Introduction
The rise of the digital age brought
with it unique challenges for businesses as they ventured into the virtual
frontier of the internet. One of the
challenges which quickly made itself apparent was the need for understanding
who your online audience was. Traditional means of audience measurement were
not capable of identifying digital audience, giving way to the rise of the web
analytics industry. The web analytics marketplace has evolved rapidly as
products and methodologies have come and gone, born of innovation, then either
evolving through acquisition or dying of irrelevance.
One of today’s key players in the
industry is Adobe, which has made a name for itself in the industry through a
2009 acquisition of analytics leader Omniture.
Omniture emerged as a leader in the marketplace through its tagging data
collection capabilities and its clean interface presented through its Site
Catalyst tool (Omniture, 2012).
However,
today’s web analytics marketplace, while more stable than in the beginning of
its short history, is still susceptible to disruption. One such company looking to make an impact in
the web analytics marketplace is comScore.
comScore is a historical leading provider of digital audience
measurement (web measurement), but had not ventured web analytics (site
measurement) before a 2010 acquisition of European-based product Nedstat, re-branding it as Digital Analytix (comScore, 2012). comScore seeks to upset market leader, Adobe
Omniture, through a claim to more advanced and accurate methodology.
Herein, I seek to establish a
framework of analysis upon which the competitive strategy of Adobe Omniture and
comScore can be assessed, particular to the Site Catalyst and Digital Analytix
products, respectively, with recommendations regarding their perceived future
from a consumer standpoint.
Competitive Analysis: Adobe SiteCatalyst
vs. comScore Digital Analytix- VRIO and Market Analysis
As previously mentioned,
SiteCatalyst sits atop the marketplace as the current leader in web
analytics. Its strategic alliances and
acquisitions, combined with its clean and intuitive interface, have enabled it
to grow a more substantial user base than other analytics platforms. The ability to modularize your solution with
the add-ons and features which you need has historically been viewed as one of
its strengths and selling points.
However, SiteCatalyst’s position has not been without
challenges. The technology industry as a
whole is quite volatile, with new technologies, innovations and offerings
posing a constant threat of disruption.
Web analytics is no different and as a rapidly evolving industry it has
moved through rapid market growth (1995-2000) and market consolidation and
product standardization (2001-2003) and is well into the stage of becoming an
established part of the market ecosystem (2004+) (Ballardvale, 2004). Much of today’s SiteCatalyst and its
supporting parts were built during the second stage of market development
through acquisition and market consolidation.
As such, SiteCatalyst is built on methodologies and technologies which
were made to integrate into existing systems.
Growth and maturity have begun to show chinks in the armor as these
methodologies (ex: data cubing) and systems show other weakness (ex: concerns
regarding scalability) and come into question as to whether they should
continue as the analytics best practices.
Digital Analytix on the other hand,
while not possessing the US market share of SiteCatalyst, is more on the
forefront of cutting edge technology and methodology which may give it a leg up
on SiteCatalyst in the long run and help it avoid some of the struggles that
face its Adobe counterpart. Digital
Analytix was built with the intent to be the most granular and flexible product
on the market. By avoiding some
traditionally held methodologies which are now coming into question, Digital
Analytix possesses the capability to do on the fly audience segmentation and
analysis on unaggregated (not cubed) data sets in real time (Kemelor, 2011). Combined with its ability to integrate native
data sets and even its own audience and panel data, Digital Analytix appears to
be the future of web analytics functional potential.
Digital Analytix, however, is faced
with its own unique challenges due to the existing market environment and its
own limitations. As a lesser-known name
in the industry, comScore faces an uphill battle in gaining ground against the
Omniture name, and especially now against the Adobe reputation. Additionally, as Omniture grew to become the
market standard, much of the core business which comScore hopes to obtain are
current Omniture clients. The price of re-tagging, retooling, and relearning an analytics solution is significant. And while the price of Digital Analytix tends
to be below that of SiteCatalyst in most situations, the challenge of taking
that business away is only more complicated if the company already feels that
they are getting value from SiteCatalyst which exceeds its cost. Therefore, comScore has found success among
clients new to web analytics and those unhappy with their SiteCatalyst
experience, but faces an uphill battle in stealing away the most loyal of the SiteCatalyst
base.
