Successful E-Commerce: The Importance of Brand Management

Abstract

This paper identifies and examines evidence of e-commerce failure in small and large businesses, focusing specifically on their Internet branding strategies, the impact of management actions and how those actions contribute to e-commerce success. This paper argues that as we move to a more interactive mode of working with customers and competitors using Internet technology, the role of marketing is critical; within marketing, brand management is seen as a particularly important activity. The work reported here assembles evidence that brand management is indeed important, and that there is a lack of theories to guide brand management activities in an Internet context. Internet-related partnering opportunities with large firms remain a concern for smaller firms. It also reveals that much Internet research has taken a technical viewpoint although some experts have begun to make connections between Internet success and brand management.