Improving the Competition Model

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear members of the President's Strategy Committee,
please consider the following competition model:

An automobile manufacturer establishes a number of
worldwide dealerships.  These dealerships participate
in a coherent marketing plan that serves to
successfully promote the brand.  The manufacturer
assesses the product attributes deemed important to
target market segments and determines the programs,
activities and policies in support of the brand which
can include logos, slogans, ad content, ad media,
trade shows, contests sponsored, public relations,
literature, promotions, events sponsored, charities
and causes supported, web site activity, guarantees,
return policies, co-branding activities, graphic
standards, customer relations policies and personnel,
audio symbols/themes, trade association and standards
committee participation, and any other activities that
provide exposure to the brand. 
 
Now contrast this model to the one currently in use
within ICANN wherein registries are essentially at the
mercy of the registrars.  There is no coherent
marketing message to promote a new or established TLD
as all registrars are at liberty to market any TLD in
whatever fashion they choose.  As such, many TLDs fail
to achieve a status commensurate with a brand (since
no strategic branding is possible under this current
approach).

I ask the committee to review the remarks of the
operator of the .aero registry that stated in section
1.7.1 of their renewal proposal: "what was once an
appropriate means of introducing competion in an
established .com market has proven to be highly
inappropriate for a start-up top level domain with a
narrowly focused community.  Insistence on the
registrar model unreasonably increases the cost of
operating a sponsored top level domain and indirectly
forces the operator of the domain into a "first come
first served" registration model -- not because this
would be the best service for the sponsored community
but because this is the only way service can be
provided in the existing structure".
http://www.icann.org/tlds/renewals/aero-renewal-proposal-16dec05.pdf


The committee may wish to examine whether ICANN could
allow for the establishment of a registry dealership
model as a new strategic competition initiative.

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