Branding - The Digital Age

If branding and e-commerce have become two of the most overused terms in the contemporary business lexicon, it's only because the concepts behind them are as essential to modern corporate survival as any others in today's commercial bag of tricks. Branding @ the Digital Age, edited by Herbert Meyers and Richard Gerstman, looks beneath the clichés to show how these key processes can successfully intersect in the real world right now by presenting a dozen knowledgeable essays from individuals who concentrate daily on specific aspects of their ongoing convergence. The incisive articles include David B. Green of McDonald's International on shaping an image that is consistent both in-person and online; RedEnvelope Gifts Online's Hilary Bilings on developing long-term vision and long-range loyalty for Web brands; Vivienne Lee Bechtold of Procter & Gamble on the Internet and package goods; Greenfield Online's Rudy Nadilo on the benefits (and cautions) of online research; David Burwick of Pepsi-Cola North America on "interfacing with the consumer"; and Markforce Associates' Allan Poulter and Bird & Bird's Morag MacDonald on the legal aspects of online identity. A final piece, by Robert J. Herbold of Microsoft, looks toward "e-biz in the new millennium." Recommended. --Howard Rothman