After training 635 dealers and their staff, i've made a pretty amazing discovery: everyone, and i mean every one of them without exception, understands the meaning of ".com" - they know how to spell it (eventhough "com" is normally pronounced as "kom"), they realize its significance and place in Internet addresses (it usually lies towards the end of a URL), and they understand that it is a symbol regularly associated with the cyber world as a cyber-real estate tag.
Before you scoff at the insignificance of this finding, take a moment to consider that a majority of the dealers i've trained have absolutely never surfed the Internet before. Some have never even touched a PC (there was one whom i had to hold her hand and guide her while moving the mouse for the first time). With so little exposure to the Internet as a practical tool, its amazing that they understand the significance of one of its cornerstones, the ".com".
Marketers speak of the brand recognition of such things as Coke, CNN, PETRONAS, Nike or McDonalds. I do believe that the ".com" more than rightly deserves its place among the elite brands on this planet. Assuming, of course, we can even consider it a brand.
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