Brandable Halos
Conventional media ranging from NBC’s nightly news to BET want to bask in Twitter’s halo of cool, even if they don’t know what they are talking about. I want to laugh every time a reporter in his mid-50′s name-drops “Twitter.” And he undoubtedly says “Twitter” as if it is a foreign word, and as if he should get a round of applause for being so in-the-know. I really love it when media personalities confuse terms and say “Tweeter” and “Twits” or I just “Tweetered” and “Twitted.”
As my grandfather used to say, one’s reputation (or brand) is one’s most valuable asset. So what if Twitter isn’t making any money yet. People are getting tongue-tied just trying to mention the service as much as possible. This has enormous value.
Your domain is an easy way to enhance your brand and reputation, even if you don’t start the next innovative social networking service. If I acquire Hats.com, whether it is in English or Japanese, and whether the site is profitable or not, I already have a strong brand.
Why is such branding worth hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars? First, customers remember you. More importantly, you are credible. If you are calling a large hat distributor as the owner of Hats.com, it is likely that you will get connected directly to the top right away. Doors will swing open. Partnership opportunities will abound. Customers will feel more comfortable making online payments to your site.
It isn’t true to say you aren’t a “real” domainer if you aren’t making “X” dollars a month. If you are building your brands, adding content to your blog or sites, or even developing your own name and reputation on forums a halo and dollar signs should follow.
For years I have been listening to English domainers speak about the authoritative nature of a good name and about how important mindshare was. You know, they were right! These principals are universal. It doesn’t matter what script you write the domain in. They still apply.
I have experienced the authoritative aspect first-hand. A year and a half ago I traveled to Japan for the first time. I was traveling with a business associate who speaks fluent Japanese and has years of experience doing business with them. I was only along to observe and verify the validity of my IDN investment but somehow a very prominent Japanese artist and the executives at a 70+ year old publishing company heard that the owner of アート .com (The generic term for Art in Japanese) was in town and they wanted a meeting.
My associate acted as translator and the meeting went very well. They knew about IDNs and they clearly understood the value and power of domains in their native language. Having the .com extension in English was not a problem as .com was ‘universally understood’ among Japanese and even desirable. I was also told that the domain was ‘very important’ and that ‘many people would want to acquire it’.
After the meeting my associate informed me that I had achieved the impossible and that it would normally take many months of effort, following all the proper protocols, to gain a meeting with such prominent individuals. I had achieved that in a couple of days.
It really had little to do with me. It was all about the power of the name.
@Clotho – thanks for the anecdote, it is truly amazing to see the doors swing open like that.