IT has become a leading conveyor, sustainer, enhancer---and, often, destroyer---of brand identity and image., among the various roles of IT, this is one important & key role. The topic is covered in detail in the Optimize article here.

Some excerpts from the same:

I asked CIOs and CEOs what percentage of their company's branding is conveyed, sustained, enhanced, or damaged by IT. Virtually every interviewee was initially baffled. Typically, they'd never considered such implications. But when confronted with the issue, most said that anywhere between 20% and 80% of their company's brand is directly dependent on IT, regardless of the vertical industry or whether their company was in the public or private sector.

Such companies don't treat branding's IT implications as an afterthought. On the contrary, they consider IT an integral part of the brand, and look upon customer intimacy as a byproduct of a strong IT/brand relationship. What's more, they realize that the criticality of the IT/brand relationship demands a complete, holistic rethinking of their view and management of IT.

Several IT/brand builder CIOs said they and their key staffers now spend more time with the marketing, brand, sales, and customer-support organizations than with supply-chain or finance departments. The IT component of every customer-impacting activity, opportunity, and risk is understood throughout the organization. So determined is one company to make IT its ultimate brand-delivery vehicle that it has named its CIO to chair its brand-management council.

Prashanth RaiTag(s):Brand, IT