Now we return to our regular programming about predictive domaining and speaking of TV, do you change the channel when the ads come on or leave the room? It might be worth paying attention to get some ideas for domains.

TV advertising

TV ads are big business with vast amounts of money in play. Behind this is the vast amount of market research that is carried out and so you too can benefit from that research.

Have a look at the 2007 TV ad statistics which also includes a link to ad categories and money spent.

Sanitizing products

Lets take an example. I have noticed a big trend in pushing sanitizing products. It is quite clear that consumers are quite concerned about microbes in their home environment and especially in relation to their children. Antibacterial and antimicrobial ingredients are being added to all sorts of household products and being marketed.

Someone I know has taken this information and developed a product for the offline world. Basically it is an antibacterial wash for pets feet. Again playing on the public’s fear of contamination, pets may track in more than mud on their feet so by adding an antimicrobial ingredient to a soap solution, you have a product that benefits from the public perception and advertising research and marketing.

So try paying attention to the themes seen with TV ads and in other ad media and see if you can find domain names that reflect related generic products.

Ads affect perceptions

I also want to point out how advertising heightens and molds such perceptions. Again using the example of hygiene, much of this promotion has built upon a natural concern for cleanliness and care for our children. However advertising has heightened this awareness and plays on those natural concerns beyond what may be an appropriate level of concern.

In the medical community, the Hygiene Hypothesis actually proposes that such heightened concerns may actually be hurting our children and us. It proposes that exposure to microbes helps children to build natural immunity and prevent allergic reactions especially chronic ones such as asthma. There is some epidemiological data that supports this.

Secondly one of the largest population-based studies of airway diseases ever conducted published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine points to spray cleaning products as contributing to the development of asthma.

The use of cleaning sprays at least once a week was associated with a roughly 50% increase in asthma symptoms or use of asthma medication and a roughly 40% increase in wheezing.

Use of spray cleaners and air fresheners at least four days a week was associated with a doubling of the risk of physician-diagnosed asthma.

Predicting Risk

So what is my point? Reality may differ from perception and advertising works with people’s perceptions. Therefore choose your domain name carefully taking into account these perceptions. I consider the difference between reality and perception for a topic as a risk factor. If that difference is large, then the possibility of a “reality check” along the way is higher and so your domain may become worthless.

Saving a domain

Sometimes you can save a domain name by turning to the opposite point of view. For example if you owned SprayCleaners.com and tomorrow there was a ban on spray cleaning products, would your domain name be worthless?

Not necessarily. You could develop to present the issues around spray cleaners and suggest alternatives and advertise such alternatives. With some thought, you can save a domain that you had predicted would become popular.

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