Understanding of the .uk brand

[tifosi]

I had an enquiry for a decent generic domain recently. The negotiations boiled down to a mid-xxx value I was happy with.

Then all went a bit silent their end. I chased it a final time and got the message back that they had registered the .uk.com domain instead and were happy with that. They are going to rebrand with that instead of investing in the universally recognised .uk

How do you get the message across to these kinds of businesses who seem hellbent on hamstringing themselves? With this one I get the impression some time down the line they may realise by which time it will be too late.

 

[foz]

Should be to your benefit in the long term, traffic, confusion etc (if the domain was registered exactly).

 

[websaway]

I had an enquiry for a decent generic domain recently. The negotiations boiled down to a mid-xxx value I was happy with.

Then all went a bit silent their end. I chased it a final time and got the message back that they had registered the .uk.com domain instead and were happy with that. They are going to rebrand with that instead of investing in the universally recognised .uk

How do you get the message across to these kinds of businesses who seem hellbent on hamstringing themselves? With this one I get the impression some time down the line they may realise by which time it will be too late.

Have they registered the UK dot com exact version ?

 

[tifosi]

Yes its an exact domain not a typo (which I don't do). It's a multi-use generic but also the name of their (fairly successful) business.

No doubt I will be getting some additional traffic especially if they rebrand with the uk.com domain.

They just don't get it. The price of the domain is peanuts compared to their turnover. Just get the impression they expected it to be free to reg which it hasn't been since pre-2000.

Got a phone call a couple of days ago about another which was another premium common generic which the guy expected to pay the same as he would to register a ftr domain.

Getting the message across to business sector & personals alike who are increasingly reliant on the internet is getting increasingly frustrating!

 

[tifosi]

Have they registered the UK dot com exact version ?

Yes, i have the .co.uk which they enquired about. They instead registrered the ftr .uk.com.

 

[foz]

It will get worst with the new gTLD's arriving, every Registrar under the sun will be pushing that crap.

 

[MCNM]

They or there competitors will come back to you guaranteed.

 

[websaway]

It will get worst with the new gTLD's arriving, every Registrar under the sun will be pushing that crap.

worse or better. Could be that the more you dilute, the stronger the core brand becomes. Don't forget this is not a stagnant industry, growth over the next 20 years will continue to be huge and how important is that address bar, you want to talk to a shoe manufacturer in japan about a large order you need, go straight to shoemanufacturer.jp A lot of domains when the dust settles will find logical destinations, you'll rate a company by it's domain name. It'll take time though.

 

[foz]

worse or better. Could be that the more you dilute, the stronger the core brand becomes. Don't forget this is not a stagnant industry, growth over the next 20 years will continue to be huge and how important is that address bar, you want to talk to a shoe manufacturer in japan about a large order you need, go straight to shoemanufacturer.jp A lot of domains when the dust settles will find logical destinations, you'll rate a company by it's domain name. It'll take time though.

The naive will be lead astray.

The ones who know which way is up will stick with .com and ccTLD's.

A few gTLD's may get traction, but out of the possible number of applications it will be a small percentage.

 

[Edwin]

You could suggest they read this...
http://www.webmastering.co.uk/domain-names/the-myth-of-the-domain-name-queue-of-one/

 

[tifosi]

Sean is probably closest to the truth. I've been involved in all of this since pre-broadband which is when it started to take off and when the major high-street players took notice and got online.

To the regular populace the internet is still something of a mystery - or as a gym friend said yesterday - 'don't get it, just don't get it. It's great, but just don't get it.'

 

[websaway]

Yes its an exact domain not a typo (which I don't do). It's a multi-use generic but also the name of their (fairly successful) business.

No doubt I will be getting some additional traffic especially if they rebrand with the uk.com domain.

They just don't get it. The price of the domain is peanuts compared to their turnover. Just get the impression they expected it to be free to reg which it hasn't been since pre-2000.

Got a phone call a couple of days ago about another which was another premium common generic which the guy expected to pay the same as he would to register a ftr domain.

Getting the message across to business sector & personals alike who are increasingly reliant on the internet is getting increasingly frustrating!

It's getting more frustrating because it's growing. New businesses, new people,new ideas, new visions, when everybody understands it, it will be the end of growth. Same as the stock market. Thankfully it's a long long time off.
Happy Days !

 

[tifosi]

And the advent of internet phones and tablets means they don't need to get it. They type what they're looking for into the search bar which is merging with and getting rid of the domainers friend, the address bar and Google then serves them up a list of 10 web sites at the bottom of which is a tiny link that includes the domain, the bit that we're obsessed with and that no else could gives a crap about.

