discuss How do you define brandable?

equity78 · Oct 22, 2018

There seems to be a never ending array of domain investors looking for "brandable" names. One of the dominant themes of domain wanted threads on Namepros. I think that the broad request of brandable might be wasting a lot of people's time. I see people argue all the time what is brandable and what is not, someone told me the mattress company that acquired Purple.com was stupid. They said, … [Read more...]

zeeshan786 · Oct 23, 2018

brandable. Adjective. (comparative more brandable, superlative most brandable) (of a product) Which may be marketed under another brand.

trelgor · Oct 23, 2018

It’s a scale. More or less brandable. The more brandable, the more likely to sell. Geo names and narrow target exact match names are exceptions to me. Generally, names that portray something central to a business niche in a unique and striking way, as opposed to just being a bland description. A parallell could be the difference between a curiosity creating headline and more of a boring title for something.

karmaco · Oct 23, 2018

Practically anything is brandable. Length does not matter. What makes the brand ultimately is what the company does with it. Generic one words are considered brandable by most but few can afford that so there are always alternatives.

All Below are Brandable

Shoes com
RedShoe com
ShoeCarnival com
Shoely com
Shue or Shoo com

trelgor · Oct 23, 2018

karmaco said:
Practically anything is brandable. Length does not matter. What makes the brand ultimately is what the company does with it. Generic one words are considered brandable by most but few can afford that so there are always alternatives.

All Below are Brandable

Shoes com
RedShoe com
ShoeCarnival com
Shoely com
Shue or Shoo com

If you by ”brandable” mean that the name allows for branding efforts to be carried out using the name in question, sure, anything is ”brandable”. Just like anything is ”eatable”.

The definition is not very useful though.

Eating a teddybear might take a while and damage your health. Branding on “Shitex” or “AlabamaCarpenterToolsCentral” might cost you a bit and be both limiting and damaging to your company.

But if you by ”brandable” mean the probability of a buyer recognizing that branding efforts using the name in question have a good chance to be successful, some names are better candidates. Others are worse. One or a few are outstanding. That is a useful definition of the “brandability” of a name. I use it successfully.

briguy · Oct 23, 2018

Sometimes the best part of a article is the comments..especially in this article..

Noticed most so called "brandables" are basically using that term as sales pitches, trying to attract more buyers..like the over use of "premium"

Omar Ashraf · Oct 23, 2018

What about teegz.com, fexaa.com, porii.com
Is any one of them brandable?

trelgor · Oct 23, 2018

They are brandable in the way that they are open to interpretation and thereby use. Anyone in most niches could use them for most anything.

They are not very sellable though, because they have no (to my eye) identity, feeling or meaning attached at all.

Sumeeth · Oct 23, 2018

Brandable = unique (non generic word/made-up word) + pronounciable

urlurl · Oct 23, 2018

MetBob said:
As a long time user of Apple products had to point out that the name Apple PRECEDED Macintosh by a lot. The Apple computers started in 1976 (incorporation under name Apple early 1977) while the Macintosh did not come along until January 1984.

Apple had a bit of a fight trademark wise with Apple Records, the Beatles label, because they used sound in the computers. Allegedly the Apple sound called sosumi was an inside dig at Apple records as "so sue me".

I used the Apple II for many years. Wish I had kept one as a museum piece!

Bob

you are most likely right - never owned a mac so i wouldn't know.

urlurl · Oct 23, 2018

my point i was trying to make is anything and everything is brandable. some names would make great brands and others are bad brand names or will never make a brand name.

therefore, a brandable name is just the POTENTIAL to become a brand.... some are more likely than others.

saying a brandable name is a specific length or type is incorrect... that is just describes the quality of a brandable name.

trelgor · Oct 23, 2018

urlurl said:
my point i was trying to make is anything and everything is brandable. some names would make great brands and others are bad brand names or will never make a brand name.

therefore, a brandable name is just the POTENTIAL to become a brand.... some are more likely than others.

Well, not very brandable names are - not very brandable. And something not very brandable is not very sellable.

Bob Hawkes · Oct 23, 2018

By the way, possibly relevant, the 2018 version of the Brand Relevance Index was published last month. Not surprisingly Apple and Amazon in first two places. Interesting that KitchenAid a two word brand has cracked the top 10, moving up 6 places. Of course the index looks more at how the brand earns respect, than the name itself, but still interesting. I was a bit surprised to see Pinterest and Netflix in positions 3 and 4. Facebook took a huge tumble in the ratings this year.

https://www.prophet.com/relevantbrands-2018/

karmaco · Oct 23, 2018

trelgor said:
If you by ”brandable” mean that the name allows for branding efforts to be carried out using the name in question, sure, anything is ”brandable”. Just like anything is ”eatable”.

The definition is not very useful though.

Eating a teddybear might take a while and damage your health. Branding on “sh*tex” or “AlabamaCarpenterToolsCentral” might cost you a bit and be both limiting and damaging to your company.

But if you by ”brandable” mean the probability of a buyer recognizing that branding efforts using the name in question have a good chance to be successful, some names are better candidates. Others are worse. One or a few are outstanding. That is a useful definition of the “brandability” of a name. I use it successfully.

Don’t understand your point. If you mean curse words are not brandable or extremely long Names that’s common sense. I said practically anything not anything.

karmaco · Oct 23, 2018

Sumeeth said:
Brandable = unique (non generic word/made-up word) + pronounciable

So by your definitions BrandBucket and Brandpa need to remove 70% of their names immediately.

