1) Does the term ‘brand’ apply? Please explain in-depth

htpp://blog.johnkerry.com

This website is definitely trying to give the name ‘John Kerry’ a psychological meaning. Usually there is branding for products and services and although John Kerry is a person, this can be seen as a kind of service; namely the service of a good (or ‘the best’) president ship.
Another difference is that this brands’ value doesn’t depend on whether people will buy it or not, but whether people will vote for John Kerry and will keep supporting his ideas.
Despite the differences, it’s all just about establishing a positive image, people will not soon forget. For John Kerry it’s important that his name associates with reliability, courage and with ‘a lifetime of service and strength’, what is his personal slogan.
Kerry keeps on talking about how he wants to optimize the functional needs of the Americans in his promotion videos, like health care. If there would be a guarantee this functional needs are indeed granted, this would be a functional brand. But when Kerry sums up these functional needs he is going to improve, it is all about creating his popular image, so in that case we’re talking about image branding here.

http://missiondecission.nl

I don’t think the term ‘brand’ applies for this website. There hasn’t been paid much attention to creating an image for the royal air force. Only the information strictly necessary is published on the website. There aren’t much associations made with, for example, bravery and pride. This is different on the American version of the website, were there is a whole different image is given of being in the army. There is a picture of three soldiers in front of the American flag and there is for example a whole list of benefits you get when you’ll join the army.

http://www.eonline.com

First of all; sometimes when I typed the above I automatically got transformed to http://international.eonline.com and sometimes I just went to http://www.eonline.com. This was a little bit confusing, but my answers just concern the total.

On the first sight this doesn’t seem to be any form of product, just a website with show-news and gossips. But when I took a closer look, E! is also a program on television. But it’s not for free; in the Netherlands you need TV Home Digitaal. TV Home Digitaal is a new digital television service of Essent Kabelcom. Knowing this, I assume that there must be some kind of branding for the service.
I think the main strategy is to make us believe E! has the biggest and latest news about all celebrities, or let’s just say about film, TV and music. They try to achieve this by giving us the opportunity to become a member, or how they call it; an insider. They use slogans like ‘Its better inside’ and ‘Let the benefits begin’. Personally I believe this website is nothing more then a big maze of gossips and a lot of advertisements of other products, were you get lost really soon (but that’s not the question here..). This is a good example of an experiential brand, the focus is on how the readers feel during their visit. It’s important that they enjoy and believe the readings and will keep coming back, or thus ‘buy’ TV Home Digitaal so they can watch the same sort information on their own televisions.

2) Browse around the sites - what segmentation variable(s) are these sites using for defining their target market?

The visitors of the websites should have similar characteristics, when it comes to the use, consumption or benefits of a product or service. On the first place the behavior variable is similar, because the three examples are all websites. Using the Internet as medium has a very important advantage, namely the great number of people it can reach.

htpp://blog.johnkerry.com

A very obvious similar characteristic here is being an American, which means the market segment is structured by country. Besides this geodemographic characteristic, Kerry speaks to everybody from young to old and from the poor to the rich ones. Another very important segmentation is through psychographics: people’s interests, values and opinions. By telling his ideas in his promotion video’s and in his lectures, Kerry is trying to touch the leading opinions and interests of the American citizen. By making this groups as big as possible Kerry hopes to win their votes so he’ll be elected for president and once that has happened he needs to keep satisfying these people.

http://missiondecission.nl

The segment of this website is given very clear, because the only form of promoting the royal air force is through a membership of YNG Squad, and that is only for teenagers between 14 and 17 years old. So this is a geodemographic segment, where the individuals are selected by age.

http://www.eonline.com

E! offers a lot of different shows, all focused on Hollywood entertainment and celebrities. The content of the website is mainly focused on the American viewer, but it’s very broad. It’s not particularly directed to youth or adults. I believe this is a psychographic segmentation; they focus on an audience with the same interest for show news, regardless of for instance age or occupation. I already said that the behavior segment is similar, because it are all websites, but in contradiction to the first two examples, E! also broadcasts on television. Even though the URL doesn’t gives this away (E!online), they certainly pay attention to this by referring to the schedule, so people know when more information about this topic will be broadcasted on TV.

3) How are the sites designed to appeal to the target audience?

htpp://blog.johnkerry.com

The value of an image brand depends on the shared interpretation of what using the brand represents, in stead of product features. The name ‘John Kerry’ must create a positive image in the minds of the consumers. Part of creating this image is through giving his competitors a negative image. His campaign is mainly about promoting Kerry’s qualities, but also partly by running down the ideas of Mr. Bush. Besides that there is a big part of the content on his weblog that tries to touch the hearts of the consumers. For example his touching words and footage on the many video’s (±76!) and also the part about his past, for instance lines like; ‘He good have become anything after graduating Yale, but he chose to serve the country in the army’. There is a clear emphasis on his past, what must show his great personality.

http://www.missiondecission.nl

An important part of the website was an online game, which had taken place till May the 17th. Besides that you can become a member of YNG Squad. YNG Squad is for free and gives you all the information needed and ‘the entry to the world of the air force’. Striking is the sponsor ‘radio 538’, what seems very appropriate to attract consumers from 14 till 17 years old. Besides this there are two demonstration days, were the consumers can learn everything about the ‘Koninklijke luchtmacht’. There will be air shows with airplanes all day, a chance to win a flight in a F-16, information about everything from the air force history till information about which study to choose etc. All very interesting things for the target group.  

http://www.eonline.com

Important for a brand like E! is how the consumers feel, when interacting with the brand. E!online especially tries to attract their target group by offering ‘benefits’. You especially get these benefits when you become a member as I mentioned before. When you would become an insider they promise you saucy email newsletters, exclusive sweepstakes, live chats with celebs, being on TV and more to come.  Important for experiential brands is that there is a potential for satiation to occur. The experience you have as a consumer, while reading the content online, must be satisfying time after time. So in the first place it’s important for E! to regularly update. I was a bit disappointed on this one, because after three days still nothing had changed on the website and I’m sure show news goes a lot faster then that! A second strategy to oppose satiation is for a firm to create multiple experiential brands within a category. E! does this, among other things, through the big amount of different television programmes. E! broadcasts a total of 16 different shows, what surely will reduce the satiation. This is called a family branding strategy were the corporate brandname E! is combined with the more specific product-based names, in this case the different television shows. Each show is targeted at an other segment of consumers, what should attract as much consumers in the target group as possible.