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 Most small business owners know that positioning their companies as providing the same products or services in the same way as the industry giant can lead to disaster. Kind of like a Chihuahua waving a red flag in front of a bull; one twitch from the giant and they're dead. Studying the competition and acting upon opportunities resulting from the leaders' actions is another thing altogether. Such is the current case in the domain registration business.
The Situation
Domain registrar giant GoDaddy has been running a five-year sleaze campaign, with each provocative television commercial encouraging horny men to see the unrated version on its Website. Over that time the company has spent (by my estimate) about $16 million on Super Bowl commercials and has become by far the largest domain registrar.
Sex sells, but it also repels. According to studies here and here, approximately 40% of Super Bowl viewers are female. As a group, women tend to be offended by the type of commercials shown by GoDaddy. In fact, many men were embarrassed and offended as well. According to an HCD / Media Curves survey, 2009's "enhanced" ad ranked 90 of 91 in overall popularity and highest for embarrassment.
The Fallout
This presents a weakness in GoDaddy's armor. Targeting a campaign to appeal to specific customer demographics is smart marketing. Doing so in a way that insults, embarrasses, or belittles a different part of the brand's customer base is quite another. The offended customers will leave if they find an acceptable alternative.
The Opportunity
Enter the relatively small NameCheap. CEO Richard Kirkendall knows that no matter what the size, one company's weakness is another's opportunity. NameCheap took advantage of this opportunity with a multipronged approach:
· They ran a campaign encouraging customers not happy with their current registrar or its advertising methods to "Make the Super Bowl Switch." Transferred domains were $6.99 with a special coupon code. (BTW, I made the switch from GoDaddy.)
· They created an active Twitter presence to help answer questions about the registrar. (Thank you Michelle Greer.)
· To help publicize the "Super Bowl" switch campaign and get potential customers involved, they ran a contest asking customers to come up with funny NameCheap commercials. The most viewed ad received a prize.
These strategically executed actions made NameCheap the REAL winner at this year's Super Bowl. For more strategic marketing insight, read Paul Chaney's take on the NameCheap Super Bowl campaign.
What this means for the rest of the domain registration industry.
GoDaddy's growth has been exponential in spite of illwill caused by its marketing tactics. The company leads the #2 registrar in sales by about 320%. Also, at least one study predicts that the domain registration business will continue to grow through at least 2011. This is a HUGE opportunity for well-run ICANN-accredited registrars to expand quickly. Is your company up to that challenge?
Bobette Kyle draws upon 17+ years of Marketing/Executive
experience, online marketing experience, and a marketing MBA as inspiration for
her writing. She most recently founded Daysteps LLC, which publishes a day planner for women. You can find
Bobette around the 'net:
On the
Daysteps Blog
Tweeting @Daysteps
Running the
Personal Lifestyle Planner from Daysteps Facebook fan page.
Her
Marketing
Strategy Thoughts blog is here.
She's
@BobetteKyle on
Twitter.
Check out her
LinkedIn
profile here.
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