· Server log: record kept at the server level that records each file requested from a website; server log files are created by the server that houses the web site. Each time a browser requests a file in order to build a web page, it generates an entry in the server request log.

· Panel Data: the process for using panel data to generate site effectiveness data is the same as using panels in the general marketing research process. The first step is to recruit a statistically representative panel of internet users who agree to participate in the data collection. Specialized software is downloaded onto the participant’s computer to record the click stream data. The software is polled at regular intervals to upload the data. First, the source of the data is unambiguous, which it often it not with server logs. Second, a person who uses the internet from both home and work is two separate people according to server logs, but carefully planned and maintained panel data can overcome this issue. Third, the measurement firm can collect demographic and behavioral data from panel households that can be useful in reporting and analytics.

· Coded pages: the use of coded pages is a new method of collecting data, on the “browser (user’s) side” of the information transaction instead of on the “server side” The tag part of the page that is requested by the served to the user’s browser. The file then sends data back to the server. Working with cookies, the tag can send back detailed information about the visitor’s activity on the page. One the surface, the data are the same as those collected by a server log. Data collected by tags has several advantages over server log data: the data may be more accurate, data collected by web bugs has smaller storage requirements because it stores only relevant data, and when data are collected in this manner, it permits real-time processing and viewing of site metrics.

Similarities

· Used for recording activities in a web site

Differences

· Server Logs record information on the server side while Coded Data collects information from the browser side

· Coded Pages are more useful than server logs because the user’s IP address may change during the session, causing the server log to, in effect, record different visitors instead of the same visitor

· When using Coded pages, data collected by Web bugs has smaller storage requirements because it stores only relevant data, not all the site operating data stored by server logs.

• With Coded pages, when data are collected in this manner, it permits real-time processing and viewing of site metrics. Server log data, on the other hand, must be transferred to a separate analytics system for batch processing. It can be made available quickly, but not in real time.

· With Panel Data, the source of the data is unambiguous, which it often is not with server logs a person who uses the Internet from both home and work is two separate people according to server logs, but carefully planned and maintained panel data can overcome this issue

· The measurement firm can collect demographic and behavioral data from panel households that can be very useful in reporting and analytics. Because server logs identify most users by dynamic IP addresses, it is not possible to use much third-party data to enhance it.

Measuring Metrics

Internet Traffic Measuring Metrics:

· hits: the number of files requested

· impressions: the number of times and ad banner is requested by a browser

· page views or deliveries: the number of times a web page is requested

· sessions: the amount of activity on a site during a specified period

· click-through: the number of times visitors come to the site by clicking on an ad

The Nature of Consumer Adoption Process

· The customer adoption process is generally accepted conceptualization of the stages a consumer goes through when confronted with a new product or service.

· According to the adoption process, the consumer must first become aware of the product, then develop an interest in it, perform some pre-purchase evaluation, and then try the product, either as a consequence of a purchase or of a marketer-sponsored promotion or incentive.

Diffusion of Innovations

· Diffusion process is a communications model and as such it consists of four elements: the innovation, communication channels, time, and social system within which the innovation is spreading

· The Consumer Adoption Process explains consumer behavior and how consumers adapt to a product, while the diffusion of innovations describes the life of a product over time.

Pervasive Computing

· Pervasive computing implies that a single person has access to myriad computing devices to assist in performing all sorts of daily tasks.

· Pervasive computing aims to enable people to accomplish an increasing number of personal and professional transactions using a new class of intelligent and portable devices. It gives people convenient access to relevant information stored on powerful networks, allowing them to easily take action anywhere, anytime.

· There, new intelligent appliances or “smart devices” are embedded with micro-processors that allow users to plug into intelligent networks and gain direct, simple and secure access to both relevant information and services. These devices are as simple to use as calculators, telephones or kitchen toasters.

Changes Likely to Bring about in the way marketer approach the Internet

· Marketers have to seize the opportunities presented by the changing technological environment and develop new products and services that successfully take advantage of it such as RFID.

