Another branding paradox

The AdAge daily alert is a good place to stay on top of what’s happening in the grand arena of mass communication. Today’s post included a poll question asking for opinions on a proposal to open up the Internet to customized top level domains (TLD).

TLDs are the letters that come after the final dot in an email address or URL. The most common is .com, with a host of others representing eduaction, organizations, networks and the like. The organization keeping it all straight is ICANN.

There’s talk that ICANN might allow companies to create and use their own TLD. Coca-Cola could have .cola or .coke. I could register and use .unstuck or .ideas. You get the picture. The cost would be incredibly high, especially when Coke and Pepsi start bidding for the right to use .cola.

The AdAge poll wanted to know if this was too much of a good thing? I’ll post the results when they’re available.

This is significant because it is a great example Factor #5 in my white paper Five Factors Affecting the Future. The fifth factor is the paradox of a world that is consolidating and fragmenting at the same time.

In this instance: Consumer attention is being drawn increasingly to the Internet. No mass communication campaign can succeed without an Internet presence, and many rely on nothing but digital positioning to tell their story. That’s consolidation.

If ICANN moves forward and approves custom TLDs, the result will be a fragmentation of the channel as consumers are required to remember which TLD belongs to which brand. It’s not a huge deal and browser design will most likely compensate, but the bottom line is just one more example of a world community that grows closer together and farther apart at the same time.