Morning Folks!!
Never confuse the customer. That's just one of the takeaways from the O.co disaster. Sure, you can put lipstick on this pig but 5 months after they announce they are going to become O.com, the change goes down in flames.
There are many losers in this. Some are short term losers and then there are long term losers. As for winners, there is only one winner. Dotcom!
Now this does not mean you can't make money with different extensions. You can. Including .co. It does mean you are crazy to try and build a business on any extension other than dotcom UNLESS you own the dotcom. They will ALWAYS have a gaping hole in their advertising and marketing strategy/budget and that is a costly mistake if they don't have the .com counterpart.
What happened with this news is akin to a $25 million domain sale. It's a marker in the sand. Marking a significant day with new FACTS.
This is what I would call a 'Paul Revere Moment' because the following line is going to be repeated and repeated and repeated for YEARS to come. Had O.co just decided to make a change would be one thing, but when they said THIS, the WORLD changed:
'Mr. Johnson said customers responded well to the O.co advertising, but after watching the spots, 'a good portion' of those who sought out the website went to O.com, instead of O.co.'
You can't put this back in the box. You can't unring this bell. This is not a low level employee, this is the President of the company. It is out there and I and others will hang our hat on it for years to come. Whether it be .co, .net, or HUNDREDS and soon to be THOUSANDS of other extensions.
'Mr. Johnson said customers responded well to the O.co advertising, but after watching the spots, 'a good portion' of those who sought out the website went to O.com, instead of O.co.'
Do not forget that line. THAT is what this is all about. 'It's the traffic, stupid!'
But there is also some clarity for the first time. Plus the conversation now turns to traffic. They are finally talking about traffic. When they start targeting that traffic we will all know we have arrived.
Itr has always been about the traffic but now they are reacting to it and understanding it.
When Overstock first announced they would be O.com I thought it was a stupid idea. Not because of the .co. That was not the first thing that popped in my mind. The first thing that popped in my mind was that the Overstock Brand itself was weak at best. Overstock is certainly not on the lips of most people and when I asked folks, most never heard of them. So their move was a branding mistake and premature.
It was stupid. I said so then and I did not mince words but I also was patient enough to wait for a REAL result. So the birdie in the mine was born.
Until NOW most folks did not know or maybe even did not believe that there is traffic leakage from ANY extension to the .com. That was inside baseball. We knew, few others did. Now the world knows. That's a good thing.
Read my posts for the last 15 years. I have stated over and over and over again that .NET is an'Orphan' extension. The weakest one because of the leakage to the .com. So this is nothing new. What is new is a mainstream company articulating that for the world to see. That is HUGE! That will have huge ramifications.
'Mr. Johnson said customers responded well to the O.co advertising, but after watching the spots, 'a good portion' of those who sought out the website went to O.com, instead of O.co.'
That is the key sentence to focus on. Nothing else in the release matters. But there is still a variable there. How MUCH leakage was there? We can guess at this. But let's look at the FACT that 5 months after they went to O.co they change course. 5 MONTHS!!! How much money did they spend in that re-branding effort? New commercials, new ads, new this and new that.
They did it 1 week before Thanksgiving. That is more evidence on how much leakage. Would you have liked to be a fly on the wall during those board meetings?
My estimate is as follows. 25% would be the very least leakage. But i think it is more. 50% would probably be getting close. My guess is they brought in a focus group, ran the commercial and then asked folks to simply go to their website.
So if that focus group had let's say had anywhere between 25% and 75% of folks going to O.com, then you can see why they would do something so drastic they know would be very embarrassing. The exact number we can speculate on. Just look how many times we have messed it up on blog posts or comments. CONFUSION!
But the FACT is it was so much leakage that they were forced to make this move after a huge investment.
Re-branding was a huge mistake when the original brand was not fully branded. But that is just a debating point. What can't be debated is the FACT of the traffic leakage. It's always about the traffic.
There is no excuse or justification. There are now facts. Facts to look at and plug in. But when we agree that this 'Experiment' is a big deal, we can't go back and say it doesn't mean much when it fails. And this was much more than a failure.
The single biggest loser, let me see, there are a few of them. But the biggest loser is down the road. I will have to re-read my August post on .Whatever and see if I need to change any of my thinking.
The gTLD's MOMENTUM is the the single biggest loser. How many companies will rethink their plans? How many will see this as the deciding factor? None of us know but I will guarantee you the answer is greater than 'None.' It may even rise to 'Many.'
Next up is .XXX. They have a different vision. Together we will see how that birdie does. I don't know, you don't know, but the birdie will know. The birdies cousin did not do well and this could be the next fatality. But sex sells and so I would say .XXX is the last best chance. A failure there is a nail in the coffin of .whatever as far as domain investment goes imho. We can count the carcases and come to a conclusion at that point. But I will still wait for the results and as always, time will tell.
I will also see what happens with the .XXX lawsuit. Mike Berkens wrote a piece yesterday and gives some good reasons why companies should get their .whatever. We will see if they take his advice. One thing is for sure, understanding of domain names and traffic on the Internet are still in the elementary stages. Folks that at this point should be fluent in domain names can hardly speak the language.
Those that don't understand how meaningful that one statement Mr. Johnson made is just missing the entire picture and wishing won't make your assets worth more. Taking in new information and adjusting is key. This was HUGE information. Nothing we did not know, but now confimed in a very public way.
I will be using that quote for YEARS to come. Forget the .co, (allthough the confusion factor here is off the chart) put in any extension. If you are going to mass market, you MUST own the dotcom version. SIMPLE. One sentence says it all! Thank you Mr. Johnson. You are my hero!
'Mr. Johnson said customers responded well to the O.co advertising, but after watching the spots, 'a good portion' of those who sought out the website went to O.com, instead of O.co.'
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
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