The .heinz Dot
Brand
SPECIAL
NOTE: The application for the .heinz TLD has been withdrawn.
If the
brand domains are judged to be successful, it is realistically likely
that another application will be made when a new round is offered in
a couple of years time.
H.J. Heinz
Company is one of the world's major providers of branded food products
to retail and food service channels. The company has around 32,000 employees
and operates in most countries. Major categories include ketchup &
sauces, meals, soup, snacks, baby food and nutritional products.
The mission
of the proposed .heinz TLD is to serve as a trusted, hierarchical and
intuitive domain space for consumers, partners and associates. It will
become an online hub for millions of Heinz customers, investors, the
media and the public. "The primary driving factors of applying
for the .HEINZ gTLD are differentiation and innovation."
Heinz operates
in a highly competitive market space. The proposed .heinz TLD is viewed
as potentially becoming a significant way for the company to "differentiate
itself and gain advantage as a digital innovator in such highly competitive
conditions."
A four-stage
rollout is planned for the .heinz string:
1. Test
phase to evaluate interoperability and security etc.
2. Significant
internal use with strategic analysis to "potentially migrate traffic
away from its current patchwork network of second-level domain names".
3. Permanent
migration of content across to the new TLD and allocation of domains
to licensees and partners will be considered.
4. After
a considerable period of further evaluation, Heinz may expand registration
rights to a wider class of licensees, possibly even including customers.
(The Applicant anticipates that changes to the domain name system will
take around five years to become apparent.)
NOTE: second-level
refers to left of the dot words
In the
initial stages, .heinz domain names will redirect to existing .com names.
In later stages, depending on extensive evaluation of numerous factors,
a communications program may begin including advertising, media outreach
and email campaigns etc.
The .heinz
extension will provide short and memorable domain names to enable the
company to provide simple and intuitive navigation to product info,
advertising campaigns, recipes and other Heinz-branded content with
public interest.
ProMark
believes that a .HEINZ gTLD has potential to provide an innovative,
virtual avenue to Heinz brand products that will deepen and broaden
Heinz's relationship with consumers and distributors.
NOTE: ProMark
Brands Inc. is a subsidiary of Heinz.
The .heinz
TLD may potentially serve a role as a cornerstone of the company's digital
strategy to leverage emerging technologies and distribution channels.
"ProMark sees the potential for the .HEINZ gTLD to play a large
role in Heinz's future online strategy." The company is planning
a phased-in approach while it observes the level of consumer acceptance
of the brand domains and the response of search engines.
ProMark
believes that the .HEINZ gTLD can provide an online single-source
identifying function for current and future Heinz customers around
the world that can replace the current approach of heavily relying
on ccTLD registrations, to which Heinz must resort as it expands into
different global markets.
NOTE: cc
= country code
ProMark
will be examining other .BRAND gTLD applications, as well as general
market adoption, to determine short- and long-term potential use case
options for .HEINZ to most effectively support Heinz's online marketing
strategy.
Heinz recognizes
the possible security and trust dividends offered by operating its own
brand domain. It is seeking to emulate the level of trust currently
enjoyed by the .edu and .gov TLDs.
The potential
dangers of fraud, counterfeit and infringing products can be minimised.
Access will be secure and trustworthy. Fewer defensive domain registrations
will be required. Providing a safe and trusted experience is considered
paramount.
Through
the adoption of new gTLDs by the wider Internet user community, consumers
may benefit from lower incidences of phishing and malware often associated
with mistypes of domain names in the .COM space that are owned by
cybersquatters, since consumers will be navigating to domain names
in the .HEINZ gTLD...
...Most
importantly, Heinz will be able to provide access to its products,
brands, and online content in a namespace void of piracy, cybersquatting,
and other malicious activities.
The .heinz
string will also assist in the never-ending battle to protect its intellectual
property from online piracy.
 Geographic
Dot Brands
ProMark
Brands Inc. is sensitive to the fact that various national governments
are concerned about protecting the integrity of country and territory
identifiers in the domain name space.
The Applicant
has reviewed the background material on the issue of reservation of
geographical names.
In the
initial phase, Heinz is committed to reserving those country & territory
names listed in internationally recognized documents such as the ISO
3166-1 list.
Heinz sells
branded foods in almost every country. Geographic signifiers in its
domain name portfolio have obvious strategic value.
In providing
content, sales, and services online, Heinz makes regular use of Internet
technology that allows users to quickly find content related to each
of its brands in each of the countries in which it has a presence.
Hence,
Heinz intends to work with the GAC to find a way to be able to use intuitive
geographical indicators at the left of the dot to simplify online experiences
for stakeholders (and positively impact search engine results and direct
navigation). If ultimately permitted, the company will act responsibly
and fairly, and implement safeguards to prevent any misleading use of
country terms and so on.
The Applicant
cites examples of existing domain names for comparative purposes such
as HeinzCanada.ca and HeinzCanada.com.
These examples
make it very clear that the country terms assist navigation, are in
the public interest, and are not confusing or disadvantageous to any
national government.
By inference,
a domain like Canada.heinz would obviously be practical and valuable,
and also in the public interest.
Heinz hopes
to be able to work in association with other brand domain applicants
and the GAC towards permitting the release of initially reserved country
names.
Possible .heinz
Brand Domains
Food.heinz
Watties.heinz
Ore-Ida.heinz
Ketchup.heinz
PastaSauce.heinz
Beanz.heinz
Nutrition.heinz
Recipes.heinz
Investors.heinz
Products.heinz
Jobs.heinz
Notes
Brand
names mentioned on this site are registered trademarks or trademarks
of their respective corporations. This site claims no association
with or endorsement by any of these corporations and their marks are
mentioned only to illustrate opinion presented in the public interest.
All quotations
on this page are from the respective companies' official ICANN brand
TLD applications unless otherwise stated.
Many possible
theoretical dot brands are mentioned (in English). There are also countless
possibilities in other languages. This has significant potential value
for international navigation.
This site
is focused on reporting the strategic impact of the brand domains on
internet communication, competition and commerce, and some comment is
speculative.
It is not
a comprehensive overview of what some of the world's largest corporations
have chosen to reveal about their plans for the implementation of their
proprietary domain strings.
ICANN is
particularly concerned with the technical, financial, security and legal
issues associated with the new TLDs. These issues are beyond the scope
of this website.
For a comprehensive
overview of the brand domains and their impact on the web, refer to
ICANN's website and the individual applications (large parts of which
are publicly published).
If you
have a particular interest in an individual company, the public aspects
of their applications are available for download via these ICANN links:
You can also search a complete list of applicants there.
ICANN
new gTLD applications
ICANN
official website
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