Strategic Drivers of Wireless Adoption

· Context: providing necessary information when and where the customer needs or wants it

o Localization: location of the user can be identified and information specific to that location can be provided (GPS, Tracking Device)

o Personalization: the customer can select not only the type of information desired but also the frequency of information provision (consumer may select specific stocks and specific price levels at which he or she wishes to be notified.)

· Time sensitive: because screens are small and storage in limited, information must be provided at the time appropriate to the customer, not convenient for the marketer (As a customer passes a store in a shopping mall, he or she may be willing to receive a coupon for a purchase in that store, which can be saved or retained on the screen until the customer shows it when checking out the purchase.)

· High value: The coupon will have to have a reasonable value in order to make it welcome in the wireless context

· Voice activation: there are many situations in which it is not safe to use the keyboard (voice activation)

· One-click payment mechanisms: a system is which payment is easily and securely authorized and billed to a single account because consumers are not going to be willing to enter credit card information on mobile keyboards and may be uncomfortable with the idea of their credit card data being transmitted wirelessly

· Security: users must be assured that data transmissions are secure, and authentication services must be provided in a way that is suitable for the devices (smart cards that can be inserted or taken out)

· Privacy: providers of content and services will have to be sensitive to download times, lack of storage, and the fact that users are paying for airtime- They must not abuse technological capabilities like geographic locational services.

· Expanded permission marketing: marketers will have to extend the concept of permission marketing beyond simple opt-in scenarios. They must find out what kind of information consumers are willing to receive, how often they are willing to receive transmissions, and where they are willing to receive it

Knowledge Management and Marketing Applications

· Marketers are interested in a narrower set of activates that focus on integrating front-and back-office services and delivering information to customer service personnel and decision makers when and where they need it.

· They are connected about customer experience and realize they must deliver it seamlessly through multiple channels at times and places demanded by the customer. This requires marshalling all the resources of the enterprise to create usable knowledge from the multiple types of customer data and the expertise of best workers.

· Knowledge management in marketing enable human agents to do their work better, faster, and in a way that provided maximum customer satisfaction, al creates automated systems that perform at least as well as the most skilled human agent

Customer Service:

-complaints/feedback

-what do you do after you get feedback?

-call 1-800 numbers

-free for customers

-expensive for company

-outsource to India

-live chat

-FAQ’s

-time, improve quality of experience

Chapter 9

Anticipatory customer service: anticipatory service concept of being proactive, not simply waiting passively until customers request service. To do this, companies must anticipate potential problem areas before they become troublesome, develop situations, and provide service that exceeds customer expectations.

Three things in order to implement anticipatory customer service:

1. build customer scenarios, using data including call center reports, e-mail logs, chat transcripts, and Web site software that can report unusual volumes of activity and uncover patterns in a day-to day service queries. Use the scenarios to determine where intervention can prevent problems, such as common customer mistakes in placing orders.

2. make customer service pervasive by fulfilling common requests before the customer even asks and enduring that service is readily available throughout the value chain

3. design the service process for “seamless escalation”. Translated, this means firms must guide customers to the service they need without having to move through frustrating layers of information that does not fir the needs of the customer.

Chapter 11

Server log: record kept at the server level that records each file requested from a website

Panel Data: the process for using panel data to generate site effectiveness data is the same as using panels in the general marketing research process. The first step is to recruit a statistically representative panel of internet users who agree to participate in the data collection. Specialized software is downloaded onto the participant’s computer to record the click stream data. The software is polled at regular intervals to upload the data. First, the source of the data is unambiguous, which it often it not with server logs. Second, a person who uses the internet from both home and work is two separate people according to server logs, but carefully planned and maintained panel data can overcome this issue. Third, the measurement firm can collect demographic and behavioral data from panel households that can be useful in reporting and analytics.

Collecting traffic, audience, and campaign data

Hit counters: a hit counter is a small piece of software that can be added to a web site to provide a few basic metrics. It measures the number of visits to the site.

