Understanding the online marketplace

Dr Dave Chaffey for University of Derby 2011

 About Dave Chaffey

q Strategy &
analytics
www.smartinsights.com Qualifications
q
q Search
& conversion


Best Practice

Books
Use Smart Insights to help
you on the module:

www.smartinsights.com

The RACE digital

strategy
framework

http://bit.ly/smartstrategy 3
 What we need to cover in
online marketplace analysis
 Our case study : www.i-to-i.com

nMultichannel business with

significant proportion of leads
and sales generated online
nAudience in 4 key markets:
nUK & Ireland
nUS
nEurope
nAustralia & NZ
nRoW
nCourse popular with gap
year and career break
students
n15,000 trained annually
online or on weekend TEFL
nUse full range of digital
channels integrated with
call-centre sales

n
n
n
n
 Why bother? What do we get from
online marketplace analysis?
What would the Ecommerce manager of i-to-i need to know
about the main marketplace players?
q q
q q
q q
q q
 Tutorial / assignment homework

q 1. Create Internet-specific SWOT



q 2. Create marketplace map



q A. Define main customer types to target



q B. Analyse consumer behaviour:

q Online preferences – platforms, what they
want?
q Buyer behaviour
q Search behaviour


q C. Identify relevant partner sites


 Step 1. Output from tutorial – Internet SWOT

Strengths: Weaknesses:
 

 

 

 

 

 

Opportunities: SO Strategies WT Strategies

  

  

  

  

  

  

Threats: ST Strategies WT Strategies

  

  

  

  

  

  
 Internet SWOT example

Source: Chaffey et. al. (2009) Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice
FT-Prentice Hall. 3rd edition. With permission. Pearson Education.
 Another Internet SWOT example

Source: Chaffey et. al. (2009) Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice
FT-Prentice Hall. 3rd edition. With permission. Pearson Education.
Internet five forces analysis – does this help?

B a r g a in in g More choice +
p o w e rs o f Soft-lock in
c u s to m e rs Comparison sites

Pow er of T h re a t o f
T h e b u s in e s s
s u p p lie r s s u b s it u t e s

E x t e n t o f r iv a lr y
T h re a t o f n e w
b e tw e e n
e n tra n ts
c o m p e tito r s
Porter, M. (2001) Strategy and the Internet. Harvard Business Review. March 2001, 62-78.
 http://www.ruderfinn.com/rfrelate/intent/intent-index.html

Start with the customer!

 How do you spend your time online?

q Which of these activities have you

completed in the last 6 months?
q1 Upload personal photos
q2 Upload video
q3 Managed a social network profile
q4 Written own blog
q5 Used microblog (Twitter)
q
q6 Rated blog
q7 Commented on blog
q8 Rated / reviewed product


q Rank the activities in order of importance


See http://www.marketing-online.co.uk/wiki/Social_Media_Usage_Statistics
Digital marketing isn’t just the Internet
Microprocessors are going into many different devices

...and 3 screens are now becoming mainstream...

When I want it and Where I want it.

Source: Lisa Harris (www.lisaharrismarketing.com)

 Touch screen mobiles are becoming popular
...and so will Internet video on mobile devices...
■ Its not so much the iPhone but the ...and 3G “all you can eat”
large touch screen that has connections.
produced the first
usable Internet
browsing mobile
device...

UK phone networks forecast that half of UK will have

large screen Internet mobile phones within four years.
Source: Lisa Harris (www.lisaharrismarketing.com)
 Mobile and App OVP

http://www.smartinsights.com/blog/digital-marketing-strategy/marketing-opportunities-from-mobile-apps
 Tip. Create an online marketplace map to
understand your customer influencers

Step 2. Online marketplace map

 Step 2a. Identify 4-6 personas

Forrester Research on “site design personas”

q Ethnographic researchers averaged
q 21 i/views per project for 4
personas, $47K
q $10K to 100 i/views for 8
personas, $500K
q Examples:
q Ford uses 3 buyer personas at
Ford.com
q Primary persona ‘Marie’ – just
beginning car shopping
process, hasn’t settled on
brand, doesn’t know about
cars, needs Help!
q Staples.com has 7 for shoppers
q Microsoft had 7 for Windows XP
q Segment on key
characteristics/behaviours
q “Seeks high quality”, “Seeks
low cost”
q “Starting evaluation”, “Final
decision”
q Occasional visitor, frequent
http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-understand-your-users-with-personas/
visitor

