Cybersquatting

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Jamie Murphy, Laura Raffa and Richard Mizerski

Domain Name Branding by the World’se-branding SPECIAL SECTION: Top Brands

The Use of Domain Names in e-branding by the World’s Top Brands

JAMIE MURPHY, LAURA RAFFA AND RICHARD MIZERSKI

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INTRODUCTION

There is substantial research on branding via traditional media (Aaker 1991, Keller 2003), yet little research of online branding. The prevalence and strategies of e-branding through the use of domain names, or urls, remains relatively unexplored apart from anecdotal reports of dotcom successes and failures. Do top companies choose and register domain names that easily link visitors to their site in a manner that complements and reinforces the brand’s identity? The Ford Motor Company, for example, uses ford.com as its global domain name and ford.com.au in Australia. How do companies use the global .com domain, other global domains and myriad country domains for branding? Finally, does research from the study of Organizational Diffusion of Innovations (Rogers 1995) help explain, and perhaps accurately predict, how major brands will use domain names for e-branding? Promoting and protecting the brand offline is a constant and expensive activity for top companies. It is important online as well, but legislation to safeguard brands from the effects of fake and protest e-brands has been slow and inconsistent as courts wrestle with this new medium (Fitzgerald 2000; Hanson 2000; Mosquera 2000; Sargert 2000). This study reviews the roles and

Keywords: brands, e-brands, domain names, diffusion of innovations

LITERATURE REVIEW Brands and branding

Brands have existed since early Roman times, but branding as a marketing tool is only about 120 years old (Tedlow 1990). A well accepted definition of a brand name is a ‘distinguishing name and/or symbol … to differentiate … goods or services from competition’ (Aaker 1991: 7). This concept of a brand evolved from nineteenth...