How Nissan Used Analytics to Stay Ahead of the Game

Using a case study approach, research an e-commerce retailer that is of interest to you.

Nissan

“Innovation that Excites”

Nissan’s scale of operations are scattered in 160 countries around the world, with a net income of 389 billion yen according to March 2014 financials (Takkar, 2014.) They were named one of the best global brands in 2014.

Find information about how they use web analytics to monitor visitor traffic and customers.

a.) What tools/techniques/approaches is the company using?

Nissan has lived up to its motto by using innovative marketing tactics. Over the years, the company has worked with several agencies and software providers to improve their marketing efforts in ways that have been unconventional for its time.

For example, they were one of the first to use Google Analytics, even though they don’t sell their automobiles online. Instead of using GA to measure conversions, Nissan uses the e-commerce tracking functionality in order to collect data on their visitors. They do this by adding tracking tags to each page to allow for custom reporting (Think With Google, 2012.)

They set goals to keep growing their digital media. They used the custom reporting to measure visitors’ personal details, including their preferences in vehicles (model, color, engine capacity, etc.) After completing a form with this information, visitors landed on a “thank you” page. Nissan placed e-commerce tags on each of these pages. They also tracked whenever a visitor submitted a request for a test drive or a brochure (Takkar, 2014.)

In addition to using Google Analytics on their website, they also used social media and mobile gaming to monitor visitor traffic and customers.

They used companies to track their Facebook engagement. One such company was Zuum. In 2012, Zuum found that Nissan had the highest consumer engagement percentage on its brand page than any other automaker (Thomaselli, 2012.)

They also used a mobile game download to advertise the release of their Juke Nismo. They measured downloads of the game, and recorded a total of two million people experienced their new brand before the car even officially hit the market (Moth, 2013.)

How are they using the data they collect?

Nissan used the data they collected through web analytics and social media measurement in order to better understand their consumers’ product preferences in regard to car category, model and color. This allowed Nissan to understand which vehicles were in demand and in which market, which allowed them to customize their marketing approaches in specific areas. Customers could even download the localized version of Nissan’s promotional materials and interact with their closest Nissan dealer (Think With Google, 2012.)

In addition to the data they gathered on customer information and preferences, they were also able to gain three main benefits from using Google Analytics:

1     Easy to assess product popularity globally and by market, providing a seamless user experience.

2     GA’s custom reports allow for easy viewing of complex information, reducing the time to summarize reports

3     GA gives Nissan access to timely information to allow for better decision making

(Ouchi, 2012.)

They also used the information to implement business changes. For example, they worked with a social analytics company called Synthesio to create a campaign for the Nissan Leaf. The purpose was to take some of the guesswork out of marketing by implementing social listening. The insights gleaned from the measurement encouraged them to make changes that led to a 60% increase in positive conversations (NMA Staff, 2012.)

The decentralization of company data within specific markets proved to be very beneficial to Nissan. They used it to make informed decisions in regard to inventory allocation, which improved supply chain management within various markets.  This ended up being particularly meaningful because it helped facilitate a quick recovery for the company in the aftermath of a 2011 earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. The widespread damage from the natural disaster disrupted operations in numerous companies in the region, including more than 45 of Nissan’s suppliers, but because Nissan had been compiling data via predictive analytics, they were able to make moves to keep the company strong (Tysiac, 2014.)

“Since we’d done our homework… we were able to move quicker than our competitors. We did not have to search for data – we had it,” said John Wilenski, who was responsible for the implementation of web analytics at Nissan. “When used appropriately, predictive analytics accurately provide insight into the future so an organization can plan, prepare and take action,” (Tysiac, 2014.)

According to a report by MIT and PwC, Nissan’s strong risk management and effective countermeasures in this dire situation helped them end 2011 with a 9.3% increase in production, compared to a 9% decrease across the industry. They also used the database of visitor information for predictive analysis and statistical modeling to give insight into the competition in (Takkar, 2014.)

Navigate the company’s web site and offer your own perspectives on additional tools, data collection methods and/or metrics they could use to improve their overall web analytic efforts. (Theoretical improvement ideas are acceptable with this assignment). 

Quite honestly, Nissan appears to be the gold standard in the industry when it comes to putting analytics data to good use. They have segmented their audiences beautifully. However, I think new things are on the horizon for Nissan’s web metrics and SEO marketing efforts. Just last month, Nissan United, the unit dedicated to Nissan’s advertising, hired its first chief creative officer – Antonio Navas. (Jardine, 2015.) 

