DomainTools Blog

George Eastman’s revolutionized film and cameras in the 1800’s. The Eastman Company was able to take a leading position in a photography industry of more than fifty competitors by selling his patented “point and push” technology. Everyone was competing for the consumers’ pocketbook, but Eastman just had better and simpler products that everyone preferred. His slogan was, “You press the button, we do the rest”.

What Eastman also did was invent a new word, “Kodak”. By branding his product under a trademarked name, everyone knew what a Kodak was. Those five letters captured everything people learned about his product and allowed them to say it in one breath. Eastman was a fan of short, simple words for Trademarks. It was easy to say and easy to spell, so it allowed for people spread his idea virally. Eastman built a lot of Brand Loyality in that word.

Everything was going great for Kodak until they bumped up into the digital age. The Kodak’s technology sucks when you compare it to the digital stuff we have now. Ask any consumer if they want the old “Point and Push” stuff or the new digital “Point and Click” cameras and people overwhelmingly respond by saying, “Digital”. But all is not lost for Kodak. Their technology is crap but they still have their name - their famous brand. Now, this is where I compare Kodak to Domain Names. Watch closely!

Kodak can suck as much as they want. They have a brand which is estimated to be the seventh most famous brand in the world and worth $4.4 Billion. Billion with a “B”. To take advantage of their brand, all they need to do it slap their “Kodak” name on a generic digital camera made by any number of Chinese factories and it is instantly able to sell for a lot more. A Brand’s mental traffic is the same as a generic domain’s physical traffic. Generic domains will be able to slap their name on APIs and white labeled products and it will create instant profit for the domain owner and the other company.

Parking pages on Generic domains are crap, we all know it. But the key to the real value in this equation is in the name. Everybody who owns a Generic Domain name gets an infinite amount of Re-Do’s. Keep playing with the backend (Yahoo/Google). Parking pages in 2007 may be crap. But parking pages in 2020 may be full blown portals that keep visitors coming back. Only one person can control the name, and if you do, you may be selling yourself short if you ask for only a few years revenue.

Eastman Co. can sell the “Kodak” brand and trademark to Sony for $4.4 Billion. How much can you sell a Cameras.com or DigitalCameras.com for? Recently it was about $1 Million. Hmmm, I think $1 Million looks dirt cheap.