Additional challenges to both firms
include powerful competitors within the industry. The most notable disruptor is Google
Analytics, built upon the acquisition of Urchin, and which provides similar
functionality to existing tagging and SaaS solutions, but at no cost for the
basic analytics package. Limited by core
functionality, however, enterprise focused companies such as Adobe and comScore
tend to be an easy sell to those serious about their analytics activities. Nevertheless, Google Analytics and other free
analysis providers have found great success and still pose a threat as
evidenced by their market share of small and medium sized businesses, and even
those larger enterprises that have not yet discovered the power of a more
robust analytics tool like SiteCatalyst or Digital Analytix. Other competitors within the industry include
WebTrends, Eloqua (email campaign measurement), Chartbeat, Coremetrics by IBM,
StatCounter, and others each of which offers unique services and
specializations, boast unique or superior methodologies, add-ons, and pricing
structure competition (Web Analytics, 2012).
As head to head competitors in
today’s market, Digital Analytix and SiteCatalyst are a David and Goliath
matchup. SiteCatalyst boasts the name
recognition, the track record and the customer base. Digital Analytix lays claim to superior
methodology and
improved
reporting functionality, but lacks the US client base, recognition and record.
Recommendations Summary and Conclusion
Both Adobe and comScore face varying
opportunities moving forward. While
their web analytics offerings are relatively quite similar, the surrounding
companies are quite different.
Adobe’s Omniture Digital Marketing Suite is a small
part of its overall strategy. Other
technology offerings such as Flash, Adobe Reader, Acrobat, Creative Suite, etc.
will continue to be at the core of Adobe’s business and strategy as a
company. However, relating directly to
SiteCatalyst and the future of the product, I believe that Adobe is at a
crossroads. If they continue the course
they are on, they will be able to continue to build their analytics offerings
though added acquisition, development, and integration. For some amount of time they will continue to
secure their base and may remain as the accepted premier analytics offering
based on their history. However, in so
doing, these tools will continue to be puzzle-pieced together on a dated
foundation which is based on methodology that is beginning to be called into
question (Kemelor, 2011). The other
option for Adobe is to continue to leverage their market position and
reputation in developing a ground-up product that is based on modern
methodology with greater longevity and which is built with all add-on and
reliant products in mind from the foundation up. Investing the research and development into a
web analytics platform which is based on cutting-edge methodology today could
well save the SiteCatalyst product from fading into obscurity as superior
products built on advanced reporting techniques begin to invade the
market. In so doing they will not just
continue resting on their laurels, but will be better positioned for
competitive advantage moving forward.
The latest release of SiteCatalyst is a strong indicator that Adobe is
moving in the right direction to continually secure its base from new industry
entrants and technologies.
comScore, as a relatively new competitor in the site
measurement arena has invested heavily in growing its brand, building its tool
and leveraging the wealth of audience measurement capabilities which differentiate
it within the marketplace from traditional web analytics (exclusively site
measurement) providers. As an advocate
for comScore, I perceive that there is an uphill battle to overcome the
reputation and name recognition which Site Catalyst carries, but I believe that
the platform, related audience capabilities and methodology will allow Digital
Analtyix to continue winning business from those previously loyal to other platforms.
Exhibit 1:
Source: Third Door Media. “Enterprise Web Analytics: A Buyer’s Guide.”
Search Engine Land. 23 October
2012. < http://searchengineland.com/buyers-guides/enterprise-web-analytics-tools-in-the-facebook-era-a-buyers-guide>.
Description: A side by side comparison of platforms shows that both products stack
up nicely in functionality and capabilities, but pricing variances between the
two are evident in the number of “add-on” offerings by SiteCatalyst most of
which come standard in the Digital Analytix offering.
References:
Ballardvale
Research. (2004, June). “Market Trends - Web Analytics: History and
Future.” October 23, 2012. < http://www.ballardvale.com/free/WAHistory.htm>.
comScore.
(2012, October 1). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:04,
October 24, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ComScore&oldid=515418561.
Kemelor,
Phil and Chris Meares. (2011, May
16). Web Analytics Management. “Son of Nedstat: comScore’s Digital Analytix
vs. SiteCatalyst, Google Analytics, Webtrends et al.” October 23, 2012. < http://wam.typepad.com/wam/2011/05/son-of-nedstat-comscores-digital-analytix-vs-sitecatalyst-google-analytics-webtrends-et-al.html>.
Omniture.
(2012, August 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:04,
October 24, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Omniture&oldid=506933735.
Web
Analytics. (2012, October 22). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Retrieved 03:02, October 24, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Web_analytics&oldid=519194387.
(All comments and viewpoints
expressed in this post are those of the author and do not represent the
official statements of either entity described herein. The author claims full responsibility for all
content of this post)
Wow, very detailed comparison.
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