Comments on: Print and other traditional media spur retail web searches

By: Ron Shevlin

Ron Shevlin — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:36:10 +0000

Thanks for referencing that study. It’s along the same lines as what I found out while I was at Forrester regarding credit cards. Consumers who applied online were as likely to go to a site because of a piece of direct mail as they were because of an online search.

The findings from RAMA support this cross-channel influence in other product areas.

Certainly makes our job figuring which channels to use and how to measure the influence of each channel a whole lot easier (NOT).

By: Jeff Larche

Jeff Larche — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:43:10 +0000

Thanks for a good analogy, and a link to one of my favorite sites.

By: Alan Rimm-Kaufman

Alan Rimm-Kaufman — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:35:12 +0000

I think the role of the retailer’s own brand name is critically important here.

If BigCompany runs a print or TV ad which then generates a web search for “Big Company”, I’d suggest the search engine is acting like a white pages.

If BigCompany (or CompetitorCompany) run TV or print ads suggesting “Buy Widgets!”, and consumers go to search engine and search for “widgets”, and ads for BigCompany and CompetitorCompany and WidgetStartUp all come up on the search results page, and then the searcher reads the ad copy and clicks on one or two and then goes on to purchases, I see that as quite different — I’d suggest the search engine is acting like a yellow pages.

A recent post from Search Engine Land on this:

PC And Your Good Name

Cheers

Alan