BRAND STRATEGY
Brand owners cannot afford to ignore the new domain name revolution heading our way this summer, and unregistered or dropped domains could provide a way in for cybersquatters. Understanding how and when to protect trademarks is the question of the day, says Stuart Fuller.
What does the future hold for brands looking to build their digital strategy in the brave new world of the Internet? Te number of available domain names is about to get a shot of digital steroids and the sheer number of digital assets brand owners will have to protect is making them shudder.
However, it is not all bad. Tis is an opportunity for brand owners to rebuild their digital strategies, reclaiming some Internet space that many thought disappeared when .com and .net appeared on our screens back in 1985. So while the legal departments may be burying their heads in trademark applications for their sunrise registrations, the marketing teams will be plumping up the beanbags ready for a ‘wipe board’ session on how they can take advantage of a .rocks, .cool and .ninja.
If only it were that simple. Today, marketers sit in one of two camps. In the red corner, we have the search evangelists, pouring over the latest Google algorithm, and what changes they need to make to their websites to ensure they retain their rankings at all cost. To them, the launch of the new domain names is an opportunity to connect with new customers (.organic, .promo), differentiate some others (.london and .saarland) or keep some existing ones happy (.reviews or .sucks).
In the blue corner we have the new breed of digital marketers who believe that apps are the future, HTML5 is king and the power of the consumer is held in their palms on smartphones. To them, the new domains are nothing more than an inconvenient truth.
www.worldipreview.com
Who is right and who is wrong? As consumers of the Internet, our search habits have evolved over time. Just a few years ago, if we wanted to find anything on the worldwide web we would have to structure our search query very carefully. ‘Wood for the trees’ was a saying that was very apt to the success of our search results, having to trawl through pages of links to find exactly what we were looking for. Today it is all so different. Te rapid adoption of Firefox, Chrome and Safari as our browsers of choice means we can search directly in the URL bar with our most bizarre questions.
In 2012, one of the most popular search terms in Google was ‘How to …’ Searchers then choose the most relevant answer rather than the most popular one. It doesn’t matter how much a brand may be spending on paid search, keyword optimisation and domain localisation, if the answer doesn’t appear within the search engine index. So much for a brand strategy.
Of course, if you sit in the Apple camp you will already be used to conducting your life via pressing an icon on your latest device. Apps are convenient, taking us directly to the content we need, when we need it, where we need it. Tere is no denying that they have allowed brands to connect directly with their customers, building brand loyalty through usability. Te cost of developing and then improving an app is significantly less than that of building a website to compete in an already crowded marketplace. Te app acts as a direct window into the hearts and minds of a brand’s consumer.
Trademarks Brands and the Internet Volume 2, Issue 2 33
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