When a new leader takes over the helm, new ways of doing things are sure to follow. A few things I would like to see from Navas in his new position:

-Beef up their Instagram presence

-Implement tracking to see what other car companies’ web visitors may be checking out

-Integrate data on physical store visitors from individual Nissan dealers, as well as phone call data from phone customers to paint a fuller picture of the audience in specific markets

References:

Jardine, A. (2015.) Navas to head global creative for Nissan, Grey Latin America hires Zamora and more. Ad Age. Retrieved Monday, March 2 2015 from http://adage.com/article/creative-movers/navas-head-global-creative-nissan/296938/

Moth, D. (2013.) How Nissan used a mobile game to launch the new Juke Mismo. E-Consultancy. Retrieved Sunday, March 1 205 from https://econsultancy.com/blog/61962-how-nissan-used-a-mobile-game-to-launch-the-new-juke-nismo

NMA Staff. (2012.) Nissan: Social analytics help take guess work out of marketing. E-Consultancy. Retrieved Monday, March 2 2015 from https://econsultancy.com/nma-archive/58400-nissan-social-analytics-help-take-guess-work-out-of-marketing

Ouchi, N. (2012.) How Nissan uses ecommerce tracking without directly selling online. Google Analytics Blog. Retrieved Sunday, March 1 2015 from http://analytics.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-nissan-uses-ecommerce-tracking.html

Takkar, K. (2014.) Nissan Motor Company leverages web analytics to capture different market operations. Digital Vidya Blog. Retrieved Sunday, March 1, 2015 from http://www.digitalvidya.com/blog/nissan-motor-company-leverage-web-analytics-to-capture-different-market-operations-dmblog-0604/

Thomaselli, R. (2012. ) Nissan looks to Facebook to help  launch five new models. Ad Age. Retrieved Sunday, March 1 2015 from http://adage.com/article/digital/nissan-facebook-launch-models/235616/

Tysiac, K. (2014.) Use predictive analytics to thrive and survive. CGMA Magazine. Retrieved Sunday March 1, 2015 from http://www.cgma.org/magazine/features/pages/predictive-analytics-20149618.aspx?TestCookiesEnabled=redirect

The Google Takeover

Blog Topic

Google owns...

•  The top-ranked search portal

•  A wildly popular e-mail service

•  A widely-used customizable home page

•  A leading feed reader

•  The top-ranked feed management system

•  The top-ranked analytics product

•  The largest distributed ad network

•  The most widely-distributed traffic monitoring toolbar

•  The largest video content hosting site

1.) How do you feel about the fact that Google collects data from millions of its accounts every day?

As a culture, we have en masse given up our right to privacy in order to have nearly unlimited access to free information. Personally, I feel helpless and apathetic about it. I feel like we are easily monitored and tracked. Part of me feels that it is very wrong, but it is something we agree to on a daily basis. Part of me is upset that this company knows so much about me. But I’m the one feeding it the information.

2.) Should a user have any concerns about this or is it just the price we have to pay to reap the benefits of Google's many (mostly free) services?

We tend to think of Google as a very benevolent company. That may be valid, or it may be naive. The main concern I have, and perhaps many other users have, is: What happens in the event that the wealth of information Google compiles and stores is hacked by a nefarious individual or group?

For example, in the 1930s, the Dutch government kept record of a population registry that shared the name, address and religion of every citizen, among other pieces of information. The information was kept in order to improve welfare planning and help the community. But when the Nazis invaded, they were able to use that same information to track down Jews and Gypsies (Toobin, 2014.)

Now, I know that sounds awfully dark, but we have to be cognizant of the fact that it is certainly not outside the realm of possibility.

“We like to think of ourselves as the newsstand, or a card catalogue. We don’t create the information. We make it accessible. A decision like this, which makes us decide what goes inside the card catalogue, forces us into a role we don’t want,” said Kent Walker, general counsel of Google (Toobin, 2014.)

However, I tend to agree with the opposite side of that argument:

“Google is no longer the card catalogue. It is the library, AND it’s the bookstore AND it’s the newsstand,” said Marc Rotenberg, the president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (Toobin, 2014.)

When one organization has so much power, it can be troublesome and worrisome. Although Google doesn’t create the content, it is the one that gets the content to others, which gives it control over that information in regard to who else can find it and consume it.

3. Research Google in the news with regards to topics related to ethics, privacy and security and share your findings along with your perspectives.

a. Ethics

There are many ethical implications when it comes to Google. For example, have you heard of Nikki Catsouras? She was a young college freshman who was traveling 100 miles per hour in her parents’ car when she clipped another car and slammed into a concrete tollbooth, dying instantly. Her head was smashed, cleaved in two (Avila, 2008.) I don’t recommend Googling it, but you can if you really want to. And that’s the problem.

