A brand, in effect, guarantees the quality and
specifications of a product (think McDonald's hamburgers), its
performance (think Palm), level of service and commitment to
customer care (Amazon), variety, or price (Wal-Mart). Brands
are sustained and enhanced by advertising campaigns. The
content or sales pitch of specific ads are often less
important than the message conveyed by the very existence of a
campaign: "This company is rich enough (read: stable,
reliable, trustworthy, here to stay) to spend millions on
advertising".
The Internet has very few brands (Yahoo!, Amazon) - and some
of them are tarnished. Some "old media" brands have entered
the fray (Barnes and Noble, The Wall Street Journal, the
Britannica) - hitherto without much success. The overwhelming
bulk of Web content is created or disseminated by small time
entrepreneurs and monomaniacs.
So, how does one establish or acquire credibility in such a
diffuse and anarchic medium?
Enter Stanford University's "Web Credibility Project".
They define themselves thus:
"Our goal is to understand what leads people to believe what
they find on the Web.
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