Monday, March 2, 2015

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

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