Are you disresgarding all 2 words or keyword based?

trelgor · Oct 23, 2018

I disagree that practically anything is brandable. As I said I don’t think it is practical or beneficial to use such a sweeping definition. To me only sellable names are brandable enough to qualify as truly brandable. Don’t ask me what is sellable now.

karmaco · Oct 23, 2018

trelgor said:
I disagree that practically anything is brandable. As I said I don’t think it is practical or beneficial to use such a sweeping definition. To me only sellable names are brandable enough to qualify as truly brandable. Don’t ask me what is sellable now.

karmaco · Oct 23, 2018

I would like to say one thing about the article I know a point was being made as does this thread because no one agrees on the definition but the article was unnecessarily unkind to @Keith DeBoer JMO. Feel free to disagree.

equity78 · Oct 23, 2018

hawkeye said:
Oh dear, poor MicroSoft, and so many more, didn't listen to your 'advise'.

Technically any name/domain/thing can be a brandable if one is willing to spend the dineros to make it so. Advertisers have been branding products and services into the minds of the public forever. And continue to do so, over and over.

Spot on, but to move the discussion to the domain wanted threads, does that mean those looking for brandable domains are looking for any domain?

I think the rules need to be amended for more specifics, the title, looking for brandable domains is too vague and for those threatening to report people for spam, it's hard to define spam if the definition is any domain can be branded.

equity78 · Oct 23, 2018

MapleDots said:
Personally.... now notice I say PERSONALLY

For me a brandable is a UNIQUE brandable name that UNIQUELY identifies a particular company or brand name.

So if you take an ordinary word and slightly modify it into a unique BRANDABLE new word. Something you can register as a trademark without infringing on someone else.

In Canada this was just done by a big bank under the Simplii Financial name or simplii.com.

I considered this a classic brandable with the company having full control because it is a made up word.

Now if someone else uses Simplii Loans they get shut down. Technically even a Simplii Restaurant could not use it because it is a made up trademarked word.

Apple will alway have to fight because they only hold the mark in the technology field. Apple was banned from going into music with the name Because apple was owned by the Beatles.

It would have been better to change the word slightly and there would have been no limitations. Instead Apple has paid a lot of money to be able to use Apple with iTunes etc.

Disclaimer: Please note the above is simplii (pardon the pun) my opinion on brandables.

Blatant Plug for my domain: www.Priide.com - I consider this my best BRANDABLE - and a great example of owning a name where if trademarked it would be hard for anyone to use anywhere else.

I agree that's the key to get ahead of the crowd. There is an MMA brand that uses Venum. If they went with Venom (still a cool sounding brand) they would need to use Venom Gear, or some other second word.

equity78 · Oct 23, 2018

karmaco said:
I would like to say one thing about the article I know a point was being made as does this thread because no one agrees on the definition but the article was unnecessarily unkind to @Keith DeBoer JMO. Feel free to disagree.

Hello I wrote the article and do not believe anything I said was unkind as I replied back to the friend who contacted me that brandable was in the eye of the beholder. The other comment was not mine, It was an actual commenter on DNGeek with regard to UBER. This is a very hotly contentious topic as evidenced by the comments here in this thread, it's obvious few agree on any one definition.

Vito · Oct 23, 2018

Here is my definition of the word Brandable.

Brandable - any words, letters, numbers, or characters that are NOT an exact match of what your Company sells and or does.

Apple is electronics. Not Electronics.com.

FedEx is a Delivery Service, not DeliveryService.com

Heinz57 is Ketchup not Ketchup.com

7-Eleven is a Convenient Store not ConvenientStore.com

Häagen-Dazs is IceCream not IceCream.com

Vans is skater shoes not SkaterShoes.com

Coach is a Luxury brand not Luxury.com

Google, 3M, Flickr, 7up, WD-40, etc.

address · Oct 23, 2018

Vito said:
Heinz57 is Ketchup not Ketchup.com

7-Eleven is a Convenient Store not ConvenientStore.com

Häagen-Dazs is IceCream not IceCream.com

Coach is a Luxury brand not Luxury.com

Because they can't buy:
Ketchup.com
Luxury.com
IceCream.com

Coach for Luxury? wtf

Internet.Domains · Oct 23, 2018

I am just going to throw this out there, but maybe there should be a poll on "How do you define a brandable?"

By voting the domain community could come to some sort of consensus on a definition that can be referenced. Maybe even get it submitted to a major dictionary.

Any thoughts on that? Would it matter? Are we better off with our opinions on the definition?

urlurl · Oct 23, 2018

Vito said:
Here is my definition of the word Brandable.

Brandable - any words, letters, numbers, or characters that are NOT an exact match of what your Company sells and or does.

Apple is electronics. Not Electronics.com.

FedEx is a Delivery Service, not DeliveryService.com

Heinz57 is Ketchup not Ketchup.com

7-Eleven is a Convenient Store not ConvenientStore.com

Häagen-Dazs is IceCream not IceCream.com

Vans is skater shoes not SkaterShoes.com

Coach is a Luxury brand not Luxury.com

Google, 3M, Flickr, 7up, WD-40, etc.

but the argument could also be said about brands like car . com and candy . com - etc

those are co names that are named and also that they sell, so nothing really is pure black and white.

urlurl · Oct 23, 2018

quality of a name is also a grey area too. look at:

airbnb

doesn't sell, air, flights or travel, or bed an breakfast services

but...

the name has been branded to be associated with room sharing and short term stays

in other words, a crapy name turned into a billion dollar industry brand

discuss How do you define brandable?

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