Domain names are now competing for space.
I received a catalog from Bissinger’s last week and thoroughly inspected the mailer (it’s great chocolate). What caught my attention was the back of the catalog.
Take a look:
What do you notice?
15 years ago this catalog would have probably just had a phone number. A few years later it would have a phone number and domain name.
Now both of these are relegated to the side. In fact, I didn’t even notice them at first.
Instead I noticed three other ways to stay connected with Bissinger’s:
Twitter, Facebook, and a QR Code to visit the web site from your mobile phone.
Domain names sure are competing with a lot more communication tools.
Jeff Edelman says
I’d maintain that the more clutter there is, and the more information there is, the more important a good, concise, descriptive domain name would be.
Elliot says
Interesting that they seem to prefer that people have to search for their Twitter and Facebook pages.
David J Castello says
It’s the same way it was 10 years ago: Webmasters and IT departments are still being entrusted with making the same dopey marketing decisions.
Josh says
Having a domain name with a website is necessary but not sufficient in today’s market. So, I would say that having a domain is at least as important as it has ever been. With all the competing platforms, though, I don’t think having an above average domain automatically sets a business apart in the same way it did a few years ago. Having a terrible domain, however, or having no website at all would be a bigger mistake today than it ever was before.
Claude says
Morons!
I’d bet that half of their customers do not have either a FB or TWT account! Maybe 3% even know what a QR code is.
RH says
Agree with all the points above. Elliot is right what the heck no @twitter address so people need to search for their twitter ?
jblack says
Funny how branded companies screamed about “brand dilution” by avoiding generic domain names but willingly embrace Facebook and Twitter that greatly dilute brands. How exactly do QR codes pass radio tests, TV tests, get passed by word of mouth, or stick in consumers’ minds?
Gene says
I actually think that they would argue that they’ve given the phone number and domain name prominence – by putting them vertically, and highlighting them in their company’s colors – rather than relegation.
Admittedly, because QR Codes are still a bit of a novelty to people, most sets of eyes will instantly zone-in on the Code; but after you spend an additional two seconds, the vertical binding becomes more of a focal point.
Anyway, David’s right that this was likely done – or influenced by – IT folks.
domain guy says
i noticed the same thing recently.real estate companies stated that the qr code response rate has gone up 400% in the last 6 months.
however not everyone owns or wants a smartphone.
fb you are not in control fb is and you are one of many on the website.
twitter..still searching for a biz mobel with an 8 billion evaluation..also your message is only reveleent for a short period of time.
no matter want i think the market determines the future…and domain names are not on the label.
Theo says
You see this more and more. And in some cases companies skip the entire domain name and only create an FB page and twitter account.
Pretty risky if you ask me. Those social media sites are here today gone tomorrow.
John says
A .COM name is the centerpiece to all. FaceBook Pages are awesome, especially for restaurants, but entrusting one’s livelihood to one medium or mediums without having End control with the .Com is asking for trouble overtime as these other venues will come and go in popularity.
DR.DOMAIN says
Facebook…Twitter…QR Codes…all of these are window-dressed WORKAROUNDS.Sure they make you look hip & current.Still…they can’t beat a good domain name.I have a domain that an upstart fashion company wants.They could’nt meet my price (10k),and have taken the FB route.I wish them well,because I know that they’ll be back.
Larry says
They are just trying to appear hip and gain in psych terms a halo effect.
As with the mention of facebook and twitter this is similar to companies wanting celebrities next to their brand to enhance their image (of course in that case the celebrity costs money for an endorsement).
Here, even though everyone puts up and mentions these pages (not exclusive) you are hoping that someones positive association with facebook or twitter will rub off on your company.
