The researchers were right: Branding and brand equity have a major impact on how we select goods and services.

OK. So if the powerhouses of the advertising world are convinced of the power of branding, why have they not led the charge to return to the roots of the brand?

Brand equity, if not invented by the print media, was at least first coddled, fed and reared by it. Look in the Blue Book of most any state, and you'll find a newspaper as one of the oldest business names in the state. Likewise, many magazines trace their history to the days before glossy layouts.

But now, while top marketers and advertising professionals are extolling the virtue of branding and the power of brand equity, many of the publications they count on to carry their brand messages home are watching readers slip away. We all know there are many factors involved in this phenomenon, but part of the problem is one we in advertising are experts at fixing: Diminished brand equity.

Pity the poor publisher, of course. But it is you who should worry that he he fell off the brand wagon. Advertising professionals need to guard the brand equity of the publications they use just as jealously as they do the brands of their clients. The messages they create for clients are for naught if they are never read. And as much as advertisers complain about column-inch rates, CPM and hieroglyphic billing statements, we still depend upon the ability of a local newspaper or a national magazine to deliver a detailed, highly readable message to the exact audience we need.

While most savvy marketers were learning the lesson of branding, the folks who let us ride to success on their own brand names seem to have missed the parade. Search any academic or business database for "brand equity" and you will get scores of entries. Narrow that search to "newspaper" or "magazine" and you will be very lucky to find a screenful.

Worse yet, ask your favorite publisher about her or his branding strategy. Don't count on a long answer.

Yet, right now newspapers and many magazines face their toughest brand challenge ever. Across the country, trusted publications are trying to capitalize on the latest technology explosion by putting their good names on the World Wide Web.

Does the credibility and loyalty a newspaper or magazine has built through the years translate into HTML as easily as text does?

Can advertisers count on the impact they have come to expect in a print medium when the publication moves into cyberspace?
The jury is still out, but in many cases the prognosis is not good.

Arguably, newspapers and magazines are different beasts, with newspapers concentrating on current news and local information while magazines appeal to the special demographic, professional, recreational or intellectual preferences of their readers. But for branding purposes, the "news" factor of newspapers could be considered another reader preference factor.

Newspapers and magazines share a revenue base advertising that is the essence of branding, so it seems surprising that so few in either industry have taken substantial steps to implement branding strategies in their own operations.

Recently, however, two media icons raised the hue and cry to their peers. Folio devoted its entire Spring 1998 edition to the challenges of branding in the magazine industry. Last summer Earl Wilkinson, executive director of the 52-country International Newspaper Marketing Association, published a superb book entitled Branding and the Newspaper Consumer.

Folio editor Lisa Phillips defined the problem for magazines, but could have as easily been speaking for newspapers. She recounted the sweat and tears editors and publishers have expended creating a powerful image with their audiences " by delivering, issue after issue, an editorial message untainted by conflict of interest." Lost in the effort, however, was a similar message to the advertisers.

Meanwhile, as Wilkinson pointed out, the media landscape changed dramatically. A single edition of the New York Times, he noted, contains more information that the average 17th century man or woman would have encountered in an entire lifetime. Add to that the seemingly endless plethora of new media of every stripe and one quickly sees the reality in Wilkinson's statement that consumers no longer are "marveling at our miracle. We don't stand out!"

So now publications must create an image among advertisers and marketers that sets them apart from the competition. On its face, that seems so basic that folks who have for years worked to perfect tactics to differentiate their consumer brands may break out in a belly laugh.

But it is no laughing matter for the media or for you. It also is not nearly such an easy chore as it might seem.

One of the key concepts of consumer behavior that people buy with their hearts as well as their heads puts the print media in a special branding role. There is a very, very strong emotional link between the reader and the newspaper or magazine. The newspaper, in particular, is one of the few consumer products left that most people imbue with personal "ownership." Gather a dozen folks from different cities and ask them to describe the newspapers they read and the conversation will quickly become laced with "my newspaper" or "our paper." Try that with a box of cereal or a tube of toothpaste.

That emotional link is, more than anything, the factor that puts the dollar signs in advertising rates. Those of us who place advertising pay dearly for that emotional tie either simply as a measure of substantial readership or, more importantly, as an entrèe for our products into the hearts and minds of the consumers we desire.

Hershell Sarbin, the branding project leader for Folio , described this phenomena when he said the increased emphasis on branding is having substantial impact on magazine advertising sales, but that publications have an advantageous position in the brand world:

"The advantage of magazines is that we already have an important bond with the reader. The advertiser brand receives the benefit of that bond with a highly targeted group of present customers and prospects."

There are two big problems for us when we use the media as a vehicle for our own branding efforts: First, we have a huge investment in the ability of the media to deliver our marketing message to consumers. In a modern mass society, none of us can afford to return to pre-media dependence upon word-of-mouth and personal demonstration.

Second and perhaps most disturbing, we are the experts. Professionals in advertising and marketing have had decades to fine-tune brand-building skills. Until quite recently, however, newspaper and magazine publishers just assumed they didn't have to deal with branding. After all, everyone knew what the Morning Bugle was and the ideals it stood for.

But when a feisty paper such as Oregon's Daily Astorian moves from print to the Internet, old assumptions evaporate. Does an on-line reader in Newton, N.J., grant it the same credibility and respect as she or he does the local New Jersey Herald ? Does it matter to the advertisers of either paper?

You bet it does. And just as publishers long ago gave us advice on audience reach, targeting and content, we can now help them in what may be their most challenging hour. There is a whole new field of conquest awaiting tomorrow's brand champions: Building the brands that build the brands.

It's not only a battle that the advertising industry can't lose. It's a battle it must not lose.