debate What is a brandable domain?

JayT · Jan 5, 2017

There was a huge debate in chat room. Everyone participating thought I was wrong

-My definition of a brandable: any made up word or non-definite string of words.

-NOT a brandable: 'any generic (dictionary)word, or combination of words that have a rather exacting meaning / have one obvious 'best use'.

My Real examples from chat:
NON BRANDABLE:
Jade.com
Popcorn.com
GoldNews.net
Muffins.org
Apple.com
Monkey.com

All these words can be brandable. Obviously apple isn't expected to be a computer company, but it is. According to everyone else in chat it was a brandable domain all along! They said Jade could be a hotel, or airliner, and as such, it is a brandable domain too. They said GoldNews was a brandable too (and gave crazy reasoning)! My argument was that in reality, anything can be brandable. I told them I could brand blueberrymuffin.com into a baby clothing store (they disagreed) So popcorn.com is brandable but blueberrymuffin.com isn't? I do not think we should be calling the above domains brandables.

It is easier to see when a domain IS a brandable...

They are casting this wide net. I asked why even use the term 'brandable' if it's going to encompass all these domains? Furthermore, if they hated a domain (example: tyvix.com) they said it was NOT a brandable! I could not believe it! They have no definition! they are just going off emotions! Looks like that if they hate a domain they don't want to associate it with their beloved 'brandables'...okay so reality check. Yes, any name can be branded to anything. Do that mean we, as domainers, consider that a brandable domain? Again, why even use the term if we apply it to all of these domains? Why don't we just stop calling them domains and start calling them brandables? (one guy even suggesting just by adding .com or w/e to the end, you are instantly making a brandable, LOL!)

my real examples:
BRANDABLE:
Tyvix.com
Purpleknife.com
Scratchmonkey.com

These word/string are not generic. They have no certain meaning at all. The names can be used for almost anything. These are the kind of domains we should be calling 'brandable'

I would appreciate anyone's input here. This thread might be a little selfish, just to prove to myself that I am not way off base here. I am confused...everyone else was arguing with me...and this seems so simple to me. I am also writing this to warn you because I think it's important to see sentiment!

I highly recommend stop buying 'brandables' This is way over saturated, and ludicrous now. This argument opened my eyes more than ever that this is a big brandable bubble now, ready to pop, just like chips. I honestly think everyone is feeling threatened and must add these good generic domains into their definition of 'brandable' to protect their investment. This is exactly what happens in bubble, investors become irrational. Do not be self-centered people, LOOK around!

Robert G · Jan 7, 2017

Question to the OP.
do you consider google.com brandable?
it is a word with real meaning, and now can be argued the most recognizable brand in the world.

BlueprintMedia · Jan 7, 2017

As a domainer, I see everything as brandable.

Hemanttilotia · Jan 7, 2017

I guess if popcorn.com isn't brandable, then my domain popcorno.com definitely isn't

Submitting to bb

Fuadiansyah · Jan 8, 2017

Types of domains

1. Descriptive
The domain or brand describes what the company does.
Examples: Whole foods, WorkInjury, Free ConferenceCall, ContentMarketing, BigData, clutter.com

2. Suggestive
Suggests what your business is about however also invokes some creativity. Examples: neat.com, mint.com, twitter.com, clutter.com

3. Inventive
Creating a new word or using words of phrases that have nothing to do with a company’s industry or product offering.
Examples: Apple, Milk by Samsung

Example 1: Internet Browsers Internet Explorer would fall into the descriptive category. Safari is a suggestive name because it elicits the idea of exploring. Firefox is a case of using an inventive word for a brand that has nothing to do with the internet.

Example 2: Small Business Loans CapitalForMerchants.com would be an example of a descriptive domain. The Lending Tree would be an example of a suggestive brand. Kabbage is an inventive brand that has nothing to do with small business loans, but connotes growth, which is what businesses want to achieve.

Determine the best approach for your brand based on the competitive landscape. If the majority of brands are descriptive in your industry, it may make sense to use a suggestive domain to stand out and get noticed.

Source: .COM Strategies by Chris Zuiker - Sr. Broker of Media Options

Hope this helps. So, it could be categorized to other. Not just BRANDABLE or NON-BRANDABLE...

The Durfer · Jan 8, 2017

ha, what about boer.beer that would be some good brew.ski

and don't forget our bran(fiber)dables.

The Durfer · Jan 8, 2017

so is porno brandable but not porn? hmmmm

Bram C. · Jan 8, 2017

JayT said:
What is wrong here, is that you are contradicting yourself at every turn, because you have no method.

Just another tail chaser.

