Branding + Social Media = Success?

For nearly two decades companies have started to expand their brand to the online world.  Some of the largest companies, like Coca Cola, have had an online presence (websites) for ages.  Recently, some of these same companies have taken a step forward and have expanded their online presence into the social media realm.  They have realized the potential positive impact that online social media can have on their brand, but  is online social media necessary for brand success?  Certainly not, there are other things that are far more important for a brand than its online social media strategy. 
 
First let's define what a brand is;  in essence a brand is a word, image, color, sound... basically anything that can be  used to uniquely identify a product or service.  If you see a brown delivery truck what comes to mind? more likely than not you'll think about UPS (United Parcel Service).  What if you hear the Intel "bong"? You'll probably relate it to Intel (if you know something about technology like me).  All these are examples of branding; these companies are trying to make sure you remember who they are and what they do even if it's at the very basic level i.e. Brown truck = UPS = Delivery.  In order to achieve the brand recognition as I just described companies need to have a solid brand strategy and definition.  If a company can't define its brand from the beginning there is a high probability of failure.  A weak or inadequate brand definition will not succeed because of social media, moreover it could accelerate its failure. 

In addition to brand definition, the company needs to figure out the scope of the brand.  Are they targeting a local or global market? one could argue that online social media is an unnecessary waste if the local market is bound to a small town.  Similarly, social media might not be a success factor if the customer segment for a brand is not web-savvy.

So where do I stand?  In my opinion online social media is an absolute most if the company has a solid "offline" foundation and it's ready to expand brand awareness.  Online social media is just a means to an end and its success, or failure, relies more on the strategy(ies) made by the company than the technologies used.  People nowadays think the web is the solution to anything and everything, however the reality is far from it.