It costs nothing to put the facebook and twitter logo on your page. Back in the day (circa 90’s) the practice started to put up pages of who your “partners” were. You would put up the logo of anyone impressive that you bought hardware and software from and call them your partner. People who came to your web page would think you had some affiliation with them that was much more than that.
owen frager says
Shameless plug but HTML5 AND THE DOMAINLESS WEB FUTURE (must see)
http://fragerfactor.blogspot.com/2011/08/must-see-video-early-facebook-investor.html
Mirella says
I think HTML5 will bring on a renaissance of the website…instead of all of us having a place in the walled gardens of facebook and the like, we can have the same kind of connectivity in the open, our own rules on sharing and privacy etc., with our own pages connecting with any other pages in ways, that will go way beyond what the fairly rigid and inflexible structures of the current social networks provide.
I hope we’ll see the www become the ultimate network of all kinds, social, commercial and whatever all you smart people out there come up with.
Where do domains fit in there? I think, for some time to come, they will become more important than ever, before things change again….
Not to forget: this may be the leading edge of things to come, but most of the world, especially business, is only just now discovering the internet! They just now begin to realize that the static corporate page is not enough these days, and all the talk of ‘social’ makes their (mostly boomer)heads spin. ‘Must do social, no matter what’, therefore those bar codes on the catalogs….
It’ll calm down again and when the rest of the (business) world catches up a little, a somewhat clearer picture will show that the domain name will play an important role for some time to come…
John says
@Frager. I saw the interview with Roger and have seen him through the years on CNBC. No way the PC is dead. One cannot possibly come close productivity wise, especially when spruced up with multiple screens. The iPad will work well for waiters and the medical community, but it doesn’t have the HorsePower that a PC has and never will. One wants a real gun to hunt in the wild not a squirt gun.
picas says
Who can see the future ???
Carwyn Stephen says
Or maybe that’s just a badly designed catalogue back? Looks horrible to me, no alignment or order, so I doubt the person making it had any care to order the different methods of communication in order of importance.
D.J.Rony says
I can’t disagree with you. In this era the business is all about connection and most of the times the connection comes from the social media. So they might have come first. Who need a phn number if you have a nicely decorated information section in your website?
Monique Lula says
yep I own hundreds of domains I am letting go because they are becoming dormant, and if you are trying to make money, you have to go where the customers are… and that’s FACEBOOK. lol… I got to this page through Namecheap’s FB page linking this here article. SEE. lol
denny says
PC dieing, not until this smart phone gets a bigger keyboard. Got here via FB…
WebsiteToSell says
I’ve been noticing the same thing, too. As far as domain names, companies understand that the first place a person is going to search for their website is theirbrandname dot com when they want to go to the website. If they can remember their brand name, it’s understood they can find their website. This is merely an economical use of limited space.
Moderator: Please delete the prior comment as there is a mistake in the website url, and this is a re-posting. Thank you.
alan dunn says
Good article – I think we have been seeing this evolve in many shapes and forms over the last few years as the industry, end users and investors are simply gearing more and more towards quality generic and brandable names. Frank probably said it best a couple years ago – only about 2 percent of all registered names have value. Domain names are not becoming less important imo but what makes a good domain is tightening up where the owners of quality ones will end up with higher valued assets and the remaining junk will continue to drop or sold to newbies
NameSales says
One of the contributors to the erosion of a domain name’s value is the proliferation of the bit.ly abbreviators. Bit.ly totally eradicates the domain name which provides the content the user wants, and after the user checks out the desired content, it goes away not even remembering where the content was located in the first place.
tony cochran says
thanks for the story andrew. lots of interesting comments here. interesting to see those that discovered the article via fb letting us know. i don’t think domain names are losers here. i agree with the comment above that consumers expect to find your brand at yourbrand.com. the catalog cover is poorly designed in my opinion.
Owen frager says
PC won’t die but will move to cloud. Devices will be stripped down to screens that each reflect a unified user experience regardless of the footprint.
AustraliaHouses says
If you want to know where hardware is going, look to the market innovators in Japan and South Korea.
PC sales in Japan and South Korea have been declining every year for the past 5 years.
Mobile Phone sales have been increasing for the past 5 years in those countries, and around the world.
60% of all Internet access is now done via mobile phones, less than 40% via PCs. (Not just in Asia, but around the world.)
Africa has no electrical infrastructure to speak of, mobile phones are IT.
I think I might start buying some .mobi names…