Rating: 
Summary: Marketing Analysts, this book is not for you
Review: "Branding on the Internet". If you go to any multi-day web seminar these days you will surely run into a class on this subject. Most of these classes spend a few hours talking about successful (and not) examples in the Internet without going into the research.This book uses a similar approach. For the business/marketing person this book will be frustrating, with its basic findings (e.g. using a banner). The problem is this book was not meant for the marketing person as a lesson on how to brand their company on the Internet. This book was written for the web designer, as an introduction to branding. The book itself has a problem in that the only company profiled that can be considered a success would be Yahoo! Anyone who uses the Internet regularly will recognize most of the other sites, but has anyone ever bought anything, or even visited these sites? The author claims that when people are faced with unclear choices they will revert to what is comfortable, which is true. The question that arises is, other than Yahoo! do you feel comfortable with any of these companies. It seems the author chose second-tier websites because the top-tier weren't available.
Rating:
Summary: Marketing Analysts, this book is not for you
Review: "Branding on the Internet". If you go to any multi-day web seminar these days you will surely run into a class on this subject. Most of these classes spend a few hours talking about successful (and not) examples in the Internet without going into the research. This book uses a similar approach. For the business/marketing person this book will be frustrating, with its basic findings (e.g. using a banner). The problem is this book was not meant for the marketing person as a lesson on how to brand their company on the Internet. This book was written for the web designer, as an introduction to branding. The book itself has a problem in that the only company profiled that can be considered a success would be Yahoo! Anyone who uses the Internet regularly will recognize most of the other sites, but has anyone ever bought anything, or even visited these sites? The author claims that when people are faced with unclear choices they will revert to what is comfortable, which is true. The question that arises is, other than Yahoo! do you feel comfortable with any of these companies. It seems the author chose second-tier websites because the top-tier weren't available.
Rating: 
Summary: The book is good if you can judge its value well
Review: ...It tells you how to build an internet brand, without any ofthe hype told to you by the other book on internetbranding. It showswhere eBranding is different from offline branding. The book should bea good read for students interested in this subject, and businessexecutives...
Rating: 
Summary: An Invaluable Single-Volume Resource
Review: As Carpenter explains, his book "is based on an analysis of the brand-building efforts of six companies. Four of them, which represent the core of the book, are established Internet ventures that rose to the challenge of developing brands distinctly for this new medium." The six are: iVillage, CDNOW, Barnesandnoble.com, Yahoo!, Fogdog Sports, and Onsale. Carpenter does a brilliant job of explaining what each did right...and what each did wrong. In process, he rigorously examines a number of best practices common to all: Focus on Building Brand Awareness Cultivate Customer Commitment Forge Strong Distribution and Content Alliances Move Early, Move Fast Develop an Intimate Knowledge of the Market and the Customer Cultivate a Reputation for Excellence Deliver Outstanding Value Carpenter devotes a separate chapter to each of the six companies. In the Conclusion, he suggests that "the development of an Internet brand is a holistic process. Building awareness -- the activity that many equate with `branding' -- is just one aspect of brand development. Crafting a powerful online brand requires paying just as much attention to developing other facets of brand as well, such as customer loyalty and influential distribution partnerships. There is no silver bullet solution for the development of a substantial Internet brand. Instead, dominant ebrands emerge when companies invest in a rich mixture of marketing and business practices." If there is a better book on this subject, I have not as yet read it.
Rating:
Summary: An Invaluable Single-Volume Resource
Review: As Carpenter explains, his book "is based on an analysis of the brand-building efforts of six companies. Four of them, which represent the core of the book, are established Internet ventures that rose to the challenge of developing brands distinctly for this new medium." The six are: iVillage, CDNOW, Barnesandnoble.com, Yahoo!, Fogdog Sports, and Onsale. Carpenter does a brilliant job of explaining what each did right...and what each did wrong. In process, he rigorously examines a number of best practices common to all: Focus on Building Brand Awareness Cultivate Customer Commitment Forge Strong Distribution and Content Alliances Move Early, Move Fast Develop an Intimate Knowledge of the Market and the Customer Cultivate a Reputation for Excellence Deliver Outstanding Value Carpenter devotes a separate chapter to each of the six companies. In the Conclusion, he suggests that "the development of an Internet brand is a holistic process. Building awareness -- the activity that many equate with 'branding' -- is just one aspect of brand development. Crafting a powerful online brand requires paying just as much attention to developing other facets of brand as well, such as customer loyalty and influential distribution partnerships. There is no silver bullet solution for the development of a substantial Internet brand. Instead, dominant ebrands emerge when companies invest in a rich mixture of marketing and business practices." If there is a better book on this subject, I have not as yet read it.
Rating:
Summary: Good profile of marketing successes and failures
Review: Book drills into the marketing successes and failures of the case study companies. Detail helps the author to make his points well.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent case studies for online marketers
Review: Good stuff! The author offers an in-depth look at the marketing activities of some of the best-known players on the Web. I've read a lot of books on Internet marketing, and I particularly appreciated the fact that "eBrands" does not sugar coat the examples it uses. Where these companies have implemented strategies and tactics worth following, Carpenter lets you know. But he doesn't pull any punches, and when the case study companies have had problems (for example, he highlights iVillage's outrageous burn rate, to which marketing expenditures have been a big contributor), the writer highlights these isues. Definitely a good read for anyone responsible for driving the marketing activities of an Internet company.
Rating:
Summary: Good for small companies, too
Review: Good thinking, clear writing -- a nice change in the world of Internet books. I do marketing for an Internet start-up & found many of the recommendations here to be applicable to new ventures like ours.
Rating:
Summary: eMarketing advice you can use
Review: I found "eBrands" to include marketing advice that would be helpful for start-ups and big companies alike. Also thought it was pretty well-written -- have read too many dry business books in my time, and this one was a nice contrast.
Rating: 
Summary: Offers Little to the Marketer
Review: I give up! I struggled to read through this book. Phil Carpenter attempts to present how Internet brands are developed by presenting "case studies" on six well-known companies. The marketing strategies of these companies (iVillage, CDNow, BarnesandNoble.com, Yahoo!, FogDog Sports, and OnSale) are detailed in a manner filled with "buzzwords" but little in the way of thoughtful analysis or performance measurement.
Carpenter follows the same business methodology of many Internet companies today in believing that "big numbers" translate into success. As we have seen this is a flawed formula. Further, the simplisitic discussions of banner ads, viral marketing, etc., provides little insight into eBrand management for your organization. Specifically, Carpenter never makes the connection between an eBrand and profit.
If you are attempting to formulate an internet-based marketing strategy a much better read is Seth Yodin's book on Permission Marketing.
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