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Introduction
Traditionally, a brand is thought to evoke, in the customer's mind, a certain personality, presence, and product or service performance ([1] Aaker, 1991; [22] Doyle, 1998). In addition to providing values, a brand can represent a substitute for information - a way for consumers to simplify the time-consuming process of search and comparison before deciding what to buy ([77] Rowley, 2004; [8] Bergstrom, 2000). The advent of the internet has made branding in that environment a more complex and dynamic challenge. Further, with the lack of sensory interaction online and fears over security, the creation of trust through the development of strong internet brands has become a critical context for marketers. Many online businesses are, therefore, searching for new internet brand strategies that might assist them in creating some distinctiveness while engaging their customers ([42] Kenney and Curry, 1999).
Within this context the literature on internet branding (termed "i-Branding" in this paper) is currently in a formative stage, with little integration evident ([56] Merisavo and Raulas, 2004; [40] Ibeh et al. , 2005). There is no current framework to provide a means of integrating the i-Branding literature and thereby provide a more comprehensive understanding of how the various themes studied come together to facilitate the successful development of the internet as a branding tool. The aim of this paper is to conduct an extensive review of the extant literature on branding and internet branding, in order to develop an organising literature framework. The framework will relate to and be based upon three key themes inherent in the branding literature, which are also viewed as relevant within the internet context, and a fourth theme identified as highly relevant within the internet branding literature. This framework is described as "The Four Pillars of i-Branding" and is shown in Figure 1 [Figure omitted. See Article Image.]. The pillars in question provide an easily identifiable framework within which to organise, integrate and discuss the current thinking in relation to what is critical in developing the internet successfully as a branding tool.
The contribution of this paper is, therefore, to provide a timely intuitive framework for marketing practitioners, to further develop their skill and knowledge sets in this critical aspect of marketing today. Further, a relevant and potentially important...