The Use of Domain Names in e-Branding by the World's Top Brands

This research links branding literature and domain names to explore electronic, or e‐Branding, strategies. It focuses on how the world's top brands use domain names to extend their brand online and protect its associated reputation against competitors and imitators. Two hypotheses explore and benchmark domain name use by the world's top 75 brands. The results show that most companies register their brand name both globally in the.com suffix and locally, for example, with France's.fr and Australia's.au. These top brands had less presence in the.net and.org global domains, as well as in typographical variations of their.com name. The findings support past diffusion research in that size and industry relate to organizational adoption of technology. Larger brands (in total brand value) and technology‐based brands had a greater adoption of domain names for e‐branding.

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