Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Measure Brand Awareness/ Favorability @online Shop

Posted by Anonymous on 1/2/2012 at 7:39 AM ET 250 Points
In an online store (e.g. Amazon), how can you measure:

- brand awareness
- brand favorability
- purchase intent
- share of voice

simply by using web analytics or purchasing-data?

BA/BF: I have already thought of checking the search terms the customer has used before buying the product (if that's possible) or wheter the customer clicks on "view details" but doesn't buy the product (shows he's interested).

For purchase intent it's obvious to check whether the customer put the item into the shopping cart, but maybe you know a different metric.

Last but not least SOV: #clicks on specific branded product / #of all clicks on products of that category. Do you think that makes sense?

It'd be great if you could help me out :)

Cheers,
Anika
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by koen.h.pauwels on 1/2/2012 at 8:00 AM Member
    Interesing questiong, Anika! What is your purpose in gathering these online store metrics on brands?

    In general, I would say none of your proposed measures equal 'brand awareness, favorability, purchase intent' or 'share of voice'. The former are established purchase funnel terms that need to be assessed in a representative sample of the full population. Likewise, 'share of voice' equals the brand's full spending on marketing (online and offline) divided by spending in the category.

    It seems to me that you want to instead get close to the 'online decision journey' metrics proposed by McKinsey. These measure consumer online activities.

    Cheers

    Koen
  • Posted on 1/2/2012 at 8:27 AM Author
    Thanks Koen, I am asking because I'm experimenting with an online tool that allows you to place ads in online stores that allow advertisers to place an ad for a specific product (e.g. a 10% off coupon) which can be directly redeemed at the online store.

    Since I am unable to question the consumer / customer directly, I will have to evaluate the impact of the ad in some other way. If somebody is interested in -let's say- a new pair of boots and searches for "boots" and sees a pair by brand xyz with a discount-ad, I would like to know what impact it has on his / her decision on buying boots.

    So, in this case, by saying "brand awareness" I mean online brand awareness or whatever equivalent metric has been proposed by McKinsey.

    Cheers,
    Anika
  • Posted on 1/2/2012 at 8:38 AM Moderator
    If you can't do primary research among your target audience, then you should probably "just do it" and test your way to the optimal copy and offer. It could cost you more in time/effort to develop quantitative surrogates for the metrics you want than the exercise is worth.

    Besides, you might generate some revenue from sales while you're testing, and that would offset at least part of your up-front investment.
  • Posted on 1/2/2012 at 8:54 AM Author
    The "just do it" approach is definitely going to be applied :)

    Let me put it differently: Let's assume we have placed the ad, some customers saw it and bought the product already and some others saw it but didn't buy straight away. Now, I have to convince the brand manager that our ad is worth it's money.

    This is my first question here, so let me know if this is too complex to be answered in a few sentences. I would simply like to know what metrics you would use in order to proof that the ad had an impact on the customer, whether he bought the product as a result or not.

    cheers,
    anika
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 1/2/2012 at 11:14 AM Accepted
    January 2, 2012

    How can you measure online store:

    - brand awareness - brand favorability - purchase intent - share of voice

    simply by using web analytics or purchasing-data?

    Unless you have access to inside information, you can't.

    So you'll need to set up statistical parameters based on niche specific numbers to establish some kind of average or beach head, perhaps 1 percent of potential sales of 1 percent of total traffic.

    Brand awareness is tricky to measure because people are either aware of a brand or they're not. You might want to measure it by the presence of the potential buyer on the site, by sales per month or by day, and on dollar amounts per sale per ZIP code.

    Brand favorability can be estimated by looking at site ranking statistics on sites like Alexa and Quantcast, but it's going to depend on individual customers and their buying preferences.

    Purchase intent depends on degrees of want, desire, and affordability by the potential buyer, and on the item's availability, on its styles, price, discount offers, shipping, and on its return policy. The smoother this buying path is for the customer, the easier—compulsion-wise—it becomes for people to buy.

    Share of voice might be better replaced with share of mind: how aware potential buyers are of the site and how likely they are to visit, revisit, and be looking for something that the site in question offers AND that's connected to your ad.

    What about buyer profiles (income, age, kids/no kids, etc.,.? The more you know about the ideal buyer and the other sites they visit, the more you can target specific ads (particularly deadline driven, offer-rich ads) toward their tastes and buying habits.

    The online tool that allows you to place ads in online stores that allow advertisers to place an ad for a specific product (e.g. a 10% off coupon) which can be directly redeemed at the online store? You might want to look into connecting this in some way with browser history, cookies, and where else they've looked in their recent browsing history.

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Princeton, NJ, USA
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