Server log files: server log files are created by the server that houses the web site. Each time a browser requests a file in order to build a web page, it generates an entry in the server request log.

Coded pages: the use of coded pages is a new method of collecting data, on the “browser (user’s) side” of the information transaction instead of on the “server side” The tag part of the page that is requested by the served to the user’s browser. The file then sends data back to the server. Working with cookies, the tag can send back detailed information about the visitor’s activity on the page. One the surface, the data are the same as those collected by a server log. Data collected by tags has several advantages over server log data: the data may be more accurate, data collected by web bugs has smaller storage requirements because it stores only relevant data, and when data are collected in this manner, it permits real-time processing and viewing of site metrics.

Cookies: cookies are small data files that are stored on the user’s computer and transmitted back to the web server. Cookies can be set to retrieve personal information or not.

Variables used to measure web site traffic, audiences, and marketing campaigns

Traffic measures simply document site activity:

-hits: the number of files requested

-impressions: the number of times and ad banner is requested by a browser

-page views or deliveries: the number of times a web page is requested

-sessions: the amount of activity on a site during a specified period

-click-through: the number of times visitors come to the site by clicking on an ad

Audience measures provide data about the people who visit the site:

-visitors: the number of people who visit the site

-total (includes multiple visits) or unique (different people) during a specified time frame

-unidentified (anonymous) or identified (registered or customer)

-unduplicated audience: the vistors that are unique to a web site

-behavior on the site

-number of page views

-session time

-path through the site

-shopping cart abandonment

-entry page (many visitors do not enter through the home page)

Campaign measures provide data about the effectiveness of marketing efforts

-by communication channel: e-mail, mail, online banner, and so forth

-by offer: free shipping versus 25% off, for example

-search effectiveness by keyword

To be meaningful, all these measures must be taken during a specified period. That leads to an almost endless set of metrics that can be produced, depending on the needs of the marketer. Some common metrics follow:

-average number of visits per day

-number of page views per month

-average visitor session length last month

-number of hits for each hour of the day

-paid search results for the most recent 7-day period

Chapter 13

Knowledge management in marketing

Marketers are interested in a narrower set of activates that focus on integrating front-and back-office services and delivering information to customer service personnel and decision makers when and where they need it. They are connected about customer experience and realize they must deliver it seamlessly through multiple channels at times and places demanded by the customer. This requires marshalling all the resources of the enterprise to create usable knowledge from the multiple types of customer data and the expertise of best workers.

-to enable human agents to do their work better, faster, and in a way that provided maximum customer satisfaction

-to create automated systems that perform at least as well as the most skilled human agent

Chapter 14

Consumer adoption of innovations

The customer adoption process is generally accepted conceptualization of the stages a consumer goes through when confronted with a new product or service. According to the adoption process, the consumer must first become aware of the product; then develop an interest in it; perform some pre-purchase evaluation; and then try the product, either as a consequence of a purchase or of a marketer-sponsored promotion or incentive. Two importance stages follow trial. First, the consumer must decide to purchase/continue purchasing the product, which can be behaviorally identified as adoption. A harder to discern stage is that of internalization, in which the product has become an integral part of the consumer’s lifestyle. The internalization stage is particularly important in the case of technology.

Diffusion process: it is a communications model and as such it consists of four elements: the innovation, communication channels, time, and social system within which the innovation is spreading

Pervasive computing: implies that a single person has access to myriad computing devices to assist in performing all sorts of daily tasks. Pervasive computing aims to enable people to accomplish an increasing number of personal and professional transactions using a new class of intelligent and portable devices. It gives people convenient access to relevant information stored on powerful networks, allowing them to easily take action anywhere, anytime. There new intelligent appliances or “smart devices” are embedded with micro-processors that allow users to plug into intelligent networks and gain direct, simple and secure access to both relevant information and services. These devices are as simple to use as calculators, telephones or kitchen toasters.

