where is the brand image?

I just can't let it go today. Obsessed. With. Digital. Branding. Continuing on the "act of [brand] disappearance" behind its digital offerings [applications, content/advice, community - for examples think Tylenol "Feel Better", Nike + (yes, i know), Home Depot's "How to", Disney's Family.com, or just about any native digital brand]. Here what you see is what you get, i.e. perception = experience. Brand image is dead. When brand perception is based on actual experience, there's no need for a brand image, right?? Direct interactions with the brand online shape the brand experience AND, in this case, perception is not something that is seen/heard, it is something that is done. Digital branding is then about creating things that people would be attracted to interact with. In order for this to happen, brand's digital offerings have to have some tangible impact on people's life (again, think examples above). They have to respond to a need, give a solution or advice, transform a practice, offer entertainment, and/or impact behavior through creating some (any!) improved way of doing things. Digital branding is about actively transforming people's behavior, instead of trying to influence it through projecting a desired brand image (yay yay coke happiness factory!!) So I guess this shift in thinking makes us consider websites as a stand-alone digital products. A digital product communicates only if it does something [for me]. Promotion = function. Yep, websites can be created for promotion but even then they have to have a function in themselves. This function is the basis of creating a relationship with users: websites need to do something for them. As such, they develop value for people that is INDEPENDENT even from the products/services they promote.If this thinking is right, the actual products/services are then mostly "by-products" of this relationship.