If you are anything except your exact brand match .com, you cannot or should not refer to yourself as your “raw brand.”

-Andrew Rosener

I’m not sure I totally agree with this. But I also know I don’t disagree.

The fun of contradictory thinking!

He does add that any other domain endings need to be part of the brand. For example, this project, which uses Club as part of the name and as a .club TLD (top-level domain).

Regardless, one of the first things you should do when dreaming up a new brand is check your domain registry of choice.