Category Archives: Marketing Research

Online Stat of the Year?

Marketing Research, Web Analytics, ,

Over on the Rimm-Kaufman Group blog was a report on what Forrester’s Carrie Johnson had to say at Shop.org’s Marketing Workshop. There are quite a few interesting tidbits, but here’s the pair that blew me away:

Correlation between Google Gross US Revenues to US E-Commerce Growth: .96.

Correlation with Yahoo Display Ad Sales and US E-Commerce Growth: -.04

Now, I understand that Correlation does not imply Causation but at some level when you get directional spreads like this you have to sit up and take notice.

One explanation is this: e-Commerce sites do not buy any Display to speak of, but we know that’s not true – don’t we?

Other questions:

1. Another conclusion would be Yahoo matters very little to e-commerce activity. Sure, less than Google, but to this degree? If in fact Display enhances Search performance, you would think Yahoo would have more of an effect. Perhaps folks see Display on Yahoo and then Search on Google? Wouldn’t that be a trip…

That scenario would really provide a whole new twist on the measurement of view-throughs.

2. Google gross rev’s include AdSense, of course. So we’re not really comparing PPC to Display here, though one could argue AdSense is more targeted than Display. So what we are discussing here is the relevance of ads, not PPC versus Display.

3. Does Yahoo Display include Travel ads triggered by selection of Location? Auto ads triggered by selection of Model? Etc. Etc. You could argue those ads are really “Search” if you look at it from a behavioral (customer) perspective.

Sure would like to find the source on this, and see what we are actually talking about here.

Other questions you would ask / data you need to make a judgment on this? How about wild speculations on what this data means, if anything?

Interview-Podcast w/ Jim Novo

Analytical Culture, Analytics Education, Brand Management, DataBase Marketing, Lab Store, Marketing / Tech Interface, Marketing Research, Marketing thru Operations, Measuring Engagement, Web Analytics

Friend and fellow blogger Alan Rimm-Kaufman spent some of his valuable time asking my opinion on various online marketing issues in a far-ranging interview and podcast.

We met in person for the first time doing a presentation together at the DMA show in Chicago this fall, and because he used to work at Crutchfield – a truly customer-driven remote retailer – we share some experiences and beliefs.

For those of you who might be wondering where a lot of the Marketing Productivity ideas I post here come from, this interview-podcast is probably a pretty good backgrounder.  We talk about a lot of stuff, including:

Monetizing customer experience

Importance of Control Groups / Source Attribution

Multichannel Marketing Strategy

LifeCycle Contact Strategy versus Calendar-based

Retail Business Models / Lab Store

Search box or not? / Serendipity

How to tell if online customers are really engaged – without web analytics

Here’s another link to the Interview-Podcast.  Enjoy! 

That was lots of fun, thanks Allen!

Al Gore & Warren Buffet: Marketing Gurus

Analytical Culture, Marketing Research

Um, following up on the post Research for Press Release, we have this gem from eMarketer and Anderson Analytics, who apparently did not even read the results of the survey they conducted.

Some highlights from this group of “Senior Marketers”:

Most important thing they are concentrating on:

Mastering the Basics

Seems unusual for Senior Marketers, to me.  

My guess: the members of MENG are not Senior Marketers, and should not be referred to as such.  Of course, nobody would pay attention to a press release about a survey on a “bunch of pukes”; this is the Source of Sample problem.

Asking “which demographic segment is most important to target” generically without supplying the product to be marketed is a ridiculous concept.  “Senior Marketers” probably wouldn’t even answer this question.

And the biggest gut-splitter: the list of “Most Important Marketing Gurus” includes Al Gore & Warren Buffet.  Now, these are both smart gents in their own ways but I’m not aware of their status as Marketing Gurus.

Of course, an alternative reality is possible: the members of MENG are Senior Marketers.  If that’s the case, I simply don’t know what to say, other than Marketing has probably already Deconstucted.  Or Imploded.  Or something worse.

You can learn a lot more from this really useful Research for Press Release (RFPR?) piece here.

Comments?