MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Is Your Brand Getting Lost in the Online Shuffle?

In the scramble for sales on Amazon and other major online sites, many marketers are losing control over their brand messaging.

Nike recently announced that it would stop selling its footwear and apparel through Amazon in an effort to take more control over its brand presence online. In making the announcement, Nike executives stated that the company didn’t need distribution for distribution’s sake. Instead, it wanted to make investments that would lead to a better online experience for its customers and build more direct, personal relationships.

Nike’s decision highlights a fundamental challenge for companies that have ambitions to make e-commerce an important part of their marketing activities: how to apply their experience and wisdom around effective brand strategy in the offline world to online shopping. Successful brick-and-mortar merchants understand the value of a carefully organized and coherent brand merchandising plan and would never say, “Just line up all the products and let customers muddle through.” Yet this is essentially what people get when they shop online.

About the Author

Joseph Dollens is president of GIO Global Intelligence, a branding consulting firm in Chicago. Richard Ettenson is a professor and Kieckhefer Fellow in Global Marketing and Brand Strategy at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management. Patrick Lynch (@patrickdlynch) is a clinical assistant professor of analytics and leadership at Thunderbird.

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