Dulles-Based AOL Launches Local Search Service

Dulles, Va. -- Keeping pace with search rivals Yahoo and Google, Dulles- based America Online on Thursday launched a new local search service, available to both subscribers and non-subscribers. The service, known as AOL Local Search, aggregates content from AOL's Yellow Pages and CityGuide, as well as the company's Moviefone and MapQuest services and content from outside partners. "Local search is an important and growing category of search services given that 20% of all online look-ups are for something nearby," said Jim Riesenbach, the senior vice president of AOL search and directional media. The service is designed to help users find local businesses, events, movies and other information.
http://localsearch.aol.com/.

Having spent much of my career at a daily newspaper, I can tell you this article to right on. Local, small business advertisers should pay special attention to this piece.

U.S. newspaper industry struggling
Daily papers face unprecedented competition

By Frank Ahrens

The Washington Post

Updated: 4:47 a.m. ET Feb. 20, 2005

WASHINGTON - The venerable newspaper is in trouble. Under sustained assault from cable television, the Internet, all-news radio and lifestyles so cram-packed they leave little time for the daily paper, the industry is struggling to remake itself.

Papers are conducting exhaustive surveys to find out what readers want. They are launching new sections, beefing up Web sites and spinning off free community papers and commuter giveaways in hopes of widening their audience. They even are trying to change the very language of the industry, asking advertisers and investors to dwell less on "circulation" -- how many papers are sold -- and more on "readership," or the number of people exposed to a paper's journalism wherever it appears, in print, on the Web or over the air.

The changes come as circulation totals have eroded steadily for nearly two decades and as newspapers no longer play the central role in daily life they once did. Newspaper executives argue that an emphasis on readership better reflects what newspaper companies are becoming -- multidimensional media conglomerates with growing Internet sites and stakes in television, radio, magazines and other businesses.

"Natural societal things are going on," said Steve Lerch, a newspaper advertising buyer for Campbell Mithun of Minneapolis. "You can't take a half-hour to read the newspaper and eat a bowl of cereal in the morning. People aren't eating cereal anymore, either. I know -- I have General Mills as a client. People are eating yogurt bars on the way in to work."

Frank A. Blethen, publisher of the Seattle Times, said his industry has some breathing room left. But not much.

"The baby boomers are going to continue to drive print [sales] for some time," he said. "The problem we have are the . . . 18- to 35-year-olds. They're not replacing the baby boomers."

Others are more blunt, if hyperbolic.

"Print is dead," Sports Illustrated President John Squires told a room full of newspaper and magazine circulation executives at a conference in Toronto in November. His advice? "Get over it," meaning publishers should stop trying to save their ink-on-paper product and focus on electronic delivery of their journalism.

Story...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7000036/

NOTE: I am on the run this month, traveling to the Retail Advertising Conference (RAC) in Chicago and today, Palm Springs for eTail2005. I'll have much to share soon....

Online News Sites Struggle With RSS Challenge

by Gavin O'Malley

As Internet users discover content aggregation's merit, advertisers and publishers fear a loss of control over their content and how users experience it. Now, several newspapers have launched their own customized RSS readers, in an effort to solidify their relationships with online readers. - Read the whole story...

Ask Jeeves Breaks Branding Campaign, Heats Up Search Marketing War

by Wendy Davis

As companies continue to compete for the growing online ad dollars spent on search marketing, search engine Ask Jeeves will this week join rival MSN on the air in a consumer branding campaign. - Read the whole story...

JupiterResearch Report: New Online Shoppers Powered Spending
Tuesday, Feb 8, 2005 6:00 AM EST

CONFIRMING ECOMMERCE'S SUCCESS THIS PAST holiday season, JupiterResearch reported yesterday that online holiday retail spending exceeded $22 billion--up 22 percent year-over-year. The report attributes the increase largely to the 17.7 million new online shoppers who materialized during November and December. The report, "Holiday 2004 Postmortem: Retain New Customers Through Retail Basics," projects continued strong growth for online retail, forecasting that 2005 online retail sales will surpass $79 billion--up from $66 billion in 2004.

Best regards,
Matt Haverkamp
Account Manager
Travidia, Inc.

AOL Offers a More Refined Search Engine
By BLOOMBERG NEWS

Published: January 21, 2005

By Bloomberg News

America Online introduced a new Internet search engine yesterday, part of an effort to gain a larger share of the online advertising market.

