Orbitz and The Nerdery

The Nerdery

They may have had to endure years of being picked last in gym class, but they are kings of the hill in today’s professional world. Nerds, that is. With rapidly changing technology and a shift from in-store to online shopping, those who are smart and tech-savvy have a lot to offer Internet-based retailers. Global online travel company Orbitz even has a special office in Sunnyvale, California for these important staff members—The Nerdery (Karp, 2012).

Thanks to the ingenuity of its nerds, the leadership of chief executive Barney Harford, and the interest of Wall Street Journal reporter Dana Mattioli, Orbitz was put under the microscope earlier this year for the way it was collecting and using information about its customers. Sparking the most debate was Orbitz’s finding that its Mac-using customers are 40 percent more likely than their PC-using counterparts to make reservations at four- and five-star hotels, prompting the retailer to place high star (and higher-priced) hotels at the top of the search results for Mac users (Mattioli, 2012). The Apple-loving Mac crowd cried foul, threatening to stop using Orbitz (Adhikari, 2012), while the company “defended its actions in a statement provided to MSNBC, saying it is simply ‘reflecting’ its knowledge of customer habits to provide smart recommendations” (Gordon, 2012, para. 4).

The tools

A little research shows that Orbitz employs a variety of tools to collect data about its website visitors, both those who register with the company and make purchases, and those who simply search the site as guests. By going to the Orbitz website with the free application Ghostery turned on, I was able to see that the 13 different tools shown to the left were tracking my visit.

While Ghostery does not explain exactly how Orbitz is using these tools, they likely serve a variety of purposes such as: setting cookies, so Orbitz will remember my search preferences; tracking where visitors come from and how they navigate the website; running A/B testing, allowing Orbitz to experiment with different versions of Web pages; and tracking the performance of ads on the site.

If this amount of “surveillance” seems intrusive, keep in mind that Orbitz discloses all of its tracking on its Privacy Policy page. Here, the travel company reveals that it uses: cookies to collect data about purchases and site visits, geo-location tools to identify where visitors are, AppNexus to show visitors ads on other website, and surveys to gather anonymous aggregate information (Orbitz, 2011). All of this data is in addition to the details visitors divulge willingly when registering for an Orbitz account or making a purchase. This information could include name, address, email, gender, lifestyle preferences, and preferred travel destinations.

Is it all too much?

Harford argues that Orbitz is simply trying to bring back the “magic” of the old-style travel agent (Karp). You know, the friendly gentleman with whom your grandparents used to book cruises and weekend getaways. He knew his customers well, keeping a detailed file of their past bookings and remembering their travel preferences. Harford hopes this kind of “customer intimacy” will lead travelers to choose Orbitz over competitors because they feel it “knows” them better (Karp).

Orbitz uses the data it collects primarily in an effort to provide website visitors with the most relevant and appealing results when they search for a hotel.  Knowing that vacation seekers will move to Expedia or Priceline if they do not find what they want quickly from Orbitz, the company makes educated guesses, based on both personal and aggregate data, about the hotels that would interest a particular user. Would she like a kid-friendly hotel with a pool or a business-friendly hotel with a conference room? Is she a fitness fanatic partial to smoke-free establishments with exercise rooms? Is a free continental breakfast an important amenity? Does she belong to any hotel loyalty programs? Harford noted:

Getting a highly relevant set of options into those first five slots is really critical for us, and we think there is huge opportunity here for us to use personalization to improve the trip planning experience for our customers. (De Lollis, 2012, para. 6).

What more could Orbitz do?

It appears that Orbitz is already using several tools and strategies to learn about its website visitors and market to them. Listed below are recommendations for additional ways the company could use Web analytics (although it is possible that Orbitz is already employing these tools).

Behavioral targeting for email

With an average return on investment of $40 for every $1 spent (compared with $17 for keyword ads and $2 for banner ads) (Didier, 2012), email marketing should be a major part of Orbitz’s marketing strategy. The company could further multiply its ROI by a factor 18 (Neifield, 2001) by using its vast amount of behavioral and demographic data to target emails to particular users or groups of users. For example, Orbitz could email details about a reduced rate at a Disney hotel to users who had recently searched for Disney vacation packages. Or, it could email a special follow-up offer to visitors who had entered the sales funnel, but abandoned their carts before completion of the purchase. A few companies offering email marketing products with behavioral targeting (identified only through a Google search) are Net-Results, Listrak and Marketing Pilot.

