How long before advertisers catch on?

[onlinestoreca]

I have to say that I am very surprised that advertisers still don't get the value of domain names yet.

I have many generic product names that I would sell for the right price, and I have never been contacted by any big company. I get flyers in the mail from companies that spend millions on advertising on their products, but won't invest a few thousand in the generic product domain name, which they would then own in perpetuity for about $10 a year.

For example shouldn't Canadian Tire or Monroe want ShockAbsorbers.ca?

Don't some people enter "shock absorbers" into Google on the internet to research what's out there. If you enter anything in Google from Canada, .ca does get preference.

Isn't a favourable generic product domain name BY FAR the most cost effective advertising you could possibly have?

I'd be interested in hearing theories as to why the advertisers aren't getting this... Or am I wrong about the cost effectiveness?

What concerns me most is that I still see many premium generic product .coms not being sold to big companies.

[thebutler]

If their websites are already top in SERPs for those terms they might not see the value. Shockabsorber.ca is not a real type in type of domain.

Plus you have to realize that these companies place a HUGE-HUGE value in their own brand name. Buying domain names to build them up is not in their interest. It could dilute their brand name. But some companies do see the value because I remember an article about some hotel chain buying some .com names.

The perfect fit for some .ca domains are new companies that are building up their company combined with an online sales model. Thats the perfect mix.

Maybe shockabsorber is a bad example but something like naturalvitamins.ca (some already reg'd it-FYI) would be a better example.

[hugegrowth]

Business and advertisers have been sloooooooooooow to get it with domain names, even in .com, so I'm not surprised .ca is in the same boat. Some companies do own good generics, like cheese.ca is owned by a Canadian cheese company. Coke uses icoke.ca, Pepsi uses pepsiaccess.ca I think. Many just use their own trademark name, or a silly phrase, for example gotmoremilk.ca, instead of getting a true generic. I agree with butler, that newer companies that aren't well known can benefit most with a memorable generic domain name, and are more willing to try new strategies to get market share.

As for shock absorbers, people might be more inclined to type in 'car parts' or something like that. Shock absorbers might be too specific a product, Canadian tire sells thousands of items and can't get the domain for each item, if they went this route they'd probably try to get more category type phrases or products that sell in high volume, like tires.ca, patiofurniture.ca, gardentools.ca, hockeyequipment.ca and so on.

[DomainsInc]

Too many businesses ran by old dinosaurs.

[onlinestoreca]

I like the "run by old dinosaurs" reply.

When I hear domainers say that it's too many generics, it makes me wonder how the businesses will ever understand. Assuming that I am correct, which I may of course not be.

So Canadian Tire buys 10,000 generic domains that all lead to CanadianTire.ca, their yearly renewal cost would be $100,000/year.

Wouldn't their ROI (return on investment) be hundreds or thousands of times greater than $100,000 worth of flyers, which would only cover a small city??? Maybe this internet thing isn't catching on , but I suspect that it eventually will .

If someone is researching shock absorbers, would it not benefit Canadian Tire to bring them to their site? I'm pretty sure people research these things.

What about Monroe? They make shock absorbers, wouldn't it make a lot of sense for them to own the name?

[DropWizard.com]

Too many businesses ran by old dinosaurs.

I ike that answer too. There are too many businesses run by boomers who are slow to catch up to current tech. In many cases we don't even see the need for it.

But the second good reason is the economy. When it is that robust you can make fortunes without thinking or being particularily competitive.

Surprisingly this recession should really be good for bringing out the lurkers in industry. Guys that are forced to now innovate to survive.

[DropWizard.com]

I just read a report (and lost it already) stating that online business in 2008 would be 11 billion rising to 31 billion by 2010.

But the americans were walking away with over 3 billion of that because canadian businesses have been so slow to embrace being online. Less than 1/3 of all canadian businesses are online.

And that explains the lack of advertisers.