Communications and Media

Chapter 1
Re-read the StuHub article given to you in class.  Is this an example of an E-Commerce Site, a E-Media Site or a E-Market and explain why  Link  HYPERLINK httpwww.emarketingandcommerce.comarticleticket-successhttpwww.emarketingandcommerce.comarticleticket-success

StubHub is an E-Market because the website serves only as an intermediary for the customers. Instead of selling products directly to customers, it gets the buyers and sellers meet at a global platform.

List three ways StubHub can utilize their customer data to help them be more effective in their marketing strategies.  Be prepared to discuss in class.

Data Mining
Business IntelligenceData Warehouses

Web Analytics
(helps decide on Critical Success Factors. Also plays a big role in SWOT(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) Analysis)

Chapter 2
Are the words web crawler, robot and spider all referring to the same thing
Yes
What is the name of the web crawler for the ask jeeves search engine
The Teoma crawler
What is the name of the search engine that uses slurp as their robot
Yahoo
What is the name of the robot for MSN
MSNBot
If you wanted to exclude the MSN robot from indexing a particular page of your website how would you do this and what would the code look like
Setup an exclusion in the HTML file as follows

META NAMErobots CONTENTnoindex
or
META NAMEMSNBot CONTENTnoindex

this code should be placed in the head section of the web site that you would like the exclusion to take place

Chapter 3
At the initial stages of the Internet many retailers were concerned with manufacturers creating their own presence on the web like Levis.  Why was this an issue for retailers and what has changed since that time

Initially, manufacturers thought that through the Web, they could bypass the retailers and go to the customers directly. This meant that retailers will have to compete with manufacturers, too in selling to the customers. And yet, manufacturers, such as Levis, discovered that retailers are much more connected to the customers and they can get more information from the customers than they could ever do. As such, manufacturers learned the value of cooperating with retailers even with the presence of the Web.

What are the most common reasons we lose a customer via an abandon shopping cart

Not fully disclosing price
Not fully disclosing shipping costs
False sales information
Incorrect inventory status
Not giving a physical address

You have converted to a new web site.  We notice that there is an increase in the percent of our customers abandoning their carts at the stage where they are selecting the shipping details.  What are two possible causes you can thin of
The shipping costs were not disclosed fully.
The customer does not like the shipping methods in the site.

Chapter 4
Go to HYPERLINK httpwww.wikipedia.comwww.wikipedia.com and search on collaborative filtering.  This page will list companies that currently practice this technique on the web.  Who are they  Comment on one of them that you might have an experience with.  Do they appear to make good recommendations for you and why or why not

One of the sites that use collaborative filtering is Amazon.com. I have used the site several times. When I go back, I notice that it remembered the products Ive searched for and bought before and gives recommendations based on the buying patterns of people who are similar to my tastes. Some of the recommendations are goodthey are usually related to the items I purchased or the ones I am searching for.

Go to the Virginwines.com web site and visit the help section to determine all of the details regarding how it recommends wines to customers.

Explaining how recommendations work rating the wines presenting information about Virginwines and how to order the process of ordering and encouraging the customer to choose his favorite wines.

Now check out wines.com and wine.com.  Does either of these sites appear to use personal preferences or purchases to make future recommendations

Wines.com relies on personal preferences by getting information from the customer before giving recommendations.
Wine.com, in the same way, also relies on personal preferences in giving recommendations. 

Check out snooth.com.  Does this site appear to use collaborative filtering in the selection of recommendations

Snooth.com does not appear to use collaborative filtering. Instead, it relies on personal preferences of the prospective buyer.

You are conducting a cluster analysis on all names residing on your customer base.  You decide for a 2 cluster solution.  You will base the clustering on three variables  age, years of school and annual income (in thousands of dollars).  The process, as we all know, begins by selecting two customers (a.k.a. the seeds) at random from all eligible names to form the two clusters.  The customers chosen at random to form each of the clusters are customer 1,545 and customer 17,344.  Where will the cluster routine place a customer that is 28 years old, has 13 years of school and an annual income of 39M

Is the new person closer to Cluster 1
Person Cluster Centroid Diff Diff Squared
Age 28         26    2       4
School 13 years        12 years    1       1
Income 39 M       25 M   14      196
Total distance      201
Is the new person closer to Cluster 2
Person Cluster Centroid Diff Diff Squared
Age 28         34    6       36
School 13 years        13 years    0       0
Income 39 M       50 M   11      121
Total distance      157

The new person is therefore put into Cluster 2.
Chapter 5
Find another example of a DoubleClick ad for Perry to use next semester.
This is an example of a DoubleClick ad from Allure.com (  HYPERLINK httpad.doubleclick.netclickh3Dv839d830e2253635580-00146519284307-30025036944608369624861aopt3D20600sscs3D3fhttpwww.concierge.comtoolstravelagentfindermbidhouse httpad.doubleclick.netclickh3Dv839d830e2253635580-00146519284307-30025036944608369624861aopt3D20600sscs3D3fhttpwww.concierge.comtoolstravelagentfindermbidhouse
Heres the screenshot

What is the CTR for an online ad that received 1,275,320 impressions and 63,766 clicks
The CTR for this online ad is 5

Go to the IAB web site.  What are the frequency guidelines for pop-up ads
Each user should be exposed to only one pop-up ad for each visit to a website.