The above makes for ominous reading because if Google ever decided to stop giving weight to these exacts domains that people are so obsessed with then the need for domains would be even less important.

That's all very true, especially for non-local businesses. But it's more than whats viewable online, and that's where the power of the premium/descriptive domain comes in. It's in the marketing leaflets, the business cards, the t-shirts, mugs, and the sides of vans. The recognition factor for what is essentially a snapshot lazy human brain.

 

[Systreg]

And the advent of internet phones and tablets means they don't need to get it. They type what they're looking for into the search bar which is merging with and getting rid of the domainers friend, the address bar and Google then serves them up a list of 10 web sites at the bottom of which is a tiny link that includes the domain

Having never used a phone or a tablet to look at the internet, I thought users of those devices would see exactly the same as you see on a computer, just at a smaller screen resolution, anyone care to post a screen shot of what it looks like when using a phone to look at the net?

 

[Edwin]

I think most of us (I'll put my hand up here too) focus on the web, but 90% of advertising still takes place offline... And that's where an instantaneously memorable
domain name will (should) always be a priority!

 

[foz]

Without domain names, Google search would not work.

Everyone needs a locator, which for the present is a domain name.

From there, the scale of quality of that locator is significant.

 

[tifosi]

Domains are still relevant and can offer great value. I was playing devils advocate in my original post but in truth if you only wanted £500 for the domain then the buyer can't have been that smart but when you start getting to prices in the thousands, tens of thousands and higher I think it's going to get tougher.

Maybe I should have just quoted a £xxxx-xxxxx figure to them to show the 'quality' of the domain. They may have taken it seriously as an investment then....

but that's another thread entirely. The relationship between price quoted and further interest seems also to be increasingly irrelevent!

 

[BREWSTERS]

I had an enquiry for a decent generic domain recently. The negotiations boiled down to a mid-xxx value I was happy with.

Then all went a bit silent their end. I chased it a final time and got the message back that they had registered the .uk.com domain instead and were happy with that. They are going to rebrand with that instead of investing in the universally recognised .uk

How do you get the message across to these kinds of businesses who seem hellbent on hamstringing themselves? With this one I get the impression some time down the line they may realise by which time it will be too late.

This was from Rick Schwartz;

"If you were buying a boat or even a yacht, the FIRST thing you would verify is that there are no LEAKS. The first thing. In domains it is not only the last thing, in most cases it isn't even a thing. Some are completely unaware. When their ignorance is cured, certain domains will have more value.

The FIRST thing anyone should do when buying a domain name for a business is to make sure when that domain is promoted it does not LEAK! With a domain, leaks come in the form of confusion. In the form of misspells. In the form of hard to remember. In the form of the wrong extension. In the form of how it sounds. "

Your guy has bought a boat full of holes which will ultimately cost them far more to fix than your domain would've cost them. In fact, that boat will never be fixed, there'll always be leaks in it.

On the plus side, the value of your name has just been boosted!

 

[tifosi]

Which is what I told them... only not quite so poetically!

On the plus side, the value of your name has just been boosted!

It's back on the dev shortlist now and once developed will have an extra zero...

 

[Systreg]

It's back on the dev shortlist now and once developed will have an extra zero...

When they get fed up trying to fix the never ending leaks on their .uk.com, they'll probably come back to you, and the end of the story might be something like the roll forward a few years part of the first post here :

http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/selling-domain-names/100407-case-study-buyers-sellers-alike.html

it looks the same. The point I was trying to make (not well) is that tablets are making access to the internet more and more simple for the user, it's click on the browser icon, type what you want into the search bar and Google presents you with the ten web sites it deems most suitable.

@ Sean, thanks for clarifying your point, in that case, I seem to use a computer the same as people on phones and tablets do :lol:

I still remember and type url's in the address bar but ALL of my non internet related friends go to every web site that they want via Google. They'll ring and say, go to Google and type in "houses for sale in Preston" now click on the fourth one down etc..

I rarely type anything in to my browser apart from a couple of sites I login to direct on a daily basis where I type the full site url, any other site links of interest I save to specific folders in my never ending favourites list, which now has over 1000 sites in it.

Proper type in doesn't work work on Opera browser, for example, if I was to type money in to the browser and hit enter, it doesn't go to money.co.uk, it takes me to Google search instead but, most of the time, if I want something, I just use the search box in my browser and search on Google for it.