The .marriott Dot
Brand
Marriott
International, Inc. is a large hospitality services group with more
than 150,000 employees and 3,700 lodging properties operating in 71
countries and territories. Its brands include iconic names such as Ritz-Carlton
and Renaissance. The group has a wide range of offerings for full-service,
select-service and extended-stay lodgings.
The company
intends to make a single application for the .marriott TLD which it
describes as a "unified corporate approach" and a "single
trusted ecosystem experience".
Marriott
is interested in testing the utility of its new extension to build a
hierarchical and intuitive namespace that will reach guests through
online campaigns and communication.
The applicant
will carefully monitor the success of other brand names and the impact
of the new gTLD program on the internet.
MWC will
be analyzing and evaluating other .BRAND gTLD applications as well
as general market adoption of new gTLDs to determine short- and long-term
potential best-in-class use case options to most effectively serve
and enhance Marriott's online strategy as a leading global retailer
with operations in the following segments...
-FULL-SERVICE
LODGING...
-SELECT-SERVICE
LODGING...
-EXTENDED-STAY
LODGING...
NOTE: MWC
= Marriott Worldwide Corporation
Marriott
currently uses a variety of domain extensions such as .ca, .net, .cn
and .eu etc which it describes as "its current patchwork network...".
The new .marriott TLD will provide greater options for short and memorable
domain names.
The Applicant
currently uses a wide variety of corporate websites such as Marriott.de
and MarriottWashington.com. Under the current domain name system, the
company has been forced to use a "mix-and-match approach"
as it expands into new global markets.
MWC believes
that a .MARRIOTT gTLD can provide an online single-source identifying
function for its current and future customers around the world...
Marriott
believes its operation of the .marriott registry will positively benefit
consumers and have no known negative consequences or cost implications.
Navigation will be simpler to property & services information, public
interest & awareness content and ad campaigns.
The company
will continue to pursue opportunities to distribute its content in various
channels (including mobile) as it expands. Its domain name program will
serve as a cornerstone for its mission to achieve differentiation and
innovation by leveraging existing and emerging technologies.
...Marriott
believes that a .MARRIOTT gTLD has potential to provide an innovative,
virtual avenue to Marriott-branded content that will deepen and broaden
the company's relationship with consumers.
Marriott
has plans for a four stage implementation program:
1. IT personnel
will test the TLD to verify that access is seamless, interoperability
with software functions perfectly and security is proven. Future strategies
and stages will be planned.
2. .marriott
domain names will be used widely by internal corporate staff. Migrating
traffic away from existing domain names to the new unified string will
be further evaluated. Extending registration to licensees and partners
will also be considered.
3. Marriott
may commence the permanent migration of traffic to the new .marriott
string. Many evolving strategic industy factors will be carefully considered.
If a decision
to extend registration to third parties is made, this would also occur
in stage three.
4. Analysis
of changes to the domain name system and in particular the impact of
the brand domains will continue, as well as technical considerations,
will drive potential expansion.
The applicant
believes the process will take around five years to reach this stage.
The application states that "the extent of likely benefits is currently
uncertain" until the extent of user adoption of ICANN's new domain
program (and response by search engines etc) is known. Potential use
of the .marriott TLD will also be driven by the company's future business
plans as described in its annual reports and investor filings.
If everything
proceeds as envisioned, an outreach and communications program may include
"advertising, media outreach, communications, email campaigns,
etc.".
After
consideration of the following factors: analysis of Marriott's existing
domain name portfolio; internal analysis of marketing initiatives;
and the fact that MWC will have full control over the number of registrations
in the .MARRIOTT gTLD namespace, MWC is confident that the number
of domain name registrations will be less than 10,000 in the first
five years of operation.
The Applicant
intends to build a trusted online environment for current and future
guests searching for information about Marriott services and properties.
Providing
current and prospective guests with a trusted experience is paramount
to MWC and its parent, Marriott International, Inc., and a .MARRIOTT
gTLD will be used to further that goal.
The new
brand TLD will also benefit the interests of investors and the general
public. Consumers should benefit through the elimination of malicious
activities such as fraud, phishing, pharming, malware, piracy and cybersquatting.
Customer privacy and confidentiality will be secure.
Guests
will come to understand that domains under the .marriott string are
trustworthy and authentic. Continuous protection of its valuable "Marriott"
brand will always be a paramount consideration.
This
verified ecosystem provides current and prospective guests with a
single, trusted source for Marriott brand products and information
with a substantially lower risk of fraud and/or scams.
Marriott
would like to see its brand string rise to the level of trust displayed
by the .gov and .edu domain extensions. It also believes that its new
TLD will assist with its "never-ending battle" to protect
its online brand and intellectual property rights.
 Geographic
Dot Brands
Marriott
will initially reserve the country & territory terms which are described
in Specification 5 of the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook. The Applicant
is keenly aware of the sensitivity those identifiers have with various
national governments.
Hence Marriott
will reserve from use in the .marriott TLD the geographical terms contained
in the ISO 3166-1 list as well as those in a UN Group of Experts name
list and a UN Working Group standardized names list.
Marriott
operates properties in over 68 countries & territories. Its current
domain name portfolio includes various country code TLDs such as .cn
and .fr. The company leverages internet technology to help guests search
for accommodation around the world. Hence, the Applicant is interested
in incorporating fair and non-misleading use of geographical identifiers
in its new domain space.
Given
this geographic approach to finding Marriott content, and given that
Marriott operates in numerous international markets, MWC intends to
explore the option of providing a hierarchical and intuitive framework
for the .MARRIOTT namespace by using geographical identifiers as second-level
domain names.
The use
of country names at left of the dot would be intuitive, assist direct
type-in navigation internet users, and likely improve the relevancy
of search engine results.
The use
of geographical terms would assist the company's mission to provide
an online single-source namespace for its guests. The company illustrates
the functionality possible by listing a few existing "mix-and-match"
company domains such as:
MarriottNYC.com
JWMarriottMexicoCity.com
Marriott.co.jp
These existing
geographically based domains also demonstrate that Marriott operates
responsibly and actively avoids misleading the public. The above names,
for example, are not detrimental to New York, Mexico City or Japan.
Hence,
Marriott hopes to collaborate with other applicants and the ICANN community
to obtain permission to use geographic terms.
Possible .marriott
Brand Domains
Hotels.marriott
Resorts.marriott
Travel.marriott
Reservations.marriott
JWMarriott.marriott
Renaissance.marriott
Ritz-Carlton.marriott
Beijing.marriott
London.marriott
Careers.marriott
Locations.marriott
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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