Most domestic companies do not seem to be informed about "e-branding", a strategy of differentiating one`s products and business on the Internet for higher corporate value.
According to industry sources on August 24, the US and advanced European countries are fully aware of the significance of the top-level Internet domains (".com", ".net") and foreign country domains, in their global competition strategies. They are also pursuing "e-branding" in order to build a strong product brand on the Internet.
However, although domestic companies are heavily investing in the general Internet infrastructure, they are largely neglecting investment in e-branding, which is known to be the most basic and core strategy for e-business.
In fact, many local company domains are not customer friendly - they are difficult to memorize, or to type in, and do not fully reflect company identity. For example, "Coke", a well-known brand of Coca Cola, has a simple and smart domain name of "www.coke.com", but a Korean company called "SM Entertainment" has a rather ambiguous domain name of "www.sm.com".
Things are even worse for SMEs and offline companies, who have just launched e-business. They are only focusing on domain registration, with no proper knowledge on e-branding, which may put them at a serious disadvantage when they enter the global market in the future.
Martin Roll, vice president of Speednames Inc., a Denmark-based multinational domain company, recently visited Korea for an e-branding conference and said, "Importance of e-branding is growing.
Even a simple miscommunication on the spelling of a domain name brings a huge damage to corporate image and marketing." "It is high time for Korean companies, from CEO to all employees, to recognize the significance of e-branding, and take aggressive actions," he stressed.
Experts say that advanced countries now regard e-branding as a core business strategy, as "cyber squatting (taking high-profile domain names ahead of their genuine holders)" became a hot issue in the world. "It is preposterous that domestic companies commit themselves to e-business without changing attitudes toward e-branding", they added.
* Terminology
"e-brand" is a combination of name, symbolism, or meaning, which differentiates one`s products and services from those of competitors in the Internet environment and gives unique value to its customers.
E-brand is built on intangible experiences, accumulated through various interactions (e.g. customer relations and product purchases) based on tangible infrastructure, such as corporate value/vision, website design/interface, business process, etc. In short, "e-brand" is built on all forms of activities, from domain registration, building a website, to reaching out to customers.