Matt Asay for Cnet published an article called “Ten things the world can learn from open source “. It is simply a great read for any business owner and additionally, there’s a domain related angle which should be added here.
"A business’ brand is its greatest asset in driving sales. Not its IP. Not its sales team. Brand. Brand is what gives a customer trust that the product (and service behind it) is worth buying, even when another product is cheaper, easier, etc. Vendors need to invest heavily in their brands (through public relations, for example), and it’s the primary area that lawyers become supremely helpful, i.e., through trademark law. A brand should be earned and protected at all costs."
(Point #3:)
Online, since many companies share the same and/or similar names where there is only one “main street” address (.com), many consumers confuse that address with a specific business they have in mind. For example, consumers may type “Smith.com ” looking for Smith Bits , Smith Drilling Company , Smith Power Equipment , etc but end up viewing the current Smith.com site which is owned by Smith International, a company in the drilling business however unrelated to those mentioned previously.
The problem occurs where a consumer lands on the site, in our case a a website which which uses a common family name, and where the consumer may believe he has landed on the right website for his needs. The consumer in this case truly believe he has found the right company he had in mind to do business with. Sounds illogical? We get hundreds of emails a day on our generic domain names, from support tickets to multi million dollar orders, from consumers who believe they have found the right company, although our sites don’t look nor represent anything remotely to those consumers are looking for.
As noted above, a business greatest asset is its brand. When there’s a disconnect between a business brand to the default choice by internet users (.com), there will always be lost business.
Source: Posted on TheConceptualist by Sahar Sarid -- Reprinted with permission -- August 3, 2008