When Brand Owners Don’t Think: Leading Domains = Lost Traffic at Conceptualist.com, By Sahar Sarid

When Brand Owners Don’t Think: Leading Domains = Lost Traffic

Published on April 28, 2008 in Business, Domain Names and General.

On the same flight back home from San Fransisco I noticed how conceptual marketing helps generic domain name owners I also noticed of a rising trend, “leading domains”, domains which start with “goto”, “on”, “in”, “at”. “4″. This trend is related to the “Radio Test”. What is the “Radio Test”? Dan Warner, in an old DNJournal article, explains:

….An easy way to discern whether a domain has a good brand is by applying the radio test. If you were to hear a domain being talked about on the radio - how likely would it be for a consumer to remember that domain and spell it correctly? Strong brands are memorable, are hard to confuse and elicit an emotional response.

We learned to cope with brand owners who choose to misspell their URL’s either on purpose or because of URL shortage. “Leading Domains” take this to a whole new level as the brand itself incorporates a keyword which “leads” to a generic domain, giving boost to generic domain name owners.

Here are few examples I came across lately:

Dialog scenario:
Customer: How do I find your website?
Brand owner: The website is oncontact.com (sounds like “on Contact.com“)

Dialog scenario:
Customer: What is your website address?
Brand owner: GotoMeeting.com (sounds like “go to meeting.com“)

Dialog scenario:
Customer: What is your website address?
Brand owner: GoToMyPC.com (Sounds like “Go To MyPC.com)

(Thanks David Castello for the scoop)
Radio ad: Visit our website InPalmSprings.com (Sounds like “In PalmSprings.com“)

Many tend to think we are running out of domains however brand owners need to consider, whether they spend on a good domain or not, most likely there’s going to be cost associated, either the cost of purchasing a good domain or the cost of losing business.

3 Responses to “When Brand Owners Don’t Think: Leading Domains = Lost Traffic”

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1 David Wrixon
Apr 28th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

Interesting comments.

I wonder if the ASCII.com (English to most Americans) Stalwarts have any conception how badly names in Latin characters are going to fail the Radio test in Russia, China, Japan and the Arabic World. How will they even get on in India?

The idea that most people in these countries are going to be able to pick up correct spelling of the names off the Radio just beggars belief. Most won’t even get it if you spell it out to them.
2 Mark
Apr 28th, 2008 at 3:30 pm

Hi Sahar,

I really enjoy your blog, it really gives some great insight into the business.

I just wanted to say that it seems Citrix ( GoTo…)actually do own both meeting.com and MyPC.com, as well as assist.com and webinar.com, both of which are also branded with the GoTo prefix. So at least they seem to understand this concept.

—-answer—-

Hi Mark,

Thanks for pointing it out!

Sahar
3 damir
Apr 28th, 2008 at 4:09 pm

Thanks for the info Sahar.

I have missed this point.