While the model may be the same, our thinkers suggest that the elements within that model may differ - the drivers for on-line brands may be a different set of attributes compared to off-line brands? Na and Marshall shoot this fox as well. The most important elements in the development of brand equity on-line are the same as those that drive success off-line. The consumer's experience of the brand generates more brand "power" than do the goal-oriented descriptors in our brand message.
Just as is the case with real world brands, the consumer retains the characteristics of St Thomas. I will only believe it when I have seen it and touched it - even virtually. What you (the brand owner) say and what I experience are not always the same. In addition, I will often take other people's experience rather than believe what you have to say. These behavioral traits apply whether the brand is experienced virtually or in the real world.
In considering the development of on-line brands, we need to examine what it is that the consumer expects from a web site, search engine or other on-line experience. What are the essential attributes of an on-line brand. And, in making this assessment we need to consider how this compares to consumer expectations off-line. Key elements include convenience, comprehensive and rich information, availability and interaction. As a moments thought would reveal, these are all factors that the consumer might reasonably expect in an off-line transaction just as readily as they expect them in the on-line world.
Among others, Deighton (1999) speaks of customers not only using a computer and the internet as above (i.e. merely as a useful communication medium), but also of interacting with the computer in a social sense. His ideas are based on prior demonstrations of the importance of interactivity and socialability of web sites which have shown that people apply the same social rules and responses toward computers and other advanced media that they apply to other people. Hoffman and Novak (1996) suggest two types of consumer motivation driving people's reactions to a web site; goaldirected and experiential. This seems a very sensible concept, that not only explains the observations made by Deighton and other discussed above, but also offers insight into the type and range of evaluation criteria that might determine brand equity. These ideas are put forward for testing in the second research proposition:
P2. The determinant structure of cyber brand will be explained by goal-oriented and experiential motivations.