The safety culture

Western society has become more and more preoccupied with safety. As lifespan increases, there is more focus on protection from accidental injury and on healthier living. This trend shows no sign of abating.

Using Google Trends tool, have a look at these terms: building safety, food safety, car safety, toy safety. There are a few things to note:

Newspaper references to food safety started in 2006 (lower graph) but search volume was already there
Toy safety search volume coincided with news coverage and is recent
Search volume often varies by region e.g. building safety in California (earthquake prone) (see lists below graphs)

Safety is also driven by litigation, in the U.S. especially and so this focus on safety shows no signs of going away. In fact, people are likely to demand greater protection as they live longer and have more leisure time. Retirees who are living longer will also demand safe lifestyles.

We have already seen car safety being improved drastically and even used as a marketing tool. As populations age, home safety will also become important. There may come a time where home safety is used as a marketing tool also. Retirement communities already take this into account.

Cocooning will also likely drive home safety concerns. Cocooning is the delivery of services to the home so people do not have to leave their home for necessities or luxuries. Examples are on-demand movies instead of going to the movie rental shop or delivery from supermarkets to the home.

New technologies also almost inevitably bring safety concerns. Examples include Ipod and hearing loss or cellphones and brain cancer. Some of these are legitimate and some are not but most are driven by media reports and tend not to persist as headlines. Domain names in this area will probably have a period of high volume and then a lower steady state volume as the media moves on.

Drug safety has become an issue and is also likely to gain greater attention as the population ages and lives longer. The number of patients taking more than one drug will increase leading to a higher likelihood of drug-drug interactions and again the media has and will continue to drive strong interest in this area as will high profile litigation.

Environmental safety will focus more on the home and workplace. As buildings become more energy efficient, they tend to trap emissions and gases. More appliances and more wireless applications in the home will mean concern about EM emissions. Ventilation of gases released from new furniture, build up of carbon monoxide, radon and other gases will become important as we seal up our homes.

Child safety has been of concern and the recent “scare” regarding toy safety is a good example. Children are seen as a vulnerable section of society and as we trend towards smaller families and later marriages, they have become more “precious” as we invest more in our kids. This trend shows no sign of slowing down and recent issues such as school shootings and pediatric drug safety (e.g. cold medicines) serve to remind us of that.

So how do you buy domain names related to safety? Well you need to start by taking a bet that safety will become even more important and hopefully I have provided some information to guide you. Secondly you need to get to know your subject. Pick an area of safety and get to know the issues. Becoming well informed will be the biggest advantage you can have over the large domainers.

The simple terms are probably already taken so you can go for names such as StopSchoolShootings.com which has emotional impact or anticipate trends by picking an area that has low search volume but you are betting will become popular sometime in the future. The food safety area probably has plenty of opportunities if you can determine what other food items are at risk.

Developing mini-websites or full blown websites can help make you an authority in that area. If that area then attracts media attention, you will find your site being referred to and quoted. You can either look to sell at this point, profit from the volume of traffic or hope the volume persists at some decent level after the headlines are gone.

Safety issues have already caught the public’s attention. Now it is time to anticipate the next hot area.

Happy (and safe) domaining

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