Marketing expert Wang Tong:The impact of domain name on the brand

JD.com, formerly known as 360buy.com, for a significant period of time, led many users to believe that JD was a website under the 360 brand. Later, JD.com acquired the JD.com domain for tens of millions.

When Kaixin.com was created, the domain kaixin.com was available for just a few thousand dollars, but the founders opted for kaixin001.com instead. Eventually, it was purchased by the owner of 9158 and later sold to Renren. The outcome? Renren went public, while Kaixin.com lost its user base.

After using Ctrip for seven or eight years, I still can't recall Ctrip's domain name, and many other users face the same issue. Ctrip spends a significant amount on advertising every year to bid on the keyword "携程" (Ctrip) in search engines. In the end, they spent 3 million to acquire xiecheng.com.

Vipshop, initially using the domain vipshop.com, which wasn't particularly easy to remember, later invested millions to acquire VIP.com and has since fully adopted it.

Recently, CNNIC, through Ename China, auctioned a batch of premium CN domains, with final sale prices ranging from hundreds of thousands to over a million yuan. The domain game.cn, in particular, reached an astonishing 3.098 million yuan. The total amount generated from this auction exceeded 60 million yuan and is still continuing.

In earlier years, I registered hundreds of domains, mostly for personal use, and paid little attention to domain investing and trading. Some domain names that were very beneficial for SEO were given away to friends after I no longer needed them. There were even several valuable domains that I forgot to renew.

It was only last year when I was assisting a few traditional businesses with brand planning that I realized they had started to recognize the impact of domains on brand image. So, I helped these companies acquire a few domains as part of their brand strategy.

The impact of domain names on a brand includes:

1. Brand Image:A domain name serves as the face of a brand, conveying the strength, credibility, and professionalism of a website or company. An easily memorable and high-quality domain name helps establish a positive brand image, while obscure and hard-to-remember domain names may signal unprofessionalism or lack of trustworthiness.

2. Savings in Advertising Expenditure: A good domain name that is easy to remember encourages users to return to a website or spread the word, reducing advertising and marketing expenses. Conversely, difficult-to-recall domain names may lead users to rely on search engines, increasing advertising costs.

3. Brand Image Protection: Owning domain names related to the brand helps protect its reputation. If a brand doesn't own relevant domain names, malicious competitors or domain investors may purchase them and use them inappropriately, causing harm to the brand's image.

In the cases you mentioned, brands like Vipshop, Hishop, TWCMS, etc., recognized the importance of domain names in their brand strategies and took action to improve their brand image and protect their brand rights. Domain name investment is also a viable strategy because domain names are scarce resources that can appreciate over time. Whether for investment or personal use, choosing domain names you like is a wise decision.