Brands And The “Cesspool”

In a meeting earlier this month with magazine executives, Google CEO Eric Schmidt helped illustrate the importance of brands in the Internet age. Schmidt said the Web is fast becoming a “cesspool” with a lot of false and misleading information. One way the consumer can count on the information they find online is to associate it with a brand they trust. “Brands are the solution, not the problem,” Schmidt offered. “Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.”

Like most businesses, the magazine executives wanted to know how to improve their page rank. However, Schmidt cautioned that there is no consistent shortcut and said the best way to increase page rank and show up well in Google searches is to have relevant content.

Schmidt added another comment to underscore the importance of brands:

“Branding...may be an essential element that helps people navigate the world. Brand affinity is clearly hard wired. It is so fundamental to human existence that it’s not going away. It must have a genetic component.”