The Domain as a Brand

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The Domain as a Brand

Domain names with their multiple associations and level of Internet name access all have something in common: the letters and numbers of that domain name pass through news media and Internet search engines as well as the human brain. What speaks to the domain name as a resource or as a destination? What name or combination of letters forms the projected word that conveys the services, experience or products the web site hosts?

What associations do the domain name letters as a spoken word carry in English speaking and global language markets? What is the target market for that brand or service? Domainers looking to launch a website or company brand with a domain name must research the ownership and usage history of that domain name.

Many keywords together in one language may depict or mean an active and currently used brand in another country or continent.These might draw enough page views to generate a profitable site depending on the site plan and search word popularity. Analysis and feedback should be critical components of any domain name brand strategy.

Some generic (single keyword) domain names can become brand names, if marketed correctly. The site as link directory, article or information aggregator, image gallery, or video blog might vary the user experience or browser expectation accordingly. Each domain name has its own world to articulate its own universe within.

Homogeneity and specificity in domain names must serve the brand. A visitor to www.candy.com is sure to learn something about candy, but a visit to www.Gozer.com might be anything from a Persian television children's program network to a fansite for the keymaster demon from "Ghostbusters". Those are vastly different audiences (I assume).

Investing in a domain name with the intent to grow a brand is a comprehensive decision. The domain name must stand for the entire enterprise. What name or word for the domain will project that experience to others or drive interest in a manner consistent with traffic driving associations? Are there other websites operating that have very popular associations that come extremely close to the domain name for the brand you intend to launch?

Are many of the domain name keyword combinations owned by someone else? There may be plans in the works to launch the nonsense word or elided term by another company for a completely different purpose. A huge powerhouse launch of a domain very similar to yours, with better features, right over your head could vanquish your website to the back of beyond.

Unique word brand names for website and domains eliminate this problem, but they are tied to eventual development of the domain name. Brand names can be formed by the application of prefixes and keywords to form new hybrid brands. Brand name creation for a highly searched keyword like "bifocal" (assumed common for this premise), could exist in incarnations like MyBifocal.com, BifocalStore.com, and TheBifocal.com.

Thus the "Bifocal" brand as a keyword shares in the brand for "My-" names, "Store" names, and "The" names. "Bifocal.com" would be the generic name. But development of the domain name in terms of its website experience would determine a branding effect or merely an associative one for content purposes. Questions should be asked before a commitment to HTML composition and promotion for the domain name.

Linguistic rules govern domain names. Does the tenor and internal rhyme of the word that forms the domain match the service or information at the ultimate website endpoint? For example, www.nowudie.com would not be as productive as www.eternalplans.com for a funeral services and cremation planning information website.

End users, visitors and public Internet or wireless users must be able to speak and communicate the domain name without embarrassment or spelling difficulty. If you wanted to start a company or website brand called www.hezbian.com, some visitors or potential end users might associate the internal rhyme and suppose it is a site for Hezbollah lesbians. This content might actually upset or offend some visitors hostile to participating in the website traffic plan.

Some rhyming sounds or word mixtures are purposely dubbed to associate with risque or edgy words in other contexts, like www.fcuk.com. This company, French Connection UK, markets its "4-letter" brand on many packaging and logo items to take advantage from a spurious but sometimes amusing visual effect.

Brand domains usually have a strong identification with a word that becomes a verb in the Internet space. Thus, "yahoo" and "google" became capitalized terms for the World Wide Web business model and Yahoo.com and Google.com are domain names stemming from nonsense words that nevertheless concentrate functionality associations with destination value and online experience utility.

Bookmarking practices commonly save the url for associative domain named websites much more than long character/folder driven domain name sites do. But the type-in value of a brand domain and the crunchy feel of it between the teeth of your end users as they wait for their lattes and chat your site up has promotion criteria impossible to ignore.

Brand names must make sense without a lot of punctuation or hyphens. Under this logic www.Macy's.com and not www.macys.com would be used. But uniform resource locators subsume case in domain name protocols and deliver an e.e. cummings character appearance in the address bar and domain name/brand.

Research into the meaning of that word or word sound in many languages might be a viable qualifier for an internationally eligible website destination and brand. Cultural taboos and swear words, slang terms and colloquial meanings must be considering when framing a brand name word for a domain name and/or website. Fun or breezy associations and jinky pronunciation may fall flat in foreign cultures that compose key international demographic markets for the brand domain name purpose.

Care should be taken that additional keyword hybrids of the domain name are purchased in an anticipatory bundle to block typo squatters or speculators looking to cash in on your hard marketing work. If anticipation of the brand domain name development is present, the domain owner may have an upward battle on their hands distinguishing copycat sites from their own brand effort. This risks a better driven marketing campaign stealing your thunder.

Some new branding of a domain name is done specifically with the intent to pick up "leftover' traffic of a legacy domain name or website from the previous domain name owner. Research should establish what the risks are of a previously marketed and/or promoted web site or domain name BEFORE it receives the investment of time and energy intended to promote the brand or service.