Back in July last year we wrote about the approval of a proposal to create new website domain suffixes, including brand names. You’ll soon be seeing brand names on the right hand side of the ‘dot’ – drink.pepsi instead of pepsi.com/drink, for example.
March 29th is the last day for companies to register their interest in owning a branded domain, with April 12th being the final deadline for full applications. Roland LaPlante predicts that there will be at least 1,000 companies investing in these brand name suffixes, which have been coined ‘dot Brands’, and he suggests we’ll start seeing them go live in 2013.
Key benefits of a dot Brand:
• Enhanced online presence and brand awareness
• The stand-out addresses become easier for consumers to remember and are more easily located
• dot Brand addresses will enhance security and therefore trust
• Companies will have a greater level of control over their online space
If the dot Brands take off in the way they are widely expected to, companies who don’t have one may well find themselves at a long-term brand disadvantage as it’s believed that the chance to purchase one won’t arise again for a good few years.
It’s a fantastic opportunity that’s worth considering, and with the closing dates just around the corner and a 50-question long application to complete, it’s best to commit now and get going.
dot Brand