The service, called AOL Search, will sort results by geography and topic and offer a suggestion tool, the company, a Time Warner unit, said. AOL has licensed technology from Vivisimo, a closely held software company.

America Online is bolstering its search features to compensate for its inability to win market share in Web advertising from Google, the most-used Internet search engine, and Yahoo. Google sells about half the search advertising in the United States. AOL has lost subscribers for seven consecutive quarters.

Third-quarter revenue at America Online, the biggest Internet access company, increased 1 percent, to $2.1 billion, buoyed by the purchase in August of Advertising.com, which helps companies plan and track Web-based marketing campaigns.

The chief executive of Time Warner, Richard D. Parsons, said last month that America Online's ad sales were about $1 billion in 2004.

In the fourth quarter, Jessica Reif Cohen of Merrill Lynch said in a note to investors on Tuesday, advertising sales are expected to rise 40 percent, to $285 million. Ms. Cohen, who has a buy rating on the shares, forecast a 1 percent decline in subscription revenue, to $1.88 billion.

The Web tools introduced yesterday provide users with more personalized search features and snapshots at the top of each page presenting information on topics including local movies and sports results. STORY


Folks, using the Web to market LOCALLY is the real deal. Broad-based media is dying. YOU DO NOT NEED to REACH LOTS of PEOPLE...You need to REACH THE RIGHT PEOPLE at THE RIGHT TIME...when they want to buy!

Sacrameto area Small-Business Owners...
I am interested in gaining a greater understanding of Overture’s LocalMatch ™ program and looking to meet with select local business owners in order to beta-test that program as well as other recently developed LOCAL, online-marketing programs that I believe have great promise.If you own a consumer-based, retail or services business in or near the greater Sacramento area, and would be willing to take a 30-min meeting with me in late February, email me now.

What the Latest Developments in Local Search Technology Could Mean for Your Small Business Website
In the All Out War Taking Place Between the Top Search Engines to Gain the Priority Spot at the Top of the Search Engine Ranks, Small Businesses Have Added Incentives to Get Online.

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 4, 2005 -- Soon after Internet retail giant, Amazon launched its local search service, A9.com’s Block View – a local business search with street-level photographs from 10 major U.S. cities – search engine giant, Yahoo, announced it’s launch of a new search service which allows users to send text message listings of businesses and restaurants straight to cell phones. Additionally, MSN, which had previously had to rely on Yahoo’s technology to run its search engine, just Tuesday launched its newly revamped search engine run completely on its own technology. So, what does this seemingly endless competition between the search engines mean for you, the small business owner? In a word – profits. STORY

Two Thirds of Online Retail Purchases Made Using Broadband

- Submitted by Matt Havercamp

Nielsen//NetRatings recently reported that 69 percent of retail purchases transacted online were conducted via a broadband connection, compared to 31 percent transacted via narrowband or dial-up access during November 2004.

The finding was derived from the new Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Online Retail service, which tracks online consumer retail activity and purchasing behavior and offers marketers competitive benchmarking, dollar spending insights and buyers' conversion rates. STORY




Folks, this seems obvious, but consider how you might be able to spend less by focusing your ad dollars and marketing efforts on reaching broadband shoppers. Stop trying to make your site fast-loading for dial-up user, optimize it for broadband. Better yet, have two-versions of the site...launch your own broadband-user shopping channel! Post video to your hearts content. There are a lot of great ways to use this knowledge, I'll gladly share my thoughts and ideas with you for the cost of an email! jbonfield@travidia.com

Banner Ads Click with Consumers

Now that total spending on Internet advertising exceeds spending on some traditional media, it has become even more important for companies to determine the effectiveness of their online advertising expenditures. A recent study by business professors at the University of Chicago determines that banner advertising helps companies retain customers by bringing them back to a companys Web site sooner and encouraging them to spend more. The authors also assert that the industry-wide practice of judging banner ads by the number of clicks they generate underestimates the effectiveness of banner ad campaigns. URL: Banner Ads Click with Consumers

Word of mouth: love it or hate it

You can love it, you can hate it. But surely you can't stop it. It's the word of mouth, the viral effect that can damage (or even destroy) your brand or can make you a star in a few days. I enjoyed reading a very good article about viral marketing on Le Monde (in French), which usually doesn't cover this kind of issues. Entitled "Les guérilleros du net-marketing" the analysis by Yves Eudes, takes us through a series of cases in which the "clients missionnaires" (sort of evangelist clients) have been able to make the difference, either positive or negative, impacting on a brand image. Blogs are surely playing a role in this sense, creating a new category of "web-lobbying" which can no longer be ignored by brands. The article then goes a step further, investigating the power of online communities and the importance to e-commerce sites of users reviews.

