Yahoo Nothing to Shout About. Why the Yahoo brand is lost and has no idea who it’s customers are.
When I visit Yahoo, which I rarely do, I wonder who’s in charge here? Does anyone really understand what they are doing? With the slow demise of AOL and the continued growth of all things Google, Yahoo seems to have no idea what it’s trying to do with its site or its brand. They don’t even power their own their own search now that it has been “outsourced” to Microsoft. When you go the the landing page, it’s so confusing. All choices are equal and many of their products or links are just plain old, and many of those services are offered by somone else who does it better. Their ads are actually more prominently than their content. Their news choices, the latest of which is of the “what’s the best tasting potato chip?” variety, gives you the impression they are lost in the ozone. (Did they happen to notice the little change in Egypt?)
The key to being an online destination is to understand the demographics and behavior of those users you are trying to attract and create a world that links together the type of content that serves that visitor. You can’t be everything to everyone. As Yahoo continues to downsize and trim its staff, they really need to look at adopting a more strategic approach to direct their brand. Here are the questions I would ask, and then I would get to work creating a new brand value and a new look:
– “Who are our customers?” Take a look at the @yahoo.com email address user base. What do you know about them besides they have your url? What can you see in their patterns of online behavior that identifies their desires and needs. What behavior patterns can you can talk to?
– “What are our most unique assets, and how can we connect our customers to those assets?” Yahoo’s Flickr and Delicious subbrands are both known for what they do, Flickr as a popular online photo site and Delicious as the unique bookmarking and marketing tool. Why not see what you can do to build more and brand more using unique online experiences like these?
– “The world is mobile so what am I doing to support mobile users?” You need to connect to the mobile experience. The Yahoo site just does not connect with mobile users. This should be the center of a future brand strategy.
– “What experience are you trying to give customers? What should visitors expect when they visit Yahoo.com?” Yahoo can’t be everything! Focus and figure out how to build your unique user experience using your assets.
Yahoo, like AOL, is most likely moving to complete irrelevance unless Carol Bartz, the current CEO, can move away form being a middle American nothingness brand. Online is about what’s unique and what will this do that I can’t do anywhere else. Yahoo needs to rediscover its brand identity. Time to get on with it or forget it.