Yahoo Consumer Direct Marries Purchase Metrics To Banner Ads

CASE ANALYSIS

Presented by VASUNDHARA KEDIA MANDEEP PRADHAN SUDESHNA GHOSH SOURABH SONI SHAURYADIPTA BASU NILOY BISWAS

G R O U P 6

What is Consumer Direct ?

Consumer Direct, is a sequence of online advertising procedures done in conjunction with ACNielsens Homescan panel. In this process, Yahoo sets ads to target consumers, and the Homescan network is households that have elected to partake in such studies. From here households reflect back to the advertising agents after viewing a product on-line at Yahoo, and after a cool-down period of six weeks are then placed in the stores to see the purchasing power that the advertisement had on consumers that are part of the Homescan panel.

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The metrics of this advertising is to view the effectiveness of the ad targets, and the persuasiveness of the advertising to make consumers to want to go out and get the product.

1. Describe the research design for Consumer Direct.

Consumer Direct used the descriptive research design. This design aims to observe and describe the usage of Yahoo without influencing the public in any way, in order to determine the effectiveness of the advertising on Yahoo. This design includes describing any behaviours, performing a case study, observing the amount of advertises being bought or look at through Yahoo, and lastly a questionnaire or presentation.

The goal is to be more effective and efficient in internet advertising. Yahoo wants to target ads that costumers would want to purchase. Consumer direct is used to tailor the products to a specific audience which works only if the research of the targeted group is done effectively. The researcher seemed to be aiming for measurement of the effectiveness of advertising used.
The research design for Consumer Direct was to first, estimate the number of households that used Yahoo. To do this, they estimated the number of households who had internet access and then estimated how many internet users use Yahoo. They then lined up test households and divided them into a control group and a test group. These groups agreed to have a Homescan panel installed on their computer to monitor their exposure and behaviour to ads.

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2. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the research design.

STRENGTHS:

By observing two test groups , the tester can zero in on what is needed or wanted by the consumers. It deals with the effectiveness and the pervasiveness of the advertising. Search patterns were a strength used in order to pinpoint major target preferences. An additional strength in our opinion was the length of the study which seemed to fit the product. Often attention spans are less than a matter of weeks until the next new it item is introduced. Yahoo alone is already a popular search engine which rivals Google in overall most used. Feedback was instrumental in regard to working out the kinks in the product pushed. Test groups spread over a multi-cultured and multi-aged panel can provide better results. It seemed as if the advertising once removed was embedded in the sub-conscience.

The strengths of this research design also allows Yahoo to get a more accurate picture of the types of ads that its users will respond to. This will provide them with the ability to seek out the proper partners to display ads on their site.

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This format is a measurable method to track purchasesdone via online advertisi ng versus just television advertising which is another strength.
The system also holds a select number of participantswilling to divulge informati on about habit shopping. The advantages to this type of research is the different forms of way to collect the data needed, it can provide statistics as well as the way these statistics were experienced by the public. Another advantage is that an observer can witness for themselves how others experience life events, which can result in a more organic more realistic result.

WEAKNESSES: The weaknesses are that the Homescan panel is always the sa me and predetermined. The test may become long and tester might just write down or say anything just to get it done. Also if you are offering a gift, the tester may say or write anything down to get the prize and do not care of the results. Also, estimating the number of households that use yahoo, the numbers and results may not be truly representative of the actual way that Yahoo users would respond to ads and what ads would be most appropriate for the site.

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Another disadvantage is the validity of the answers, as some people may just be telling the observer a lie because they think its what the observer wants to hear. Another disadvantage would be if there is an error in researcher objectivity and human error.
An observer may miss or overlook important information because they may be predetermined to get a specific result instead of the results that the individual is providing. A research bias may influence the outcome of the research in a different way, which may cause for the overall results and statistics to be distorted.

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3. HOW HAS THE USE OF PANELS AFFECTED THE RESEARCH DESIGN?

Home scan panel had a conspicuous role in research designing. The panelist was ask to opt into a joint Yahoo/Home scan panel in which their Yahoo ad exposure and behavior would be linked to their offline purchase information. To the delight of Yahoo and ACNielsen, 19,000 visitors have opted in to the new panel. Hence in this way use of panels affected the research design.

Q4. How have ethical issues influenced the research design?

The research was quite successful as Yahoo was able to collect information. It helps the customers to get affective use of the internet and they were following ethical ways in conducting their research. Though the prevailing Yahoo followed pop up method, yet the way they were recruiting ad agencies media to attract participants through it, incurred them huge cost. So, from this perspective yahoo was quite ethical.

Q5.Define the various measurements collected in consumer direct?

The various measurements collected in consumer direct are as follows: Purchasing pattern of high purchase of households. The response to households to media banner ads & rich media ads . Browsing pattern of high purchase household.

Q6. What analysis would be appropriate for the data collected through consumer direct?
The analysis which would be appropriate for the data collected through consumer direct is- ANCOVA analysis of covariancemethods. which help to compare the ad exposed group with the control group. Post exposure (or non-exposure) purchase is compared adjusting for pre-campaign purchase levels and adjustment variables.