{"id":3105,"date":"2013-01-17T19:16:27","date_gmt":"2013-01-18T00:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acro.net\/blog\/?p=3105"},"modified":"2013-01-17T19:22:17","modified_gmt":"2013-01-18T00:22:17","slug":"you-dont-need-a-killer-generic-to-build-a-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acro.net\/blog\/you-dont-need-a-killer-generic-to-build-a-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"You don’t need a killer generic to build a brand"},"content":{"rendered":"

My good friend Mike Berkens at TheDomains seemed to be in ‘shock and awe<\/em>‘ mode today, over the rebranding of Buy.com as ‘Rakuten’.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

A couple of facts: Rakuten exists as a brand since 1999 in Japan, having used the name “Rakuten Ichiba” since 1997. Apparently, Rakuten generated $4.7 billion dollars in revenue in 2011, a year after they bought Buy.com for $250 million dollars.<\/p>\n

I believe that Buy.com was the first retailer I spent money on, long before Amazon. Their service wasn’t spectacular then, and I wasn’t drawn to the company because I randomly typed “Buy.com” in the web browser; even back then in 1998, Buy.com was a brand<\/strong> for consumer electronics and computer parts.<\/p>\n

Soon though, I moved to using retailers such as Amazon or Newegg<\/strong>. The latter – hardly a generic<\/em> – is my favorite destination for computer gear to this day, simply because of the stellar customer service and low prices they provide.<\/p>\n

So for more than a decade, Buy.com slipped into oblivion; if I were to follow the logic of domainers, since I wanted to “buy” something I should just enter that generic keyword in Google or the browser.<\/p>\n

That’s not how businesses are built, however. Brands<\/strong> – names that are partially or fully crafted<\/em> – move the Internet, a word that is also a brand: nobody is looking for “information superhighway,” thank goodness.<\/p>\n

Ultra generics serve a purpose, but they cannot overthrow the strengths of brands: Nike, Microsoft, Xerox, Pepsi, Audi, BMW, Canon etc.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure what Rakuten will do with Buy.com; my guess is that they will wrap it into a service and sell it off to a company willing to use it as an outlet. Brand penetration, after all, requires a brand<\/strong> that even when it makes use of a generic word, it’s used as a manifestation of a product or service.<\/p>\n

Just ask Apple.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My good friend Mike Berkens at TheDomains seemed to be in ‘shock and awe‘ mode today, over the rebranding of Buy.com as ‘Rakuten’. A couple of facts: Rakuten exists as a brand since 1999 in Japan, having used the name “Rakuten Ichiba” since 1997. Apparently, Rakuten generated $4.7 billion dollars in revenue in 2011, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nYou don't need a killer generic to build a brand - Acro.net - A Domain Investing Blog by Theo Develegas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acro.net\/blog\/you-dont-need-a-killer-generic-to-build-a-brand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You don't need a killer generic to build a brand - Acro.net - A Domain Investing Blog by Theo Develegas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My good friend Mike Berkens at TheDomains seemed to be in ‘shock and awe‘ mode today, over the rebranding of Buy.com as ‘Rakuten’. 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