Wordlab: Wet, Wild and Wonderful

Idaho is losing the www and launching a redesigned website at a new address on the internet. It's a new idea that extends to the state government the US government's .gov, one of the top level domains, in place of www.state.id.us, Idaho's previous internet address.

The state’s official website has a new address and a new appearance -- idaho.gov -- providing a single, easily recognizable presence on the Internet for Idaho state government’s electronic delivery of online services and information for Idaho citizens.

"With the growing volume of information and services on our state portal, we needed a more easily recognized and remembered web address that is easy to navigate and organized around current topics and areas of interest they’re looking for," said Pam Ahrens, Director of the Department of Administration, and Chairman of the Information Technology Resource Management Council.

The dot.gov naming convention is becoming standard for government entities. Most importantly, web addresses containing "idaho.gov" will give a clear indication to users that these are official websites that belong to the State of Idaho, Ahrens added.

But the .gov TLD, or top level domain as it's called, is only for United States governmental entities, and is subject to the US federal government's dominion. Allowing the US states to use the .gov is a move in the right direction. Foreign governments that want to use a .gov domain on the "world wide web" must use the extension as a subdomain of their own country code, like the United Kingdom and Australia does. Other countries, like Canada, are unconventional, if not un-American, with regard to their official governmental domain. But, I digress.

Back to Idaho. "Wet, Wild and Wonderful" isn't some porn site on the www, but is one of the slogans suggested by the Brand Idaho project to sex up the state's image, which typically competes for tourism with the state slogan "Great Potatoes. Tasty Destinations." For business development, Idaho tries to escape its roots with slogans like "From Potato Chips to Micro Chips."

Brand strategy consultants, Whisper takes a good look at many similar state branding initiatives and concludes:

These imaging efforts often fail as decision-makers are unable to see their brand from the perspective of the consumers they are trying to reach. Rather, they look from the inside out, where the view is both comfortable and safe with reassurance from other insiders. Frequently, this inability to see yourself as others see you is due to a breakdown of process discipline, often led by firms who explain they understand brand strategy, then demonstrate they know only advertising.

Interesting.

Posted by abnu on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 @ 8:24 AM [ + ]

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