Chapter 6
What did the Pez dispenser have to do with the creation of ebay
Pierre Omidyar, the creator of eBay, wanted his wife Pamela to be able to trade her Pez dispenser collection with others who are interested.

In what ways could ebay mine their customer data for additional opportunities
eBay could use targeting advertising, providing notification to recruiters and bidders, spotting future trends or fads, forming networks of buyers and sellers and optimizing the timing and duration of auctions.

Chapter 7
Go to the Direct Marketing Associations official web site at www.the-dma.org and find the title code.  Does it match what you see on the top of the browser window  What are their list of keywords  Do they have too many  Do they repeat the keyword

The title code is titleDirect Marketing Association Telephone, Mail amp Internet Marketingtitle. Yes, it matches what is shown at the top of the browser window.

The list of keywords include meta namekeywords contentthe direct marketing association home, The DMA, dm, thedma, dma, marketing, marketing conferences, marketing training, marketing jobs
They have quite a few keywords. They repeat the word marketing often. 

Based on Google, would you say the Direct Marketing Association pages are well represented (indexed) and why

Based on Google.com, the DMA pages are well indexed. The first page of the SERP lists the heading of the pages of the DMA website. In addition to that, Google indicates that there are 3,680 pages indexed by Google for the DMA website.

Based on Google, would you say the Direct Marketing Association pages have many links pointing to them and as such would be favored by the search engines  As a result of your answer here would they be considered a good example of an authority web site

Google reports that there are 1,090 sites that link to DMA. This is a good number although it could be higher if the site were to be considered as an authority site. Yahoo, on the other hand, reports that there are 246,684 pages linking to the site. This is a huge number and that means that the DMA site is an authority website. Heres the screenshot from Yahoo.

Your boss has decided that the home page of your brand new company web site will be flash and image heavy.  What things can you do to the site to help ensure, despite the fact that it will be flash heavy, that (a) you get found and indexed and (b) once you are found you get the best possible organic ranking

Although the boss wants a flash and image heavy website, I will advise against it but rather use a combination of text, flash and image. If he insists on flash and images, then we will need to maximize the use of meta tags and keywords as well as the page text to ensure that the site is found and indexed. To get the best possible organic ranking, the site will need good and legitimate link-building strategies, which will help its position in the search engine results and drive more organic traffic. More inbound links will mean better ranking in the SERPs.

Download the Google toolbar on your own PC and compare the rank of Orbitz.com to Travelocity.com.  Which is higher
Orbitz.com has a Pagerank of 7 while Travelocity also has 7.

Chapter 8
If you have 9 clicks on a keyword and the value per click is US0, should you reduce or increase the CPC for the keyword
Reduce the CPC for the keyword.
Which keyword matching option should an advertiser use to keep an ad from showing on certain keywords
Negative matching option
The more (general or specific) a keyword, the more potential traffic it will generate for your ad
SPECIFIC
When writing your PPC ad, you are advised to including a call to action in the ad text.  What are some examples of call to actions words you can use
Click here,  Go to the site now Take advantage of this offer Grab a copy of this report
True or False  You should include keywords in your PPC ad text
TRUE
Please do the Womens Golf Project Case Study found at the end of the Chapter 8 deck.

Chapter 9
Using Alexa do a 6 month traffic report for Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com and Expedia.com using Alexa   Who is the leader in terms of traffic on the web Do you also see seasonal variations in the traffic and does it make sense
The leader in terms of traffic is Expedia.com. Traffic varies within months but on the whole, the traffic kept increasing, at least for Expedia, as the end July draws near.

Using Alexa determine how many sites are linked into Amazon.com.  What are some of the top sites linking in
283,317 sites are linking to Amazon.com. Some of the top sites linking in include YouTube, Google, wretch.cc and Wikipedia.

Using Alexa compare Harvard University and Princeton University on key metrics such as page views, visitors and time spent on site.
On all frontspage views, visitors and time spent on site, Harvard University is on top of Princeton University.

