View source for Interview with Godfried Bogaerts and Floris Ketel

==Introduction==
Floris Ketel and Godfried Bogaerts are respectively the Strategic Director and COO of Mirabeau BV. Mirabeau is a Netherlands-based web agency that specializes in designing and building websites for large, mostly for-profit companies such as Vodafone, KLM, ING and AEGON. 

Ketel and Bogaerts were interviewed to get their take on the future of Mirabeau’s business and the direction in which the corporate website is heading. The interview was based on a mindmap (the diagram below gives a condensed version) which was used to trigger conversation about different areas (Political, Economic, Societal, Technological, Environmental and Corporate/Business) of the online landscape.


[[Image:CorporateWebsite2020Collapsed.jpg]]

==Interview==
Conducted on Tuesday 15 September 2009 by <a href="dpeters@mirabeau.nl">Daniel Peters</a>


'''Brands and the role of Brands'''

'''Q:''' ''How do you expect brands will develop on the Internet from the perspective of content mashups? With more and more services being bundled and repackaged, it is hard for companies to distinguish themselves if they’re part of that package.''<br>
'''A: Ketel:''' a ''central point'' will always be required. Customers want ''ease/peace of mind'' and I strongly believe companies/brands can offer this. That’s what builds affinity with and loyalty for a brand. However, a brand needs a ''platform'' to create such affinity and needs to ‘put a face to it’. At the same time, I feel a shift will take place: companies now often seek to control the complete value chain through vertical integration, but as you state their products and services are being used as parts of larger packages, mashed up into new offerings. The shift I see is from companies seeking to integrate vertically and controlling the value chain to those that are able to flexibly combine parts of various value chains into cut-to-size offerings for consumers. If they manage to brand that activity –more than the exact product they deliver– I believe they can compete successfully: offering users what they want, when they want it.

Another take on the company or brand of the future is a social one: a brand will ''help you through life''. The brand (or corporation) could even be seen as a political party or a religion (admittedly, this is taking things far!), with people becoming very attached to companies or brands. The brand always has manifested itself over different channels. The online channel has already become extremely important and will continue to claim an increasingly prominent position. As consumers become more demanding and the Internet achieves ever broader bandwidth, a number of channels/portals for different services could appear. For example, see it this way that the Albert Heijn of the future serves exclusively over the web and delivers to your door. The company can no longer differentiate on price but must do so on product range, speed of delivery and possibly delivers a whole range of other services as well, like integrating laundry services into the package. People start to put a great deal of trust in the company that takes care of all these services, it becomes a ‘partner for life’.

'''Q:''' ''But don’t you think people will want to take control themselves and make there own decisions? Why let some company determine so much for you?''<br>
'''A: Ketel:'''