Strategic drivers of wireless technology

-context: providing necessary information when and where the customer needs or wants it

-localization: the location of the user can be identified and information specific to that location can be provided

-personalization: the customer can select not only the type of information desired but also the frequency of information provision

-time sensitive: information must be provided at the time appropriate to the customer, not convenient for the marketer.

-high value: in addition to protecting personal data, providers of content and services will have to be sensitive to download times, lack of storage, and the fact that users are paying for airtime

-voice activation: there are many situations in which it is not safe to use the keyboard

-one-click payment mechanisms: a system is which payment is easily and securely authorized and billed to a single account will be necessary to enable frequent use of m-commerce services

-security: users must be assured that data transmissions are secure, and authentication services must be provided in a way that is suitable for the devices

-privacy

-expanded permission marketing: marketers will have to extend the concept of permission marketing beyond simple opt-in scenarios. They must find out what kind of information consumers are willing to receive, how often they are willing to receive transmissions, and where they are willing to receive it

Ebay’s application of the Marketspace Matrix Change Over time

• Ebay began to utilize more levers, and the additions were focused in two places: the commitment column in the matrix became heavily utilized, as did the community row.

• Ebay did also seek to drive awareness and exploration among new users, but the firm designed the bulk of the new levers added to the matrix to advance users to the commitment stage and keep them there.

Key principles for lever selection within the Marketspace Matrix

Choose Levers to Effect a Change

· Firms must understand the behavioral change they are trying to create.

· After establishing the desired outcome, the optimal levers will be easier to pick.

· E.g. Amazon.com 1-click ordering capability

Determine Which Levers Have the Most Leverage

· Firms must understand which levers are decisive in moving customers from one stage to another.

· While one lever may help generate awareness or exploration, another may prove to be the tipping point from one stage to another.

· E.g.: Offline sale of cosmetics

o Magazine ads generate awareness, but decisive point is at the cosmetic counter. Firms thus need to move customers to the counter since that is the commitment or dissolution point.

Consider Barriers to Advancement

· Need to understand what prevents people from moving from one stage to another.

· The obstacle that stands in the way of advancement should be the target of a lever.

· E.g.Handspring adopted Palm operating system for its devices so that Handspring users could use existing Palm applications (product lever) and was able to compete and build awareness using the price lever.

Consider the Medium’s Effect on Desired Behavior

· To advance from one stage to another, the medium used for the awareness stage may be quite different from the one for the commitment stage.

· E.g.MSN CarPoint – To enable commitment behavior, CarPoint refers customers to local dealers who have the customer’s car of choice, a unique distribution lever.

Level of Involvement Matters

· High-involvement purchases will have different marketing levers than low-involvement purchases.

· To know which lever to use, firms need to understand where the product falls on the involvement spectrum.

· E.g. High-involvement decision is a consumer’s choice of bank.

Understand Consumer Learning Trends

· Firms need to understand how consumers learn about products.

· Often different segments learn in different ways. Elderly customers usually do so through offline channels whereas younger consumers usually do so through the Internet.

· For firms to effectively reach their target customers, they must use marketing levers that are consistent with the preferred learning processes of that particular segment, especially during the awareness and exploration stages.

Credibility of the Channel Matters

· The credibility of the channel matters more than the literal message.

· A message can be ignored when delivered via one medium, but completely absorbed when delivered by another.

· E.g. The Blair Witch Project

o By choosing to initially promote the movie almost exclusively via the Internet, promoters were able to create a hype and anticipation around the movie and its release that would not have been possible through conventional channels.

The Choice of Levers Must be Consistent with Positioning Choice

· The firm’s marketing levers must support the choice of position the firm takes in a certain segment of the market.

· This would mean that certain levers would be ruled out and others will be more attractive.

· E.g. American Express Platinum Card

o Personal invitations are sent to potential members which is consistent with the positioning of prestige, exclusivity and unique services for the frequent spender.

The Medium can be the Message – or the Product

· By choosing the channel, the firm is already making a choice about what it is saying.