The California Highway Patrol, the authorities who attended to the accident, leaked the photos to the Internet. Not even Nikki’s parents had seen the gory photos, and yet the whole world was now able to view them in just a few clicks. And it wasn’t long before anonymous emails and texts began arriving in the Catsouras’ inboxes with photos of the accident (Avila, 2008.)

“We knew people were finding the photos by Googling Nikki’s name or just ‘decapitated girl,’ but there was nothing we could do about it,” said Keith Bremer, the family’s lawyer. While they were able to take the photos off around 2,000 websites, they are still easy to find (Toobin, 2014.)

“The digital world has no morals,” said Ron Braunstein, an individual who has built a career around exploiting this kind of material (Avilia, 2008.)

Therefore, Google has shown it does not play by a book of ethics.

b. Privacy

“If Sony or Disney wants 50,000 videos removed from YouTube, Google removes them with no questions asked. If your daughter is caught kissing someone on a cell-phone home video, you have no option of getting it down. That’s wrong. The priorities are backward,” said Michael Fertik, founder of Reputation.com (Toobin, 2014.)

In the United States, freedom of expression trumps privacy. Back when records were kept on paper and film, filed away in physical cabinets, material was difficult to locate and retrieve. But with electronic records, online storage makes it ever easier to remember. This has caused a shift in our “behavioral default,” according to Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, an Oxford professor who is considered to be one of the intellectual godfathers of “the right to be forgotten” (Toobin, 2014.)

One example of a constituency that Google hurts are those with criminal records.

“The consequences of having a criminal record are onerous and getting worse all the time because of the web… I have a client who says he has a harder time finding a job now than he did when he got out of jail 30 years ago,” said Sharon Dietrich, a litigation director (Toobin, 2014.) It used to be that criminal records were hard to find after a while - not the case anymore.

While criminals might seem like a constituency that is difficult to have sympathy for, just know that it hits closer to home, too. Check out this link to find out everything Google knows about you. It might shock you!

c. Security

While we search via Google, Google searches us 100x more intensely. People care more about Google accessing their personal electronic data more than they do the NSA, their boss, their parents or their spouse. It can track user behavior on 88% of all Internet domains (Dewey, 2014.) They can look at all your G-Mail email - there is no expectation for them not to. It’s the price you pay for using a “free” service (Musil, 2013.)

But it’s not really free. We ARE paying for it. We’re paying for it by giving them unlimited access to our habits. Companies used to (and some still do) pay big bucks to get lists of potential customers or leads. Google doesn’t have to do that.

IT is troublesome that your activity is being compiled, even if it’s by Good Guy Google. That’s because there are others out there, not so good guys, hackers - that are working to tap into it. And, it’s already been gathered and curated, prime for the taking of whoever is smart enough to figure it out (Ghitis, 2012)

For example, last summer private, sexual photographs of celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton were leaked to several websites. These are harder to find now thanks to copyrights - the individuals established copyrights for their selfies, and their lawyers established copyrights for all that they could, but while that has made it harder to find the photos online, it is still possible to get ahold of them (Toobin, 2014.)

In conclusion

In sum, while Google enables us to do amazing things, like write research papers for graduate school, tell us the movie times of our local theaters, let us know what the weather will be like on our vacation, and so much more, it comes at the price of our security and privacy. So far, society has accepted this without too much pushback. But it will be interesting to see what unfolds in the future, as Google continues to grow in power.

References:

Avila, J. (2008.) Family’s nightmare: Daughter’s accident photos go viral. ABC News. Retrieved Sunday, February 22 2015 from http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5276841&page=2

Dewey, C. (2014.) Everything Google knows about you (and how it knows it.) The Washington Post. Retrieved Monday, February 23, 2015 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/11/19/everything-google-knows-about-you-and-how-it-knows-it/

Ghitis, F. (2012.)  Google knows too much about you. CNN. Retrieved Sunday, February 22, 2015 from http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/09/opinion/ghitis-google-privacy

Musil, S. (2013.) Google says Gmail users have no expectation of privacy. C-Net. Retrieved Sunday, February 22, 2015 from http://www.cnet.com/news/google-filing-says-gmail-users-have-no-expectation-of-privacy/

Toobin, J. (2014.) The solace of oblivion. The New Yorker. Retrieved Sunday, February 22 2015 from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/29/solace-oblivion

Clicky: A Google Analytics Alternative

Prompt:

Based on what you have learned and your experiences with GA to date, identify and research one other web analytic tool in the marketplace and offer a brief review along with a compare/contrast to the functionality within GA.

