H A M Z A ŞA N DA

YAHOO: Managing An Online Brand

Let’s Focus On Yahoo!

Yahoo! is founded in February, 1994.

Founded by 2 undergraduate students at Stanfırd University

David Filo

Jerry Yang

Both design this technology, as a way to keep track of their personel interest in Internet.

In the fall of 1994, translating to almost 100.000 uniques visitors to their website.

In March 1995, venture capitalist from Silicon Valley expressed interest, firms like Apple, Atari, Oracle and Cisco.

They agreed to fund Yahoo! İn April 1995 with an initial investment of nearly 2 million USD.

So they hired Tim Koogle (left), a veteran of Motorola & an alumnus of Stanford engineering department, as Chief Executive Officer. And Jeffrey Mallett, the founder of Novell’s WordPerfect consumer division, as Chief Operating Officer.

Marketing Strategy Success Yahoo! sought to convey an irreverent and fun attitude from its start.

Going public in 1996 brought a huge success, then Yahoo! hired Black Rocket, as an advertising Agency for its awareness-building campaign. Yahoo! positioned itself as a media company, providing informations via various formats.

Also, Yahoo!’s initial advertising positioned itself as a familiar face “people could trust when they got online.”

Then, Yahoo! targetted consumers, called as near surfers who are more brand loyal.

As a 2th step, Yahoo! projected three different audiences with three distinct message:

Consumer who might use Yahoo! We are fun, wacky and easy to use. The press and financial analysts We are professianal and well run. Media buyers We are the market leader and experts in online advertising.

This marketing strategy increased consumer knowledge of Yahoo!.

Future Marketing Strategy Success

For future, Yahoo! keeps on being consistent on its advertising based strategy.

And, Yahoo! should take the following actions to accomplish the marketing objectives:

Use flicker VISA, and MLB to promote the online advertisements.

Increase flicker capabilities to back up the decline in image search on Yahoo!.

Encourage the target market to use Yahoo!'s search engine extensively in Middle East by doing various campaigns to raise awareness.

Evolution of Yahoo! Services Yahoo! offers a variety of services:

Unlimited access to rich resources Communication tools, forums Shopping services Search services Personalized content Branded programming Employment opportunities

Yahoo! should make its services even easier for people to share, organize and store online conversations and media content with a focus on improved performance, enhanced spam protection and a rich, customizable inbox.

Yahoo! should continually deliver powerful mobile experiences, and offer consistent features across PC, mobile and tablet devices.

Also, its service evolution strategy will bring Yahoo! huge revenues in further years.

Yahoo! Growth Strategy

Yahoo! should work more on growing its international presence in order to focus on strengthening its dmostic position.

For this, the main objectives are:

To provide the best Internet experience for consumers and a platform for advertisers across the Arab world

To expand in the markets along with the competitors such as Google

To have Yahoo the destination of many consumers

To provide an Arabic version of both services which are Yahoo’s mail and Yahoo’s messenger

To provide information and communication tools that have a positive impact on people's lives from different aspects

These give Yahoo an opportunity to extend in the Middle East and be able to compete with Google.

Yahoo! Risks

To understand the risks of Yahoo!, first we have to make a SWOT analysis.

As we can see below, the main risks are Google, Bing and Social websites like Facebook.

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

1. Yahoo has succeeded in the mobile market more than

Google.

2. Yahoo has more supplementary products compared to

competitors.

3. Yahoo has a strong brand name

4. Partnerships with MLB, VISA

1. Yahoo is ranked 5th in visitors among video sites like

YouTube, but Google ranked the 1st.

2. Google generates more revenue.

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

1. Increase the Internet video advertising spending.

2. Yahoo Purchased Flicker

3. Yahoo signed an agreement to acquire Maktoob.com

4. Yahoo has a strong reputation and image as well a well

talented employees.

1. Google has 50% of all online searches while Yahoo has

24% based on Neilson/Net rating.

2. UAE consumer positive attitudes toward using Yahoo

are less than Google.

3. High level of competition especially from Google.

4. Social websites like Facebook and MySpace are using

online advertising marketing.

The core components of Yahoo’s Business Model are its content, search and market place, community and personalization.

Google's Business Model is totally different where it is based on Advertising to gain the profit.

Google has good features such as the translation tool, maps, Gmail, map, calendar and many other tools that are different from the features that Yahoo has.

Also Bing (Microsoft) is a though competitor for Yahoo! with its Internet Explorer and Windows features.

Yahoo! Risks

Yahoo! has to provide an Arabic version of both services which are Yahoo!’s mail and Yahoo!’s messenger.

In Middle East, search engine concept is a new vision, so Yahoo! has to enlarge its services and features in this region and focus on working on it.

H A M Z A ŞA N DA

YAHOO: Managing An Online Brand