· E.g. By advertising in Town and Country, the firm is perceived as targeting an affluent audience with fairly conservative values, even if it sells eggs.

Matrix Design Must be Adaptive

· A firm must be able to adapt its matrix to respond to evaluation of the campaign and changes in the market.

· As levers prove ineffective or extremely effective, resources must be allocated in response to these discoveries.

• A name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of the competition

Brand Equity

• A set of assets (and liabilities) linked to a brand’s names and symbol that add to (or subtract from) the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/ or that firm’s customers.

• Brand equity is a combination of intermediate consumer responses and both customer and firm benefits.

Consumer Responses that Make up Brand Equity

Strength of Association

• Refers to the intensity with which target consumers link a particular word, phrase, or meaning to a particular brand.

• Strong associations tend to those that are “top of mind” for the customer.

• Measures of strength include the number of times an association was mentioned, rank order of the association and speed of recall.

• Strength of association is often divided among two criteria: relevance and consistency.

• Relevance: degree to which the brand is perceived as meeting the needs of the target customer.

• Consistency:degree to which each element of the brand reinforces the brand intent.

Valence

• Refers to the degree to which the association is positive or negative.

Uniqueness

• Captures the degree to which the association is distinct relative to other brands.

• Uniqueness can be further subdivided into distinctiveness and memorability.

• Distinctiveness is the degree to which the brand is differentiated from competitors.

• Memorability is the brand’s ability to provide a lasting communication effect.

Ways to Measure Brand Equity

Depth Interviews

• Needed to dig deeply into respondents’ memories.

Portfolio of techniques

• No single technique is adequate.

• Complementary techniques interact with each other to stimulate respondents’ abilities to access and verbalize memories and overcome their unwillingness to share them with the researcher.

Validate research findings

• Can be achieved using multiple techniques including structured and unstructured projective methods, in-depth interviews and surveys.

• Finding the same associations with more than one method adds confidence to the results.

Techniques for measuring brand associations:

• Thought listing

• Visual techniques

• Projective technique

• Sentence completion

• Depth interviews

• Rating scales

• A relationship is a bond or connection between the firm and its customers.

• This may be strong, weak or nonexistent.

• It can be based on logic or emotion

• Logical bond – realization that a customer simply cannot get a better product elsewhere.

• Greatest potential for strong buyer-seller relationships exists when the product is an important part of consumers’ lives.

• Buyer-seller relationships are based on exchange, where each party expects, or perhaps even demands value for what is given (i.e. money for products).

• Customers who have a relationship with the firm tend to feel good about remaining loyal, are not as likely to seek out competitive offerings, actively promote the firm to others and are willing to pay higher prices.

• Over time, some customers will cease to be profitable and firms should take steps to dissolve the unprofitable relationships.

Integrated Lever Selection important in a marketing plan

• The 2Is allow firms to choose levers that can move customers through the relationship phases faster and more effectively than ever possible.

• the 2Is demands that firms leverage the 2Is across the matrix design as much as possible in order to advance customers to the commitment stage.

• Product – Individualization of user pages (Yahoo!) sustains commitment and increases switching costs. Individualization also spurs users to move from awareness to exploration.

• Pricing – Targeted price promotions, which can be both individualize and interactive in the form of a permission email, can advance users from exploration/ expansion to commitment by giving them a price incentive to make the purchase.

• Communications – Interactive targeted banner ads are a classic example of the 2Is influence on communications levers. Banner ads can be targeted at particular segments, and the interactivity of a banner ad allows a user to move from awareness to exploration just by clicking on it.

• Community – In the case of eBay, the strong vibrant community sustains buyers’ commitment by ensuring a constant supply of a wide range of goods. In turn, the large number of shoppers benefits sellers by driving up auction prices.

• Distribution – Interactivity allows for tight linkages between suppliers and buyers, which can facilitate a collaborative relationship that results in benefits in logistics, inventory planning and responsiveness, especially just-in-time production.