For each persona define preferences for:
ü Platforms
(web, email, mobile)
ü Platform usage (hours)
ü Content consumption:

General site types &

category-specific
ü Social media - content

creation & participation
ü Search behaviour
ü Trusted brands



Scenario-based usability test example
Key influencers / information sources
Step 2a. Main customer types for i-to-i

q q
q q
q q
q q
q
Finding current customer segments, partners
using www.google.com/adplanner
B2B and B2C targeting examples
 Understanding keyphrase behaviour for brand
and product preferences

http://www.smartinsights.com/blog/digital-marketing-strategy/tools-for-benchmarking-competitor-visitor-numbers/
http://www.smartinsights.com/blog/seo/keyword-research-process/
http://www.smartinsights.com/search-marketing-alerts/best-link-analysis-tools-for-seo-and-online-pr/
http://www.smartinsights.com/blog/online-pr-social-media/online-reputation-management-software/
 Need to understand Internet impact
on buyer behaviour – how does it change?

Figure 7.9 A summary of how the Internet can impact on the buying process for
a new purchaser

See Chapter 2
Some changes to buyer behaviour

+ Viral
marketing
& E-PR

Behavioural targeting
- Brand
less important

+ Brand
more important

+ Paypal and
Google sales

SearchComparison UGC
recommendations
through social networks
 Behaviour evolves with Experience

E-mail; Research Visit Buy Buy at

Search travel, company goods; auction;
engines; films, / brand visit gov’t Download
Surfing jobs sites sites software

Immediate 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year

Fast: extensions of
PC use; read-only
information
Medium: research
for complex
decisions

Slow: technically
complex or
financially risky

Source: Forrester Research. Analysis of Consumer Technographics 1999-2003.

Base: Online consumers. Years mark average time needed for consumers to start activity
Step 2d Understanding online intermediaries

qPortals = gateway = publishers

q Example:
qAffiliates – compare prices
q Example:
qAggregators = price comparison sites
and review sites = Revoo
q Example:
qBlogs
q Example
 Step 2d. Competitor benchmarking

qThink of when you use a site online –

what affects your experience and
perception of brand?
q
qBrainstorm 10-20 different
characteristics of a site that the
affect brand experience and then
group them into 5 or 6 different
areas you could use for
benchmarking
q
What’s important to whether you
buy again from a brand or site?
What makes an effective online brand?
Trust factors
 What do site users care about (1)

q Fogg et al. (2003) asked students to review

sites to assess the credibility of different
suppliers based on the website design. They
considered these factors most important:


q Design look 46.1%

q Information design/structure 28.5%
q Information focus 25.1%
q Company motive 15.5%
q Usefulness of information 14.8%
q Accuracy of information 14.3%
1e
Defining your OVP

q OVP - Online Value Proposition

q Reinforces core brand proposition and credibility,
but messaging shows:
q What can a visitor get from your online brand
that…
q They can’t get from you offline?
q They can’t get from competitors?
q Communicate message forcefully:
online and offline
q Examples:
q ‘Compare. Buy. Save’. Kelkoo (www.kelkoo.com)
q ‘Earth’s biggest selection’. Amazon (
www.amazon.com)
q ‘Search the largest inventory of cars and trucks
on the Internet. More than 1.5 million listings,
updated daily’
Write down your(www.autotrader.com)
online value proposition
www.i-to-i.com OVP
Gaining site and business innovation ideas
through Uservoice
 Remember to review integration =
Supporting channel-switching behaviour
 Benchmark main types of digital
communications tools used by competitors
 How can
social
media
help
SEO
and expanding
awareness?

Source: www.theconversationprism.net
 Prioritising through the digital marketing radar

http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy-alerts/prioritising-digital-marketing-radar/
 Thank you! Let’s Connect!
Questions & discussion welcome

q
q Blog
q www.smartinsights.com/blog

uk.linkedin.com/in/davechaffey
q
q Feeds
q www.feedburner.com/smartinsight
q
q Enewsletter
facebook.com/smartinsights
q www.smartinsights.com

twitter.com/smartinsights