@JayT When Slader23 said "Category defining one word names do not fit into this. i.e Cigarettes.com or Blog.com vs Striker.com or Jade.com." he was basically saying cigarettes.com and blog.com are not brandable (because they only have one obvious use) vs Striker.com or Jade.com which are brandable (because they can be used for tons of businesses). You then attacked him saying that he's now contradicting himself by saying jade.com is not brandable when in fact he said jade.com is a perfect example of brandability. Seems like you misunderstood him.

JayT · Jan 8, 2017

Hi, I decided to come back and talk to you guys. I won't talk to people who suggest I have IRL problems or "dumb as fuck" for opposing view of a brandable definition though. Of course some of this are opinions, and some things are debatable, and there are no cut and dry rules for 100% of names! As it stands, it's obvious some of us have completely different view of the term though. When there is this big of divide to the meaning of brandable the term is useless imo. I am trying to be as realistic as possible, really!

dmbroker said:
Question to the OP.
do you consider google.com brandable?
it is a word with real meaning, and now can be argued the most recognizable brand in the world.

I wonder if you are asking a loaded question here, I mean, what do YOU think it is? You are not clear...I am afraid no matter what I answer you will turn it around on me!

What does Google.com mean? Before Google, the company, existed, the word meant nothing. It was a made up imaginary word. That is a brandable, imo. Google is as much of a brandable as the garbage you find on brandbucket. Google might as well be Xnoni.com. The only reason Google 'seems' like a real, generic word, is the very success of GOOGLE. It is a psychology thing. This same psychology I am suggesting that causing people to apply the 'brandable' tag on domains like tiger.com, but in reverse. They are making 'brandable' subjective to include only the best of the best, and reject the worst of the worst. I think it's ridiculous to alter the definition based on the success or failure (or potential success or failure) of the business behind it...this is what I am complaining about all thought the thread - this thinking is TOO subjective.

Keep in mind you suggest it is a "word with real meaning" (circumstantial only in this situation) This is only because Google did this to it. It made this word. It took a fake word (brandable) and did what it was suppose to do, successfully made a brand out of nothing generic.

Bram C. said:
@JayT When Slader23 said "Category defining one word names do not fit into this. i.e Cigarettes.com or Blog.com vs Striker.com or Jade.com." he was basically saying cigarettes.com and blog.com are not brandable (because they only have one obvious use) vs Striker.com or Jade.com which are brandable (because they can be used for tons of businesses). You then attacked him saying that he's now contradicting himself by saying jade.com is not brandable when in fact he said jade.com is a perfect example of brandability. Seems like you misunderstood him.

Yes I know, if you read the bottom part of that post I explain. He typed it extremely deceivingly...look...

"Brand-able:" <---here I am thinking this section is going to be all about what IS A brandable.
"Levels in terms of desirability, marketability and overall quality.
1. One word generic emd domains that have a high variability in terms of the different industries that can be marketed through the name. Category defining one word names do not fit into this". <--He is still on bullet point 1, which is clearly explaining what a brandable is...at first..I am 100% expecting him to continue his description of what a brandable IS. IMO, he decivingly throws in a sentence about what is NOT i.e Cigarettes.com or Blog.com vs (it is extremly easy to miss this "VS" assuming what I do giving what is going on) Striker.com or Jade.com. These tend to be the most desirable names on the market." <-He solidifys his confusion by summering it all as ONE..there is separation in the body, but the final line re-inforces that he is talking about 1 single thing

I hope everyone can understand the above. He type in an extremely deceiving manner, so that without attacking my theory, he can say I am interpreting him wrongly. I agree, upon further reading I did interpret wrong. BUT he did an extremely deceptive way of writing it. His grade would be an 'F; if i were the English teacher.

Instead of defending myself - Something to ponder:
A big focus here has been apple computer. People say apple is brandable because it can be applied to many things. This is so subjective. If it wasn't for apple computers, it might not seem so likely that apple could effectively be applied to many things! Think, how about "plum automotive" or "peach televisions"...it just sounds silly! SINCE you see a big success of Apple computer use a "apple" to associate with computers, it seems "apple" could brand well with anything! This is an emotional perception...I'm wondering how good of a brandable these others think "pomegranate" is...because if it where pomegranate computers instead of apple computers, they would see things much differently. I know it...they are selecting on emotion and circumstance, which is dynamic, no rules to what someone can do. It is all subjective thinking they are doing. I know I repeat myself...but it's obvious I am not getting though.

bludex · Jan 9, 2017

It's a brandable if the trait of distinguishment is different than an eventual generic attribution of meaning to a sign, in our case generally words left of the dot in a domain. In the end we are talking about suitiability of a word to be used to distinguish a business from it's competitors, which is not possible by using exact match descriptive terms of the business except when including the tld.