Use the Seo Spider Simulator for the Blair Catalog(httpwww.blair.comhome.jsp) web site we analyzed in Chapter 7.  Make an assessment of the results.  What to you make of their crawable text, link anchor text, meta description tag, keyword list, etc. 
Blair Catalog has a good Page Title in that it uses the keywords it is optimizing for. Meta Description used is also seen by the spiders. But the META keywords used are sparse and could have included more relevant keywords.

Chapter 10
Fill in all missing values in the tables found on slides 21 and 22of the Chapter 10 deck as shown below.  Interpret the lift values obtained.  What do they mean

RuleConfidenceIf A then B55.6If A then C44.4If B then A58.8If B then C35.3If C then A50.0 If C then B37.5
RuleConfidenceExpectedLift over ExpectedIf A then B55.642.5031If A then C44.44011If B then A58.84513.8If B then C35.340-4.7If C then A50.0455If C then B37.542.5-5
If a customer buys the product A, then he is likely to buy B. The same is true for product C. But if product B is bought, product A may also be bought by the customer. Product C, however, is less likely to be bought together with product B.

Chapter 11
You are a B-to-B marketer.  Which is better  (a) 25,000 emails sent, 10 click-through rate, 20 percent registration rate or (b) 25,000 emails sent, 15 click-through rate, 10 registration rate
The first one (a) is better because at the end of the campaign, more people registered, compared to the second example.

You conduct the following two e-mail tests.  What did we learn from this test

EMBED Excel.Sheet.8

We learned the Subject Line Copy 2 is able to appeal to the readers more than the first one.
You conduct the following two e-mail tests.  What did we learn from this test
EMBED Excel.Sheet.8

This means that Landing Page 2 is slightly more effective in getting orders from customers. Therefore, it may be better to use the second one.

You conduct the following three subject line tests.  Comment on your next steps.

Test 1  Subject Line A, Open Rate  66, CTR Rate  6, Conversion Rate  55
Test 2  Subject Line B, Open Rate  43, CTR Rate  7, Conversion Rate  60
Test 3  Subject Line C, Open Rate  75, CTR Rate  5.5, Conversion Rate  50

The next steps would be to further analyze the open rate and look at the emails that bounced. Both the CTR rate and the conversion rate will be looked into. Trouble areas will be analyzed such as the accuracy and relevance of the email list, the email copy and the landing pages. Further testing will then be done if changes were implemented.

Chapter 12
You conduct a new banner ad headline test and want to determine if it has a significantly higher click through rate.  The results of the test are below.   Assuming no cost differential for the test, would you change to the new banner ad

Yes, I will change for the new banner ad. The 0.4 difference will be significant if the traffic becomes significantly higher.

Your current banner ad yields a response rate of .15.  You are about to conduct a new design test that costs the same as your current control format.  What are the minimum sample sizes you recommend for the test and control panels to ensure you will be able to read at least a 10 lift as significant
The sample sizes should be at least 320,000 impressions.

Chapter 13
Read the logfile below and answer following questions

258.183.32.227  Jason (07Jul2006202011 -0700) GETindex.php HTTP1.0 200 110

a.Whats the format of this logfile
This logfile is in NCSA Common Log Format
b. Whats this clients IP address
258.183.32.227
c. Whats his status code
Status code is 200
The following logfilecomes from Drake Direct. Read it and answer the following questions.

6-07-04 133213 24.91.110.0 - 66.51.167.85 80 GET index.cfm - 200 6644 518
Mozilla4.0(compatibleMSIE6.0WindowsNT5.1SV1.NETCLR1.
1.4322) - HYPERLINK httpwww.google.comsearchsourceidnavclientieUTF- t _blankhttpwww.google.comsearchsourceidnavclientieUTF-
8rlsDELA,DELA2006-04,DELAenqdatabasemarketingconsulting

a. Whats the format of this logfile
This logfile is in the W3C Extended Log Format
b. Whats the url of the page the user was last visiting before they linked to Drake Direct web site
Its HYPERLINK httpwww.google.comsearchsourceidnavclientieUTF- t _blankhttpwww.google.comsearchsourceidnavclientieUTF-
8rlsDELA,DELA2006-04,DELAenqdatabasemarketingconsulting, a search engine result page from Google
c. Whats the keyword used by this visitor to hit our website
Database marketing consulting

 How does Google Analytics Differ from Clicktracks in terms of analyzing customer browsing behavior

Clicktracks analyzes the click density of the page, identifying which links are being clicked as well as the number of clicks exiting off the website. Google Analytics on the other hand, measures the number of absolute unique visitors in the page. Google Analytics also provides information as to how long the visitor stayed in the site, where they came from before visiting the site and which pages of the site they visited.