A great crepe restaurant opened in my neighborhood recently, and my wife and I tried it this past weekend. I am sure you don’t care about what I eat or where, so I will get down to the domain details that I found to be most interesting.
On the outside of the crepe wrapping, the restaurant’s url was written: ViveLaCrepe.FR. As far as I can tell, the restaurant (a chain with about 15 locations) does not have a French presence, yet it uses and promotes the ccTLD for France. I did some digging, and it appears that the restaurant has some connections to Mexico, but I didn’t see any relationship France, aside from the delicious crepes they served.
Based on its iPhone App, extensive marketing efforts that include coupons and other social media activity, it seems like this was a savvy move to make the restaurant appear more authentic. The marketing is very good, and the crepes were great. I think this restaurant chain is going to continue to grow. Bravo.
It’s a brilliant usage of a ccTLD IMHO to market a French restaurant.
The domain name is also in French
I stayed away from .Co for this very reason, I had no products or business to promote in Spanish, in Colombia.
This example of .FR and .Co show you how powerful marketing is to influence people’s perception, decisions and ultimately choices.
The .com is owned by BuyDomains.com and only registered last year – 2011-04-14 see http://Domaintools.com/vivelacrepe.com
Smart Marketing would think they might pick this up also…
@ Robbie
I would agree with that.
Great example of use of a ccTLD! There are more and companies, especially startups, making use of ccTLDs: one is Ordr.in, a New York startup operating in the online food ordering business.
@Joe – You consider a typo hack as a good use of a cctld?? ..o..kayyy…
@Kevin
Yes, when you own the .com and they do (ordrin.com).
@ Elliot, always practical to hear about nice restaurant in a big city – thanx!
Sony brings it with this shorter url utilizing dot jp ccTLD:
DotSwitch.jp
leading to minimalist graphics and fun video!
Can you resist clicking? I can’t.
Maybe with introduction of new gTLDs – which length STARTS at 3 letters, there is greater appreciation for two-letter ccTLDs.
@Joe – So then using the cctld is ‘simply’ brand protection! And either way, the name doesn’t pass the radio test, so it’s not a great brand either.
Out of context – I like crepes!
“Vive La Crepe” was trademarked with a registration date of August 31, 2010.
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4010:re1r1p.2.1
Vivelacrepe.com was registered by BuyDomains.com on April 14, 2011, eight months after the business trademarked the phrase and a year and a half after the business first used the brand name, according to their trademark filing.
http://whois.domaintools.com/vivelacrepe.com
This would appear to be cybersquatting since Vive La Crepe is hardly a generic term. GreatCrepe.com or TastyCrepe.com – yes. Vive La Crepe? Not generic.
Maybe BuyDomains should do the right thing and give the domain to the small business rather than trying to get $2,888 out of them…