Matt Asay for Cnet published an article called “Ten things the world can learn from open source“. It is simply a great read for any business owner and additionally, there’s a domain related angle which should be added here.
A business’ brand is its greatest asset in driving sales. Not its IP. Not its sales team. Brand. Brand is what gives a customer trust that the product (and service behind it) is worth buying, even when another product is cheaper, easier, etc. Vendors need to invest heavily in their brands (through public relations, for example), and it’s the primary area that lawyers become supremely helpful, i.e., through trademark law. A brand should be earned and protected at all costs.
(Point #3:)
Online, since many companies share the same and/or similar names where there is only one “main street” address (.com), many consumers confuse that address with a specific business they have in mind. For example, consumers may type “Smith.com” looking for Smith Bits, Smith Drilling Company, Smith Power Equipment, etc but end up viewing the current Smith.com site which is owned by Smith International, a company in the drilling business however unrelated to those mentioned previously.
The problem occurs where a consumer lands on the site, in our case a a website which which uses a common family name, and where the consumer may believe he has landed on the right website for his needs. The consumer in this case truly believe he has found the right company he had in mind to do business with. Sounds illogical? We get hundreds of emails a day on our generic domain names, from support tickets to multi million dollar orders, from consumers who believe they have found the right company, although our sites don’t look nor represent anything remotely to those consumers are looking for.
As noted above, a business greatest asset is its brand. When there’s a disconnect between a business brand to the default choice by internet users (.com), there will always be lost business.
Have a great Sunday!
Sahar
Nice post you have there Sahar.
“If A business’ Brand Is Its Greatest Asset, What Is The Value Of a Generic/Descriptive/Common Domain Name That Is Perceived By Consumers And Business Partners As Someone’s Brand?”
The $$ value of a Generic/Descriptive/Common Domain Name is great (BIG $$) to priceless (depends if the owner wants to sell the domain name).
So true.
The logical conclusion is to own the generic term if available and affordable. Your next move would be to acquire keyword search terms that your market might be using to find you.
For example, if you can’t get your hands on the generic you need, you might want to try a flowchart approach to domaining:
Games.com
ActionGames.com
3dActionGames.com
KidsGames.com
3dKidsGame.com
VirtualGame.com
3dVirtualGame.com
SportsGame.com
3dSportsGame.com
PuzzleGame.com
3dPuzzlegame.com etc….
You can apply this to any business, and just work on owning the keyword search terms in your specific business niche.. Obviously not as great as owning Games.com, but certainly affordable and effective for a smaller business.
Ay yes, so true. My favorite so far was getting a request for 100,000 lipstick orders!