According to Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, “We’re not a search company.” You might ask, then what the heck is Yahoo? According to Bartz, it’s a site that creates a complete experience through social, mobile and video components.
The Yahoo! we know today is just the tip of the iceberg of where the company and brand are going in the future. The challenge will be repositioning the brand that has for so long been associated with search and as the brand tagging along behind Google, into a brand that delivers a more experiential and less transactional promise.
I’m rooting for Yahoo, and I think repositioning the brand could be what saves it. I give props to Carol Bartz for recognizing that the online market has changed and for trying to catch up. There is deep value in the Yahoo! brand, and watching it struggle in recent years has been unfortunate.
The repositioning of Yahoo! won’t succeed overnight. It’s going to take time, investment and patience. According to Bartz (and despite all the rumors and negative press to the contrary), the majority of Internet users still visit Yahoo! Perhaps the shift in brand perception among consumers doesn’t have to be a rough road. Only time will tell, but it sounds like Bartz is on the right track.
What do you think? Can Yahoo! rebound?
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.
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