In this course we’ve learned the basics of Google Analytics, a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about a website’s performance. While it is perhaps the most commonly used, particularly for beginners such as the students in my IMC 642 class, it is certainly not the only option that the owner of a site has to measure their progress and success.

When selecting an analytics tool for your blog, commerce site or other website, it’s important to do the following:

-List out the goals you need to achieve. Check to make sure the specific tool you’re looking at can help you achieve that goal.

-Check to see if the service is easy to understand and use.

-Check to see if it fits within your budget.

-Check to see if it has a free trial period (especially if it is NOT a free service!)

(Fernando, 2012.)

Clicky is an excellent alternative, as it is praised for being very user friendly. This is important to me because, as the title of my blog emphasizes, I am a novice when it comes to SEO. This is probably the biggest advantage Clicky has over Google Analytics. Clicky displays website visitor information in an easily understandable way, and unlike Google Analytics, it displays a live view of every visitor activity on the site (Fernando, 2014.) For those of you unfamiliar with Google Analytics, GA has a lag time of about 1 day to display information. That means if something big is happening on your website today (like your blog post about Clicky went viral, for example), you won’t be able to know until tomorrow! As soon as you enter Clicky, it shows you an automatic comparison of today’s data versus the previous reporting period to give you an instant assessment of how your metrics have changed (Hall, 2014.) This same functionality is available in Google Analytics, however, one must root around to find it. Clicky makes it easy (Ewer, 2013.) Knowing this can be very beneficial to the internet marketer, because being able to make sense of what’s happening right now can allow you to make good reactionary decisions, and you won’t be too late to capitalize on trends.

The second biggest advantage Clicky has over GA in my opinion, is its ability to provide super-specific information on individual website visitors. Detailed information like IP address, Internet Service Provider (ISP), location, operating system (Mac or PC), web browser (Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.), website referrer, visit length and actions taken during a specific visit, just to name a few (Angeles, 2014.)

“For example, if you expand the visitor data, you can see how many people looked at pages, how many downloaded items, how many followed outbound links, viewed media or triggered other events,” (Hall, 2014.) And the way that Clicky gathers its data is different from other services such as Google Analytics in a number of meaningful ways.

For example: When using Clicky, your own personal traffic to your website is ignored by default (FAQ, n.d.) Why is this important? Well, last week on my IMC 642 class discussion board, many of my classmates discussed the efficacy of various web metrics, this one included. As a site owner and operator, you are likely to spend a lot of time on your own site! But your heightened activity is not the norm for others coming to check your site out. So, your own activity can skew your data, and make you think you’re doing better than you really are. That’s why Clicky leaves you out of the equation all together, so you can more accurately see what activity is occurring on your site.

Another difference in functionality between Google Analytics and Clicky is the definition of the bounce rate. Traditionally, the “bounce rate” refers to the rate of visitors who view only one page on your site, and then leave. A high bounce rate has a negative connotation. However, this metric was a hotbed for discussion on my class discussion board last week. That’s because this definition (which is used by Google Analytics and many  others) does not take into account the type of action that is being performed on one page. For example, on blogs like this one, the whole point is to read the article (thank you for doing so, by the way) and then leave to go on your merry way. But if you’ve taken the 10 minutes it requires to read this, it sure isn’t fair to say that your visit was a “bounce,” or a failed attempt of mine to get your attention. If you’ve read the information, that’s what I wanted you to do, and therefore it’s a success, even though it technically counts as a bounce.

I think it’s pretty silly. So does Clicky.

With a paid account from clicky ($9.99/month), the service can continue to gather data on site visitors in order to get an accurate picture of how successful the visitor’s visit was in regard to achieving the site owner’s goals. In Clicky terms, a bounce is only a bounce when someone views a single webpage AND they were on the website for less than 30 seconds (FAQ, n.d.)

Another difference includes that Clicky only counts one referrer per visitor, which provides a more accurate picture of where the bulk of your traffic is coming from.

Clicky admits that they do things differently than many other trackers do, and admit that it can cause some minor confusion at first. However, they stand behind it as a way to give users a better analytics experience (FAQ, n.d.)

Aside from measuring metrics differently than other analytics services, Clicky has a few other attributes that distinguish it from Google Analytics. It offers Twitter analytics by monitoring and summarizing any mention of you/your brand on Twitter. It doesn’t require using Flash, so it can be easily used on mobile devices. Unlike Google Analytics, there is an iPhone app for the service (Fernando, 2014.)