Community

• A set of interwoven relationships built upon shared interests, which satisfies members’ needs otherwise unattainable individually

Criteria that Define Successful Community

• Membership is a conscious choice
• Member base has achieved critical mass and sustainability:  sufficiently large membership base that consistently gathers, participates, and adds value in community meeting areas
• Members feel a great sense of trust: feeling safety when making a transaction, sense that an individuals personal information will not be misused (e-mail spamming), knowledge that members generally respect and self-enforce community etiquette
• Members achieve benefits in scale
• Roles are not hierarchical or imposed
• Effective facilitationand site structure keeps community activities on track: successful communities share a high degree of focus within their operations– threads are easy to follow, no inappropriate postings, etc.
• A spirit of participation and feedback is clearly cultivated: encourage community-wide feed back
• A sense of affiliation is achieved through ownership of equity in the community: ebay members can build equity through methods such as garnering a more credible online reputation
• Efficiency in interaction is maximized: through mailing lists, bulletin boards, or live chats- choose formats which maximize the efficiency of a typical community interaction
• The community is easily navigable: easy for visitors to explore

Foundations of Community

• Information-driven communities: built upon shared interest in information and seek to exchange information such as facts and opinions
• Activity-driven communities: shared interests in activities that can range from buying antiques to meeting new friends to playing a role in an online game
• Commonality-driven communities: shared interest arising out of commonality from sharing the same profession, ethnicity, or lifestyle stage

Ways Communites Function

• Real-time systems: immediate communication where messages are sent, read, and replied to immediately (Internet relay chat, web–based chats, virtual worlds)
• Asynchronous formats: delayed communication where time between a message being sent, read, and replied vary (mailing lists, news groups, bulletin boards)

Three Primary Value is Created withing Community

• User to User: user-generated content such as member-written articles, opinions and advice (advice, shareware, good conversation)
• Administrator to User: administrator-created content such as exclusive research and reports and activities such as scheduled chats and special guests (can also take place as offline events such as parties)
• User to Administrator: User-generated value such as revenue from product sales, content fees, usage fees, commissions and advertising sales

Benefits that Community Generate From Parent Firms

• Cost Benefits: Reduced Customer Service Costs, Reduced Customer Acquisition Costs, Reduced costs from decreased product flaws and marketing mistakes, reduced marketing costs
• Revenue Benefits: increased customer segmentation and customization, increased branding, deepened customer relationships

Different Levels of Community

Amy Jo Kim Levels

• Visitors: no persistent identity in the community
• Novices: new members who need to learn the ropes and be introduced into community life
• Regulars: established members who are comfortably participating in community life
• Leaders: volunteers, contractors, and staff who keep community running
• Elders: Long-time regulars and leaders who share their knowledge and pass along culture

Randall Farmer Levels

• Passives: individuals who do not actively engage in but attend virtual communities
• Actives:  those who participate in activities and topics created by others
• Motivators: those who create topics and plan activities of interest to other community members
• Caretakers:  Those who serve as intermediaries between community members

Distribution Channels

• the system of organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for consumption or use
• facilitate the exchange of goods and services between buyers and sellers
• the Internet is a distribution channel

Functions of Channel Intermediaries

• Efficiency: distribution costs are reduced only id the retailers can perform the required functions more efficiently than the manufacturers could in the direct channel
• Effectiveness: the ability of the channel to perform functions that create value for customers

Disintermediation

• a strategy that involves the elimination of a channel intermediary
• elimnation of channel intermediary
• Internet-driving force for disintermediation: the Internet enables firms to interact at a much lower cost and higher speed than ever before

Distribution levers

• Direct: firms can go direct via the Internet, telephone, or mail
• Traditional Retailers: a retailer is a business whose sales volume comes primarily from sales to final consumers
• Virtual Shopping Malls: provide the same appeal as in tradition retailing (a shopping destination), especially important for brands with low awareness or brands in product categories where customers want to comparison shop
• Internet Exchange: equivalent of virtual shopping malls in the B@B area