1. YAHOO: Managing An Online Brand
HAMZA ŞANDA

2. Let’s Focus On Yahoo!
 Yahoo! is founded in February, 1994.
 Founded by 2 undergraduate students at Stanfırd University
 David Filo
 Jerry Yang
 Both design this technology, as a way to keep track of their
personel interest in Internet.
 In the fall of 1994, translating to almost 100.000 uniques visitors
to their website.
 In March 1995, venture capitalist from Silicon Valley expressed
interest, firms like Apple, Atari, Oracle and Cisco.
 They agreed to fund Yahoo! İn April 1995 with an initial
investment of nearly 2 million USD.
 So they hired Tim Koogle (left), a veteran of
Motorola & an alumnus of Stanford engineering
department, as Chief Executive Officer. And Jeffrey
Mallett, the founder of Novell’s WordPerfect consumer
division, as Chief Operating Officer.

3. Marketing Strategy Success
 Yahoo! sought to convey an irreverent and fun attitude from its start.
Going public in 1996 brought a huge success, then Yahoo! hired Black Rocket, as an advertising
Agency for its awareness-building campaign.
 Yahoo! positioned itself as a media company, providing informations via various formats.
 Also, Yahoo!’s initial advertising positioned itself as a familiar face “people could trust when they
got online.”
 Then, Yahoo! targetted consumers, called as near surfers who are more brand loyal.
 As a 2th step, Yahoo! projected three different audiences with three distinct message:
 Consumer who might use Yahoo!  We are fun, wacky and easy to use.
 The press and financial analysts  We are professianal and well run.
 Media buyers  We are the market leader and experts in online advertising.
 This marketing strategy increased consumer knowledge of Yahoo!.

4. Future Marketing Strategy Success
 For future, Yahoo! keeps on being consistent on its advertising based strategy.
 And, Yahoo! should take the following actions to accomplish the marketing objectives:
 Use flicker VISA, and MLB to promote the online advertisements.
 Increase flicker capabilities to back up the decline in image search on Yahoo!.
 Encourage the target market to use Yahoo!'s search engine extensively in Middle East by
doing various campaigns to raise awareness.

5. Evolution of Yahoo! Services
 Yahoo! offers a variety of services:
 Unlimited access to rich resources
 Communication tools, forums
 Shopping services
 Search services
 Personalized content
 Branded programming
 Employment opportunities
 Yahoo! should make its services even easier for people to
share, organize and store online conversations and media
content with a focus on improved performance, enhanced
spam protection and a rich, customizable inbox.
 Yahoo! should continually deliver powerful mobile
experiences, and offer consistent features across PC, mobile
and tablet devices.
 Also, its service evolution strategy will bring Yahoo! huge
revenues in further years.

6. Yahoo! Growth Strategy
 Yahoo! should work more on growing its international presence in order to focus on
strengthening its dmostic position.
 For this, the main objectives are:
 To provide the best Internet experience for consumers and a platform for advertisers
across the Arab world
 To expand in the markets along with the competitors such as Google
 To have Yahoo the destination of many consumers
 To provide an Arabic version of both services which are Yahoo’s mail and Yahoo’s
messenger
 To provide information and communication tools that have a positive impact on people's
lives from different aspects
These give Yahoo an opportunity to extend in the Middle East and be able to compete with
Google.

7. Yahoo! Risks
 To understand the risks of Yahoo!, first we have to make a SWOT analysis.
 As we can see below, the main risks are Google, Bing and Social websites like Facebook.
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
1. Yahoo has succeeded in the mobile market more than 1. Yahoo is ranked 5th in visitors among video sites like
Google. YouTube, but Google ranked the 1st.
2. Yahoo has more supplementary products compared to 2. Google generates more revenue.
competitors.
3. Yahoo has a strong brand name
4. Partnerships with MLB, VISA
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
1. Increase the Internet video advertising spending. 1. Google has 50% of all online searches while Yahoo has
2. Yahoo Purchased Flicker 24% based on Neilson/Net rating.
3. Yahoo signed an agreement to acquire Maktoob.com 2. UAE consumer positive attitudes toward using Yahoo
4. Yahoo has a strong reputation and image as well a well are less than Google.
talented employees. 3. High level of competition especially from Google.
4. Social websites like Facebook and MySpace are using
online advertising marketing.

8. Yahoo! Risks
 The core components of Yahoo’s Business Model are its content, search and market place,
community and personalization.
 Google's Business Model is totally different where it is based on Advertising to gain the
profit.
 Google has good features such as the translation tool, maps, Gmail, map, calendar and
many other tools that are different from the features that Yahoo has.
 Also Bing (Microsoft) is a though competitor for Yahoo! with its Internet Explorer and
Windows features.
 Yahoo! has to provide an Arabic version of both
services which are Yahoo!’s mail and Yahoo!’s
messenger.
 In Middle East, search engine concept is a new vision,
so Yahoo! has to enlarge its services and features in this
region and focus on working on it.

9. YAHOO: Managing An Online Brand
HAMZA ŞANDA