They also offer customers an alert system that notifies users of specific events that occur on their website, so that they never miss out on important information. This means that the site owner can get a notification when things like new visitors, achieved goals, or new referral traffic comes to their site (Angeles, 2014.)

Clicky offers easy to read heat maps. A heat map shows the highest concentrations of places where visitors are clicking on your webpage (Ramsay, 2014.) Additionally, these heat maps can be segmented by anticipated goal or by visitor sessions (Angeles, 2014.)

And lastly, one of the biggest differences between the two services that puts Clicky on top is its ability to install a Clicky widget right on your own website. This means that once you install this widget into the HTML code on your bog, you can view (almost) all the analytics I’ve discussed thus far, right in the corner of your very own page, without having to go to Clicky’s website and logging on to their service (Ramsay, 2014.) This means users don’t have to toggle back and forth between their own website and that of their analytics provider. Convenience at its finest.

But, as with anything, there are cons to the service. Most notably, Clicky is not great for bigger websites, and it does not allow for step by step tracking of keyword traffic, which Google Analytics does offer (Fernando, 2014.) However, neither of these affect me or my little blog, so I really wouldn’t mind!

Below is a chart that shows how Clicky stacks up to Google Analytics in a number of areas.

In summary, it seems like Clicky is an excellent alliterative for users who are not overly technical when it comes to website analytics - like me! I know how to take data that I understand and use it in a way to make good strategic decisions. But, if I don’t clearly understand the data, how am I supposed to do that? Because Clicky appears to offer an uncluttered and intuitive experience, it sounds good to me!

You can check out a complete guide to Clicky Analytics here if you’d like more information.

Cheers!

References:

Angeles, S. (2014.) 3 Google Analytics alternatives (and why you should use them.) Business News Daily. Retrieved Sunday, February 2015 from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6090-google-analytics-alternatives.html

Ewer, T. (2013.) Why I use Clicky Analytics instead of Google. Leaving Work Behind Blog. Retrieved Saturday, February 14 2015 from http://leavingworkbehind.com/clicky-web-analytics/

Hall, S. (2014.) Analytics update: Do you need a second analytics package? The Daily Egg  - Conversion Optimization and A/B Testing Tips. Retrieved Saturday, February 14 2015 from http://blog.crazyegg.com/2014/06/03/clicky-web-analytics/

FAQ http://clicky.com/help/faq/tips/different

Fernando, D. (2014.) 10 Web analytics tools: Analytical tools other than Google Analytics. WooRank Blog. Retrieved Saturday, February 14 2015 from http://blog.woorank.com/2014/07/10-web-analytics-tools-analytical-tools-other-than-google-analytics/

Ramsay. (2014.) A review of Clicky Analytics (and why it beats Google.) Blog Tyrant. Retrieved Sunday, February 15 2015 from http://www.blogtyrant.com/a-review-of-clicky-analytics-and-why-it-beats-google/

A Valentine's Day Thought (ATTN: NOT related to IMC 642)

First off, I want to be clear that I’m not bitter, jealous or a curmudgeon, because I truly do believe I am most blessed and fortunate when it comes to the love department. My sensitivity is heightened right now due to the 50 Shades of Grey controversy and it’s causing me to feel a bit prickly toward some of the Valentine’s Day social media posts I’ve seen.

A man is not “the best boyfriend ever” just because he bought a dozen roses or a box of chocolates, or even a diamond ring. You are not “the luckiest girl in the world” to not have to cook dinner for one night because Valentine’s Day is an excuse for him to receive praise for doing what you do for him every day. Look. I’m not trying to be a jerk. If you’re happy, I’m happy for you. I just really hope that people aren’t missing the point of love on a day that is dedicated to celebrating it.

I’d like to say that my guy is the best boyfriend ever because he respects me. He cherishes me. He listens to me. He is considerate of me and my preferences. He is generous of his time with me. These are not things that can be filtered and posted to Instagram; they are not succinct enough that they can be properly portrayed in a tweet. And the plus side? All of this is not limited to a money-fueled holiday. This is all year long, baby.

Again, I’m happy for you if you received a gift you loved. After all, who doesn’t love a gift at any time? But please don’t make gifts out to be more than they are. It’s an incredible feeling to know that the love you exude is fully reciprocated - and that is what matters. The rest is fluff. Both of you deserve this kind of consideration from one another year round. And don’t you forget that!