• Affinity Targeting
• Behavioral Targeting
• Contextual Targeting
• Daypart Targeting
• Demographic Targeting
• Geographic Targeting
• Purchase-Based Targeting

Affinity Targeting reaches consumers with advertisements that match the category of the site of interest.

Behavioral Targeting uses information collected on an individual’s web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select which advertisements to display to that individual.

Contextual targeting presents consumers with ads that are relevant to the site content being viewed.

Daypart Targeting presents consumers with advertisements based on the time of day and what they would be most likely be interested in at the time.

Purchase based targeting is based on information about purchases made on publisher site.

Byte or get bitten!

Intelligence is the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience. Within the business environment getting to the point where we understand the relationships between the data that we collect and identify areas that when acted upon can make our businesses profitable then we demonstrate intelligence.

Intelligence is the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria. Within the business environment as we analyze our metrics and change our actions based on where the facts tell us where we are in contract to where we need to be we demonstrate intelligence.

Byte or get bitten!

1. React quickly to customer demands
2. Predicting future capabilities
3. Improve customer loyalty and retention
4. Improving customer satisfaction

The article points to a statistic from the University of Michigan indicating a drop in retailer satisfaction. The article states “Consumers have quickly learned to utilize all of the tools at their disposal to educate themselves about products and prices”, they have done this online.

My buddy Barry Nowak at Metrics Reporting used BI to make Gordon Food Service become #1 in its field and he can help your organization with your BI initiatives. But don’t get me wrong, I strongly agree that there is a strong and undeniable value proposition behind implementing BI within any organization. I would probably get kicked off the board of the West Michigan Business Intelligence Committee if I did not. BI is and an essential tool for the execution of OODA Loops within your organization.

I am just not sure if it should be number one priority.I mean which comes first the chicken or the egg. I guess BI could be the number one objective if include in the initiative is an analysis of your marketing strategy, and the collect of the proper data. BI is the analysis of data inputs. So perhaps the number 1 priority should be ensuring that you are collecting all the appropriate data that you need to make a decision. Many companies are to not tracking web statistics with tools that Google Analytics or Web Trends to monitor what pages customers are looking at and where they are coming from and then where the exit to. Many customers do not have a social network to collect customer feedback. This data is invaluable for a BI initiative and could paint a completely different picture if retailers only analyze their POS data.

BI is great for gaining an understanding of the customer buying cycle. Just make sure you are all the right enablers in place and that BI is a strategic business initiative and not a technology initiative.

Byte or Get Bitten

Chet Richards took the military strategy of John Boyd and applied in to business. In the book “Certain to Win” Chet Richards describes OODA loops. The concept is all about agility. OODA loops are fundamental for a successful Internet Marketing Strategy. Some may look at OODA loops as a strategy but that is where I disagree and have chosen to draw the OODA loop around the Strategy.

Your strategy is your target and based on your target your will observe things differently, you will orient yourself differently, you will make different decisions based on your strategy and you will act differently. You do all of this to hit your target. So OODA loops are not about chasing every opportunity, options, or technology to see if it will work for you and your organization. OODA loops are about operating in a manner that ensures you are pursuing the correct target.

How can you observe what is happening to your target market? There are lots of ways, but perhaps the best way is to get it straight from the horse’s mouth. By creating social networks for your customers to participate in you can create an environment were your customer can talk about their interaction with your products and services. How much does it cost? Denise Shiffman, the author of Age of Engage wrote “How much does it cost not to do so?”

Implementing OODA loops are part of your Marketing and Advertising strategy is a must. If you advertise in the yellow pages you are deciding once for the entire year what your message to the community will be. Where as Advertising and Marketing online you have the ability to place and ad with a coupon in Google’s local search and monitor the results. Then after a couple of weeks observations your orient yourself to work is working or not working then you decide what steps are needed next and then Act.

Bite or get Bitten