JayT · Jan 9, 2017

I think most people try to apply literal dictionary word of 'brand'. I don't think this can suit our purpose as domain classification, because anything can be made a brand. r2d2 could become a brand, if someone wanted (I know it's been used...) Tiger, beer, triceratops, hotels, gold, jade all these single words people are calling brandables. I do agree these single words could be 'branded' into something we wouldn't expect. I am arguing that with some finesse, someone can brand any word, even the ones you don't think is possible. This is why I am saying it's too subjective. I am saying that in this theory, every domain is a brandable, and it is useless to use the term then.

Single words are already strictly defined = they are generic. It is not like RedBlock (brandable domain), which isn't so exacting / meaningful without being explained / made.

In OP I said they were telling me goldchart is a brandable. I am saying not so. Just because a brand doesn't exist main-stream on this doesn't make it a brandable. GoldChart = a gold price chart...isn't it reasonable to suggest this is -best use- of this name?

Others are looking at a word and thinking of -anything- that COULD be applied to it in order to call it brandable. They told me goldchart can be (I quote) "charts for VIPs"...This is just such a stretch...isn't it?! To me goldchart is extremely generic. I wonder if I am the only person in the world that can tell the difference between domain like GoldChart (generic) and RedBlock (brandable)?...Yes these domain are extremely similar and I am trying to show the lines. Of course even on my method there is some 'subjective', 'opinion'...but way less than the other way around!

2 people said Google was a generic name on this thread...IMO, one of us are very, very wrong. I think Google is about as brandable as you can get!

NamePrime · Jan 11, 2017

For me, brandables are the domains I register at 2am and thinks "damn! these are great brandables! some companies out there will want to buy it from me!", then auctions them at Namepros for $5 a pop the next day

JayT · Jan 11, 2017

yup, brandable worth ~$0 to everyone except you and that leprechaun at the end of the rainbow. You can only hope he comes out and opens with xx,xxx.

urlurl · Jan 11, 2017

most of my sales have been brandable and are in the $x,xxx

decode · Jan 11, 2017

@JayT I think you are 100% right.

Brandables should be some sort of made up word or string of words, or suffix add-on etc.

Brandable is different from a brand as you explained.

In that debate the fact that they thought you were wrong and they all felt the same meant you were hitting a nerve. I've seen you post excellent info on your points and back them up. Keep up the good work.

To reinforce your point:
App.com is not a brandable

App.com would be a brand a category killer etc a name every single person should want to own but not a brandable as defined by the market we are talking about.

But
appful.com
appgrape.com
appeo.com
These are brandables in terms of what we are talking about when we are talking about brandables.

If it is made up and sounds like something a that integrates with a bot or slack api or something you would hear on a CNN commercial break made by pfizer then you are onto what the heck a brandable is.

I hope a lot of people disagree with me.

decode · Jan 11, 2017

FYI - brandables are such a massive rabbit hole that BB has added a pre-registration approval option to keep people from going absolutely broke hand registering domains that might and most likely won't be accepted into their market.

Brandables are not liquid like LLLL.com or NNNNN.com they are liquid to some extent if BB accepts them. But if you reg for $9 and pay $10 to list and can sell for $25 here that was a lot of work for a few bucks and that is if you only had to reg one to be accepted. At least with BB's new program you can pay $1 per review prior to registering. At that you would need a 1 in 7 ratio to break even with a $25 sale here. Count on a sell through rate of 1 or 2 per 100 per year if you have great ones and (stress the and) someone else on this planet likes the name as much as you.

Hoping this market matures over the years and I'm happy to own some very nice brandables to build out that I'm keeping away and not bothering to list anywhere at all along with a handful of BB ones.

Dee Man · Sep 4, 2018

Every name can be branded, let's not forget that.It just doesn't matter what the name is being used for.Let me go deeper to define Brand names & Brand-Able names more realistically...
Brand Names : Names given to a particular product by a company.(Dictionary & keyword names which a lots of time can be pronounced)
Examples of brand domains :
1.WorldMove.com
2.Bobbleheads.com
3.Apple.com
4.Phone.com

Brand-Able Names : Names that can be considered or worth being considered for a particular company.(made up names which a lots of time can be pronounced)
Examples of brand-able domains :
1.Cexel.com
2.Licza.com
3.Mysterial.com(derived from mystery or mysterious)
4.Google.com(derived from googles)

Joe N · Sep 4, 2018

Dee Man said:
4.Google.com(derived from googles)

Google is actually a play on the word "googol" (1 followed by 100 zeroes).

urlurl · Sep 4, 2018

actual, Google is a misspelling of Googol... oops

Google; the name of the search engine originated from a misspelling of the word "googol", the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, which was picked to signify that the search engine was intended to provide large quantities of information.

