Fifteen years ago, in order to make your own brand, you will need hundreds of thousands of dollar to do it. Nowadays, you only have to spend a few hundred bucks! How is it so? With the internet off course!

First of, why would you want to brand anything? Here is the take. Unknown to most of us, there is actually a land grab going on in the internet space. Perhaps it should be called 'cyberspace grabbing' because it all happens in the virtual space. Where are they, you might ask? Ah, just go and open your internet browser and you can see it spattered all over. A few years ago, it was those banner advertisements. Later, it was the pop up adverts and now, they are less obtrusive but nevertheless lingering all over the page. Have you not noticed those Adverts dished out by the search engines? And almost every website that you go to, you will invariably see them. And they are asking you to click on the link, just so that you will remember who they are. Whether you buy their wares or not is immaterial, so long you can feel their presence. If you happen to click on them often, your mind will subconsciously remember them or so they think. And when you see them on land, you will invariably think that that brand has actually landed! So you see, there is indeed a sort of 'land grab' in cyberspace, but they were not like those of the Christopher Columbus kind. This new form of land grab doesn’t seem to be slowing down, so if you are not one of the participants, you might totally miss out of it in a few years time. It is like the dotcom domain names; if you have not grabbed unto one, you might miss it forever! What is your lost then? Ten years from now, as the younger internet savvy generation takes over, their first place to seek information is in cyberspace. And if you don't have a cyber-estate there, you will become obsolete! The rest will just pass you by, ignoring your existence all together! Frightening thoughts, isn't it?

Yet, there is another very important implication of cyber-grab that most people don't realize. There is this thing called branding, yes, cyberspace branding. When you go to visit any website, it will leave you with its particular impression. It has a message for you. It hopes that you will remember it for the rest of your life. It is also a numbers game. The more, the merrier. But what if their website doesn’t attract zillions of viewers? And surfers only spend a few miserable seconds on it? In those cases, it becomes extremely important to put up their best suit, preferably ones that 'shouts' out loud enough to carry the message. Here, first time impression is absolutely vital, for surfers might never make another visit!

In a sea of sameness in website contents, it is important that there is individual differentiation from the rest of the flock. You can't make an impression wearing an ordinary gray suit. You have to wear a three colored suit! What you put up will become your brand, in the long term. That brand of yours is what you 'shouted' for. The louder it seems the longer lasting it becomes. Right now, we have mostly corporate images, but in a short space of time, we will see another cyberspace grab. And this time, they will race each other to put up their 'full name' there. And not necessary with the dotcom ending at that! It would be something like a credit search, but you just have to search the ‘credibility’ of this someone on the net, and when nothing turns out, it simply means that this person don’t exist! Yes, you can throw out all those privacy issues then. You can’t feel meek anymore! Are you ready for the rush yet?

Yap Tat Meng

Creative ideas at roller skates