Anyone in advertising or marketing knows about branding. Branding on the Internet means giving visitors not just facts, but a memorable experience — an experience that tells them what your organization is about. Or, for a personal site, what you are about.

Compare the web sites of the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. The New York City Opera site is young, bold, experimental. The Metropolitan Opera site is more formal, refined. Its photographs and background motif strongly associate the opera company with its prestigious venue: Lincoln Center.

Embrace the Familiar

Branding must have continuity with your "physical-world" presence. You want web site visitors to walk into your store or see your product and say, "this seems familiar." Or, "you seem familiar" if they meet you at a party.

For example, our design for the New York State Division of the Budget site is formal and highly structured, in fitting with the Division's professional image. The state seal and picture of the governor immediately brand the site as a state government site. The Division of the Budget is an executive agency, so we provide links to the state and governor's web sites on each page.

A more personal site, say Manoverboard.com, reflects the sensibility of an individual — quirky, ironic, passionate, humorous, all of the above.

Traditional Media, Curse or Blessing?

Where does the branding of web sites start? For most people and most organizations, branding starts with traditional media. Many web experts — both visionaries and tacticians — abhor traditional media. Every visitor that ignores a company's "online brochure," aborts large "advertising-style" graphics, or who wastes time finding the right content link on a "newsletter" home page understands why.

Yet most organizations have a wealth of content in traditional forms. Their experience is in using such forms. And, they gain nothing by reinventing themselves for the web if they confuse old customers.

The key is learning which ideas translate and how they translate. Newspaper sites use the old art of headline writing and strong leads to connect readers to longer stories and related content, an idea we picked up for this Info Diner site. Graphic designers use their experience with printed formats to create cleaner web pages that deliver a clear message. Technical writers use the lessons learned from developing indices, tables of contents and step charts to design better menu systems, site maps and navigational cues.

Even web-based companies cannot avoid traditional media. While the direction of translation may be reversed, the need is the same: Create continuity. For Amazon.com, this means that the physical package you get in the mail dovetails with the corporate persona you encountered online. Think about it. When Amazon.com mails you a book, they throw in some bookmarks, the oldest marketing device for booksellers there is.

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