Joe N · Sep 4, 2018

urlurl said:
actual, Google is a misspelling of Googol... oops

Google; the name of the search engine originated from a misspelling of the word "googol", the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, which was picked to signify that the search engine was intended to provide large quantities of information.

That's what a play on words is...

urlurl · Sep 4, 2018

Licza and cexel are not good examples at all, they are barely pronounceable.

urlurl · Sep 4, 2018

Joe Nichols said:
That's what a play on words is...

i was writing before you posted, i was referring to the above post

Dee Man · Sep 4, 2018

Dee Man said:
Every name can be branded, let's not forget that.It just doesn't matter what the name is being used for.Let me go deeper to define Brand names & Brand-Able names more realistically...
Brand Names : Names given to a particular product by a company.(Dictionary & keyword names which a lots of time can be pronounced)
Examples of brand domains :
1.WorldMove.com
2.Bobbleheads.com
3.Apple.com
4.Phone.com

Brand-Able Names : Names that can be considered or worth being considered for a particular company.(made up names which a lots of time can be pronounced)
Examples of brand-able domains :
1.Cexel.com
2.Licza.com
3.Mysterial.com(derived from mystery or mysterious)
4.Google.com(derived from googles

urlurl said:

actual, Google is a misspelling of Googol... oops

Google; the name of the search engine originated from a misspelling of the word "googol", the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, which was picked to signify that the search engine was intended to provide large quantities of information.

Click to expand...

Yes you're right about that.

urlurl · Sep 4, 2018

not sure why you picked those names for your discussion they are not even established brands... google is the only established co you used...

Dee Man · Sep 4, 2018

urlurl said:
not sure why you picked those names for your discussion they are not even established brands... google is the only established co you used...

Yes Google is the only established brand but people need to know the other brand-ables available and not only an established brands.

robert widener · Oct 23, 2018

JayT said:
There was a huge debate in chat room. Everyone participating thought I was wrong

-My definition of a brandable: any made up word or non-definite string of words.

-NOT a brandable: 'any generic (dictionary)word, or combination of words that have a rather exacting meaning / have one obvious 'best use'.

My Real examples from chat:
NON BRANDABLE:
Jade.com
Popcorn.com
GoldNews.net
Muffins.org
Apple.com
Monkey.com

All these words can be brandable. Obviously apple isn't expected to be a computer company, but it is. According to everyone else in chat it was a brandable domain all along! They said Jade could be a hotel, or airliner, and as such, it is a brandable domain too. They said GoldNews was a brandable too (and gave crazy reasoning)! My argument was that in reality, anything can be brandable. I told them I could brand blueberrymuffin.com into a baby clothing store (they disagreed) So popcorn.com is brandable but blueberrymuffin.com isn't? I do not think we should be calling the above domains brandables.

It is easier to see when a domain IS a brandable...

They are casting this wide net. I asked why even use the term 'brandable' if it's going to encompass all these domains? Furthermore, if they hated a domain (example: tyvix.com) they said it was NOT a brandable! I could not believe it! They have no definition! they are just going off emotions! Looks like that if they hate a domain they don't want to associate it with their beloved 'brandables'...okay so reality check. Yes, any name can be branded to anything. Do that mean we, as domainers, consider that a brandable domain? Again, why even use the term if we apply it to all of these domains? Why don't we just stop calling them domains and start calling them brandables? (one guy even suggesting just by adding .com or w/e to the end, you are instantly making a brandable, LOL!)

my real examples:
BRANDABLE:
Tyvix.com
Purpleknife.com
Scratchmonkey.com

These word/string are not generic. They have no certain meaning at all. The names can be used for almost anything. These are the kind of domains we should be calling 'brandable'

I would appreciate anyone's input here. This thread might be a little selfish, just to prove to myself that I am not way off base here. I am confused...everyone else was arguing with me...and this seems so simple to me. I am also writing this to warn you because I think it's important to see sentiment!

I highly recommend stop buying 'brandables' This is way over saturated, and ludicrous now. This argument opened my eyes more than ever that this is a big brandable bubble now, ready to pop, just like chips. I honestly think everyone is feeling threatened and must add these good generic domains into their definition of 'brandable' to protect their investment. This is exactly what happens in bubble, investors become irrational. Do not be self-centered people, LOOK around!

dont sweat it

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