Re: Best practices in corporate/product branding and domain names

[NuVision Communications <nuvisioncomm -at- gmail -dot- com>]

My perspective is coming from the marketing world... Sorry for the length,
and I hope it helps (do let me know) because it's not a straight answer ...
Branding is an art.

First, I worked with a Fortune 500 corp that had a software product and it
was going to transition to Web SAAS. The only problem was another company
who worked WITH the Fortune 500 corp bought the domain name first. Long
story short, and it took some time/work, but the Fortune 500 corp attained
the domain name from the other company. If you have to fight for the
domain, it will depend on when/how the other company came by the name, how
big the other domain name/company is, and how much $$ and work it's going
to take in terms of whether you'll be successful in attaining ownership.
Trademark law could play a large part.

So it can get complicated and I don't know your corporate timeline, but
it's worth it to get the product domain name ownership even if you don't
use it except to route audiences to the right site (see below). From a
marketing perspective, if you go down the PRODUCT branding route,
officially you could brand the domain based on the product name. It could
be orangesoftware.com, orangesoft.com, eOrange.com, orangegroup.com,
orangeware, etc... Then, depending on what your branding and positioning
are, you ALSO could leverage the correctcolor.com domain as a special
landing page or for promotions! So your brand would be positioned as ORANGE
-- THE COLOR CORRECTION EXPERTS and then you'd have that additional Web
site for promotions.

Now, before you go down this route, you also have to consider how scalable
the approach is as the business expands into additional products. Analysis
is needed on how complicated it could become if you needed separate domains
for each product. Or, can you build on your current 'orange.com' Web
site/brand for all future products? (maybe that's the plan?) Because you
also could brand at the corporate level if the company name is different
from the primary product name.

Keep in mind that many a company do not use product names for their
domains, but they do use some form of their corporate name:

microsoft.com
efanniemae.com -- specifically for all software
ibm.com -- all brands acquired/owned seem to be incorporated into the corp
Web site -- and if you type Cognos.com, tivoli.com, lotus.com in the URL,
for example, you're routed to that ibm.com product page

So there are really 2 ways to approach the branding in my mind, and you may
need to consult a branding expert.

Deb
-- 
Debbie M.
nuvisioncomm -at- gmail -dot- com



On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 2:08 PM, Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>wrote:

> > Do you need to be a dot com?  What about dot biz, dot org, or dot net
> instead?
>
> While there are many options, yes, you need a dot com. It's an expectation.
>
> --
> Bill Swallow
>
> Twitter: @techcommdood
> Blog: http://techcommdood.com
> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/techcommdood
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with
> Doc-To-Help.
> Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
> Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
> http://www.doctohelp.com
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as nuvisioncomm -at- gmail -dot- com -dot- 
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> or visit
> http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/nuvisioncomm%40gmail.com
>
>
> To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
> http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and
> info.
>
> Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online
> magazine at http://techwhirl.com
>
> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public
> email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
>



-- 
Debbie M.
*NuVision Communications*
nuvisioncomm -at- gmail -dot- com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
http://www.doctohelp.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives