I’m reading a book right now by Alex Frankel, a writer for the New York Times, called “Wordcraft.”

In it, Frankel talks about the origins of branding and how much effect a name has on the success of a product. He claims that branding is the most important part of business– a product needs to become a part of a consumer’s vocabulary to really resonate.

I’m about half-way done with the book and have read case studies on Porsche and RIM (Research In Motion) so far. Even though Frankel’s book was written in 2004, I feel it still holds relevance to the current state of business.

“Wordcraft” presents commentary on businesses that existed mainly in a real-world market a few years ago. However, web-based companies are now taking their cues from the real-world market. Companies like Google, Yahoo!/Flickr, YouTube and MySpace have created successful e-businesses around a product or service that probably already existed in the online-market. Video content could be access from a myriad of online startups, but why is it that YouTube was the one that caught on?

With a memorable name, YouTube could set itself apart from anyone else offering streaming video on demand. Is YouTube necessarily the best place to go for videos? Today it might be, but what about two years ago when it was probably easily lost on the vast Internet?

Quality can take goods and services, online or not, only so far. Marketing is needed to properly package the product, decide which stores to be sold in, if any. Marketing in some form or fashion is needed to advertise the product to let people know it exists. It’s necessary to let people know what name to call it and where the place to go is when in need of something (Flash-based videos, for example).

In two years YouTube has quickly become the leader in online video content. One year after it’s creation, YouTube was purchased by Google, Inc., another Web 2.0 company whose name has propelled itself into the lexicon of the world.

Companies that acknowledge the importance of marketing, branding, public relations and/or advertising have typically been the ones we see succeed in the real-world market. Now we are seeing these same values have an effect on the choices of businesses who do their work online and only online.