The Vox Populi Registry mission? To promote the uses of dotSucks domain names.
When we launched in 2015, the ability to rally support for a cause or level criticism was established immediately.
Tapping the commercial value of the platform has grown more slowly. Perhaps it was a lingering view of the word “sucks” as the pejorative it might have been years ago. No longer.
It is clear that marketers (think Taco Bell’s campaign for the hand-held CrunchWrap, “Sharing Sucks” and Jolly Rancher’s tie-in with the NFL, “Being a Rookie Sucks”) understand it is a rallying cry.
As we approach our tenth birthday, we want to continue 6o stimulate the imagination of the business community. First, small steps, but then ever longer strides in making a dotSucks domain a part of the marketing mix. Here’s how:
| 1. Protecting brands |
| Until your team can develop a strategy to use your brand.sucks domain, have it in reserve and away from others. |
| 2. Redirect, passively |
| Deploying a brand.sucks domain offers chance to draw the attention of a disaffected customer, redirecting them to your home or product page. This is how Sthil.sucks and Microsoft.sucks work. |
| 3. Redirect, actively |
| Redirecting a brand.sucks domain to a customer care portal offers a quicker opportunity to address a real problem. This is how Patagonia.sucks works. |
| 4. Engage critics |
| Companies will misstep. When they do, it is better to have an existing and controlled point of contact with which customers are aware than to scramble. In the current day, consider the utility to Boeing of Boeing.sucks. |
| 5. Category capture |
| Every brand represents a competitor in a specific industry, offering a singular solution to a wider problem. Think of the role Windex and Clorox play in keeping a home clean. Housecleaning.sucks can give those individual companies a chance to address their own and their competitors’ disaffected consumers, earning a chance at lowering the cost of acquisition. |