Phone call tracking

Considering that 63 percent of website visitors complete a purchase offline, being able to link phone purchasers to their online search data would help companies evaluate their marketing initiatives more accurately (Burnes, 2012). Orbitz provides a phone number on its website for those who are in need of “expert advice” or simply prefer to give their credit card numbers to a human being. Whether or not a customer makes a purchase during a phone call, the interaction could still provide value through data or simply relationship building.

Several tools are now available that would allow Orbitz to connect phone call inquiries to keyword searches, online promotions or specific customers. In addition to learning more about the source of leads, the company could augment its data on individual users with information gathered through a phone conversation. The Google Analytics Application Gallery offers 25 options for phone call tracking.

Analytics for Apps

In 2011, the amount of time users spent on mobile apps exceeded the time spent on the Web (Wasserman, 2011). Estimating that 20 percent of its hotel purchases this year were made on mobile devices, Orbitz has a general Orbitz app, a hotel app, and additional apps in the works for other categories, such as flights, (Kapko, 2012). It is important for the company to collect and analyze data about this growing segment of customers and how they are using its apps (although I suspect Orbitz probably already is). Google Analytics offer a free tool, Mobile App Analytics, while many paid options are listed on the mobyaffiliates blog.

Your thoughts

As demonstrated by the many strategies and tools mentioned above, Orbitz and other e-retailers not only have access to a wealth of data about their website visitors, but also have a wealth of products available to them to help gather and analyze the information, and then use it to further personalize the online shopping experience. As a consumer, do you feel this growing practice infringes on your privacy or do you appreciate the benefits of more customized marketing messages?

References

Adhikari, R. (2012, June 26). Orbitz and Mac users: Analytics gone wrong or analytics gone just right? MacNewsWorld. Retrieved December 7, 2012 from http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/75478.html

Burnes, R. (2012, April 20). How to integrate inbound call tracking with online analytics [Weblog post]. Retrieved December 8, 2012 from  http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32485/How-to-Integrate-Inbound-Call-Tracking-With-Online-Analytics.aspx

De Lollis, B. (2012, May 9) Orbitz: Mac users book fancier hotels than PC users. USA Today. Retrieved December 7, 2012 from http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/post/2012/05/orbitz-hotel-booking-mac-pc-/690633/1

Didier, E. (2012, April 2). Boost your email marketing ROI by focusing on three key areas. Marketing Profs. Retrieved December 8, 2012 from http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2012/7500/boost-your-email-marketing-roi-by-focusing-on-three-key-areas

Gordon, R. S. (2012, June 26). Orbitz tailors marketing to Mac users’ expensive tastes. MSNBC.  Retrieved December 7, 2012 from http://leanforward.msnbc.com/_news/2012/06/26/12418408-orbitz-tailors-marketing-to-mac-users-expensive-tastes?chromedomain=digitallife&lite

Kapko, M. (2012, Nov. 12). Smartphones account for 1 in 5 hotel bookings on Orbitz. Clickz. Retrieved December 8, 2012 from http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2224271/smartphones-account-for-one-in-five-hotel-bookings-on-orbitz

Karp, G. (2012, Jan. 29). Orbitz counting on tech to be the ticket on ride to greater success. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 7, 2012 from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-01-29/business/ct-biz-0129-orbitz-20120129_1_orbitz-worldwide-online-travel-carroll-rheem

Mattioli, D. (2012, Aug. 23). On Orbitz, Mac users steered to pricier hotels. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 7, 2012 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304458604577488822667325882.html

Neifield, R. (2001, Sept. 20). E-Mail marketing: Behavioral targeting by default? Clickz. Retrieved December 8, 2012 from http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1712989/email-marketing-behavioral-targeting-default

Orbitz. (2011, Dec. 15). Orbitz privacy policy. Retrieved December 7, 2012 from http://www.orbitz.com/info/win?id=PrivacyPolicy

Wasserman, T. (2011, June 20). Consumers now spending more time on mobile apps than the Web [STUDY]. Mashable. http://mashable.com/2011/06/20/app-use-overtakes-web-use/