by a new need rather than by recognition.

[Trevor Cullen]

Some interesting points especially the "rising surge of value driven smaller operators". I think SME's have relaised that utilsing the web as a sales tool gives them an edge in terms of tailoring content rather than the wall to wall content that is driven by the corporates which is coming straight from the offline brochure. I have lost count of the examples of companies trying to apply brush strokes to off and online marketing, failing to realise the audience is reached in a totally different manner.

[TheDonSansone]

I like your take on the importance of Brand in the world of the Internet and more specifically SEO... Google - itself a huge brand, relies on that brand to stay ahead of the other search engines in commanding the attention of web surfers LOL in monitoring the back links of my clients compared to their nearest competitors for instance - I use Yahoo Explorer because its a more accurate tool than Google. So Google clearly isn't the best for everything.

The Internet levels the playing field between those businesses with a big brand and those without a brand at all.... yet strategically, developing an 'online' brand is more important than the traditional mindset of what a brand was all about. As the larger audience in general become more web savvy, brands will need to adapt to stay ahead of the rising surge of value driven smaller operators who already tailor services easily to clients needs.