For individual buyers consumers:
are that competitor benchmarking is not a one-off activity while developing a strategy, but needs to be continuous.
Benchmarking of competitors’ online services and strategy is a key part of planning activ- ity and should also occur on an ongoing basis in order to respond to new marketing
approaches such as price or promotions. According to Chaffey et al. 2009, competitor benchmarking has different perspectives which serve different purposes:
1
Review of internal capabilities: such as resourcing, structure and processes vs external customer facing features of the sites.
2
From core proposition through branding to online value proposition OVP. The core propo- sition will be based on the range of products offered, price and promotion. The OVP
describes the type of web services offered which add to a brand’s value.
Deise et al. 2000 suggested an ‘equation’ that can be used to appraise competitors from their customers’ viewpoint:
Product quality × Service quality Customer value brand perception = –––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Price × Fulfilment time
3
Different aspects of the customer lifecycle: customer acquisition, conversion to retention. Competitor capabilities should be benchmarked for all the digital marketing activities of
each competitor as shown in Figure 8.1. These should be assessed from the viewpoint of different customer segments or personas, possibly through usability sessions. Performance
in search engines using the tools mentioned in Chapter 2 should be reviewed as a key aspect of customer acquisition and brand strength. In addition to usability, customer
views should be sought on different aspects of the marketing mix such as pricing and promotions mentioned later in the chapter.
4
Qualitative to quantitative: from qualitative assessments by customers through surveys and focus groups through to quantitative analysis by independent auditors of data across
customer acquisition e.g. number of site visitors or reach within market, cost of acquisition, number of customers, sales volumes and revenues and market share; conversion average
conversion rates and retention such as repeat conversion and number of active customers.
5
In-sector and out-of-sector: benchmarking against similar sites within sector and reviewing out of sector to sectors which tend to be more advanced, e.g. online publishers, social
networks and brand sites. Benchmarking services are available for this type of comparison from analysts such as Bowen Craggs Co
www.bowencraggs.com
. An example of one of their benchmark reports is shown in Figure 8.8. You can see that this is based on the
expert evaluation of the suitability of the site for different audiences as well as measures under the overall construction which includes usability and accessibility, message
which covers key brand messages and suitability for international audiences and contact which shows integration between different audiences. The methodology states: ‘it is not
a “tick box”: every metric is judged by its existence, its quality and its utility to the client, rather than “Is it there or is it not?’’’
6
Financial to non-financial measures. Through reviewing competitive intelligence sources such as company reports or tax submissions additional information may be available on
turnover and profit generated by digital channels. But other forward-looking aspects of the company’s capability which are incorporated on the balanced scorecard measurement
framework see Chapter 4 should also be considered, including resourcing, innovation and learning.
Deise et al. 2000 also suggest an ‘equation’ that can be used to suggest the overall level of competition when benchmarking:
Agility × Reach Competitive capability = –––––––––––––
Time-to-market
426
Part 2 Strategy and applications
427
‘Agility’ refers to the speed at which a company is able to change strategic direction and respond to new customer demands. ‘Reach’ is the ability to connect to potential and
existing customers, or to promote products and generate new business in new markets. ‘Time-to-market’ is the product lifecycle from concept through to revenue generation.
7
From user experience to expert evaluation. Benchmarking research should take two alterna- tive perspectives, from actual customer reviews of usability to independent expert evaluations.
Now complete Activity 8.2 to gain an appreciation of how benchmarking competitor e-business services can be approached.
Intermediary analysis
Chapter 2 highlighted the importance of web-based intermediaries such as portals in driving traffic to an organization’s web site or influencing visitors while they consume content. Sit-
uation analysis will also involve identifying relevant intermediaries for a particular
Figure 8.8
Benchmark comparison of corporate websites
Source: Bowen Craggs Co www.bowencraggs.com
Pos
Company Construction
maximum score 1
Siemens 2
Royal Dutch Shell 3
BP 4
Nokia 5
AstraZeneca Total
7 IBM
8 ING
9 UBS
10 General Electric
60 47
46 41
44 48
44 41
43 37
42
Message
48 40
41 39
36 33
39 36
40 36
37
Contact
12 10
7 10
8 9
11 11
8 6
10
Serving society
32 27
26 28
26 20
25 23
22 20
25
Serving investors
32 21
22 27
24 20
27 26
25 27
17
Serving the media
32 28
21 18
24 27
12 26
21 22
19
Serving job seekers
32 24
24 19
16 16
22 12
16 26
17
Serving customers
32 24
22 25
25 27
21 24
22 20
24
Total URL
Country
280 221
209 207
203 200
200 199
197 194
191 www.siemens.com
www.shell.com www.bp.com
www.nokia.com www.astrazeneca.com
www.total.com www.ibm.com
www.ing.com www.ubs.com
www.ge.com Germany
Netherlands UK
Finland France
UKSweden US
Netherlands Switzerland
US