Name recognition and branding in technology
July 16th, 2008 by Benjamin KuoI was browsing the Los Angeles Times’ interview with Demand Media’s Richard Rosenblatt today, and was amused to read this snippet from their article:
Outside Santa Monica’s dot-com circuit, the name Richard Rosenblatt doesn’t mean much. He’s one of those guys who buys and sells empty websites.
We ran an interview with Richard back in February of 2007, and have followed the company since day one, and it’s been interesting to me to observe what I call the “IAC” effect going on with Internet companies, particularly here in Southern California. IAC/InterActiveCorp — the media conglomerate headed by Barry Diller — owns a huge number of businesses sites everyone knows, such as Ticketmaster, Match.com, Evite.com, AskJeeves, Shoebuy.com, LendingTree, etc. However, for most people IAC doesn’t mean much without attaching “Barry Diller’s” next to the name.
The problem is, the firm has so broad of a business, and so many brands, no one associates it with any particular brand. That’s the problem that Rosenblatt’s Demand Media, plus a number of other firms here like Internet Brands, Move.com, Oversee.net, etc. face. They have become multiple-brand companies — where they own many, many businesses, dozens if not hundreds of domain names.
There’s no problem with that — all of these companies seem to be building huge, profitable businesses– but it means that the recognition of these companies is less than you might expect for the magnitude of the businesses they run. While you might see tons of coverage and attention given both in the traditional press as well as blogs on such things like Facebook, Twitter, Tesla Motors, etc. and other Silicon Valley media darlings, folks like Richard Rosenblatt and other very successful technology companies here in Southern California have real business models, revenues, and profits and are quietly laughing their way to the bank.
