dobney.com as a brand

The brand is the major invention that marketing has given to the world. Everyone is familiar with brands, if nothing else just from looking at adverts and everyday shopping.

From a marketing perspective the brand is more complex than it might at first seem. The brand works at a different levels conveying information about what is on offer, who the product is meant for and what the product says about the buyer.

dobney.com as a brand

Having described the components of brands in general, how does dobney.com match up?

Firstly, we're relatively unknown, both because we are a relatively new company and because we work in a specialist niche. One of the measures of a brand is awareness and we would be pretty low down even on promoted awareness.

Low awareness tends to lead to a weak brand image with relatively few associations to the brand - people simply don't know what you stand for, so they tend to categorise you according to your name. dobney.com as a name - though practical from our point of view (it's who we are and how to get in contact with us) - implies technology, computers but doesn't really describe what we offer and, barely two years after we started is possibly even a little dated with all the associations of the dotcom bubble.

But brands are a long term concept built on accumulated awareness and understanding. Ernst and Young could have been anything from plumbers to a musical duo when they started. dobney.com is on the start of a journey and we do like the practical advantages of a novel name which is it's own location.

So if we apply the Brand Pyramid. We like to think that the dobney.com specification is expert, open, honest, free-thinking and gives people a new perspective. We use a water motif as a symbol of flexibility, depth, flow of knowledge, dynamic yet fundamental, a creator of both revolutionary and evolutionary change.

As mark of assurance, we set our stall out to be able to come up with good, and where necessary novel, solutions to our clients' problems taking into consideration all the constraints and practicalities that exist in running a business, and to be able to deliver on these solutions.

The moments of choice that we would like to be associated with are all forms of marketing problems from strategy development to market research to implementing and using technology. Some people will pigeonhole us as researchers, others as consultants. Some as qualies, some as Internet bods. We would like to lay claim to all of these.

As a mark of association, we would like our clients to come away with the feeling that they have discovered some piece of insight or information which can unlock doors for their business or which can provide a new perspective on how they look at their business. We would like them to come away thinking "That's a smart outfit, I like to be associated with them".

As emotional involvement, we don't see the dobney.com brand as really aiming that high up the brand pyramid. Unlike a fashion brand were there is a high level of personal involvement and the brand makes a personal statement about who you are, for our products and services we would expect a cooler and more rational approach to the brand and what we offer.