1.) Build user-friendly sites that don’t frustrate or annoy users.
Know your users, know their goals and build streamlined paths from the homepage to your goal accordingly. Sites like Nike.com and Apple.com excel at brand image, but have roadblocks when it comes to purchasing.
2.) Create a “brand persona.”
Use the narrative description from the company’s mission statement, a logo in lieu of a face, a tagline from the current ad campaign and bulleted lists of the most important benefits, and behaviors associated with the brand.
3.) Permeate the site with brand image.
Check every page of your site. Reebok’s strong brand position, “celebrating individuality and authenticity,” functions only as a “thin skin,” on its site. It disappears within one or two clicks of the mouse and is replaced with gimmicky Flash apps that convey the opposite message.
4.) Conduct a full brand image review quarterly.
Start with a typical customer goal. Direct reviewers to the parts of the site with that goal in hand and the company’s “brand persona” to remind them what they’re checking for. Make sure each page supports the brand persona.
