The brand Madonna triumphed when she won the case for the domain www.madonna.com. Madonna's brand, including music, clothes, merchandise and even wine, was now able to reach her fans in a much more efficient way, and she gave the concept of branding a whole new meaning by succesfully reinventing her image herself every couple of years.
Cybersquatter evicted from madonna.com
In October 2000, Madonna won her case against Dan Parisi, a New York cybersquatter. A cybersquatter is someone who registers famous names as domains in the hope of a quick profit. Parisi was the first to register the Internet adress www.madonna.com which was initially a porno site, and he was ordered by the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization to transfer the site to Madonna. Madonna argued that the porno site damaged her name and trademark, which she had used professionally since 1979, and Parisi, a website developer, could not prove he had legitimate interest in the domain (CNN, 2000)
The battle for domains
As domain names have become more valuable with the meteoric rise of the Internet, a market has emerged for opportunists to grab addresses in the current system, which is largely first come, first served” (CNN, 2000). Companies that have won back their domains from cybersquatters include Christian Dior, Deutsche Bank, Microsoft and Nike. Also celebrities, such as Julia Roberts, and rockband Jethro Tull, have succesfully evicted their cybersquatters. However, British pop star Sting did not succeed in getting the domain sting.com, because the World Intellectual Property Organization regards sting s "a common English word" (CNN, 2000).
The branding of Madonna
Madonna’s victory over Parisi is important for the brand Madonna, as the Internet is an excellent way for her to reach her young target consumer group. The queen of pop is a genius is branding herself, succcesfully reinventing herself when her image becomes wary, and creating controversy for publicity’s sake. Jack Yan writes in his blog that “in a branding sphere, few rebrands work so well because companies are hampered with an existing image. Madonna took care of that by shocking people early on and each rebrand is expected to cast away the remains of the last, something that organizations, generally, cannot (but maybe could?) do.” (Yan).
Naomi Klein states in her book No Logo that “if brands are about ‘meaning’, not product attributes, then the highest feat of branding comes when companies provide their consumers with opportunities not merely to shop but to fully experiencethe meaning of their brand” (Klein, 1999, p. 146). Madonna, has reached this highest feat of branding, the meaning of her brand has become more than the products she is selling. Her products include, apart from her music, H&M clothes, t-shirts, keychains, and even Madonna wine, costing more thna they would in stores seeing as they have the Madonna label on them. Even Madonna’s own looks are products of Madonna, and her fans can fully experience the brand Madonna by a whole other dimension beyond her music.
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CNN
(2000). Madonna wins domain name battle. Retrieved 02-05-2007, from
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/10/16/madonna.cybersquatter.reut/
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Klein, N.
(1999). No logo:no space, no choice, no jobs: taking aim at the brand bullies. New York: Picador.
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Yan, J.
Madonna, Branding Genius. Retrieved 02-05-2007, from http://www.jackyan.com/blog/2006/07/madonna-branding-genius.html