Story Source Blog

Thursday, February 3, 2005 - Submited by Matt Havercamp - Travidia Inc.

Customer Loyalty Doesn't Guarantee Retail Exclusivity

According to a recent analysis of customers from the BIGresearch's December Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, "The idea of customer loyalty, where consumers shop exclusively at a particular retail store, ceased to exist long ago," said Gary Drenik of BIGresearch. Loyalty has been replaced by cross shopping. Your 'customers' are also your competitor's customers," he said.

The report shows that while 11.6 million consumers say they shop most often for women's clothing at JC Penney, 8 million of their best women's clothing customers also shop most often at Wal-Mart for some other merchandise category. 69% of JC Penney's best women's clothing customers have a relationship with Wal-Mart and could be at risk particularly if Wal-Mart refines their apparel merchandise selection.

Other leading retailers who share a majority of their best customers with Wal-Mart include:



Percent of best customers shared with Wal-Mart

Shoes:
Payless
71%

Electronics:
Best Buy
62%

Linens & Bedding:
Bed, Bath & Beyond
54%

Home Improvement
Home Depot
64%

Prescriptions:
Walgreens
71%

Groceries:
Kroger
65%


The report "When Customers Cross Shop" examines competitive cross shopping for 12 lines of merchandise including:
Women's Clothing, Men's Clothing, Children's Clothing, Children's Toys, Shoes, Electronics, Major Appliances, Linens and Bedding, Home Improvement/Hardware, Prescription Drugs, Groceries andHealth & Beauty Aids.

The complete report may be purchased from BIGresearch.

Luxury, low price mix as some malls blend merchants

By Lorrie Grant, USA TODAY
2 February 2005

Mall developer Westfield Group will announce Wednesday that it plans to
include "cheap chic" discounter Target (TGT) alongside Neiman Marcus (NMGA)
and Nordstrom (JWN) as one of five anchors at a high-end mall it is
redeveloping in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.

The $300 million redevelopment of the Westfield Shoppingtown Topanga mall is
to be complete next year.

The move reflects a growing trend in retailing to experiment with bringing
what have been mostly freestanding "big-box merchants" -- from discounters
such as Target to specialty retailers such as Best Buy (BBY) or Bed Bath &
Beyond (BBBY) -- into malls as anchors.

The idea of mixing a luxury experience with low-price convenience under the
same roof reflects widespread acceptance of discount shopping.

Full Story HERE

We are SCREAMING for new merchandise to shop for. Good or bad, we are CONSUMERS and want variety. "Consumer surveys continue to register department store complaints about too much sameness in merchandise, cluttered stores and poor customer service.
Sales at department stores open at least a year nudged up just 1.6% last
year, and that was the first gain since 2001, according to Redbook Research.

Department stores are trying to help themselves by doing more to
differentiate themselves -- and by acquiring competitors."

Valentine's Day Retail Forecast

By retailindustry at about.com
Valentine's Day spending is forecasted to reach $13.19 billion this year, with the average consumer will spend $97.27 on Valentine's Day, down slightly from $99.24 last year, according to the NRF and BIGresearch....


Hey small busines folks, how much of this pie are you getting? Remember, 65% of online users reaserch ONLINE to buy OFFLINE! Stop kidding your self that you can't play this game you can! You don't need ecommerce ability to benefit from Internet marketing. At least 25% of comercial/commerce based search engine searching is local people looking for LOCAL goods and services near their home or place of work! That's YOU. Clue in. Contact me for how... no charge, just great advice that works. jbonfield@travidia.com

MSN Launches New Internet Search Service Designed to Give
More-Precise Answers in Less Time

Press release spin, but interesting...

"Consumers Can Find Information More Easily via Redesigned, Search-Optimized MSN.comREDMOND, Wash. -- Feb. 1, 2005 -- Today marks the worldwide1 launch of the new MSN® Search, the first-ever search engine built from the ground up by Microsoft Corp. to help consumers more quickly search the Web and get precise answers. Now available in 25 markets1 and 10 languages, the new MSN Search service delivers more-relevant results, instant answers to specific questions, and a collection of tools that give Internet users greater control in targeting and refining searches".