Competitive analysis drives customer insights for Delta The Challenge The airline industries is highly competitive – especially online where it’s easy for travelers to quickly search for the cheapest airline tickets. Delta Airlines wanted to understand what is working most effectively and efficiently within the industry online, as well as have the ability to react and adapt swiftly are a must. The Solution Using Hitwise, Delta.com was able to run a competitive analysis to determine: * Where delta.com ranks against specific competitors. * Daily, weekly and monthly market share changes compared to its competitors. * The impact of search and display advertising on Delta.com's market share.

1. Delta better understands its online customers through
competitive analysis
Delta.com, Delta Air Lines’ award-winning website, uses Hitwise to analyze online competitive
information to stay aware of trends and quickly determine changes taking place in the online
travel and airline industries.
The Challenge
The travel and airline industries are both highly competitive – especially in the online
space where it’s easy for travelers to quickly search for the cheapest airline tickets Hitwise at work:
available. Understanding what is working most effectively and ef ciently within the
industry online, as well as having the ability to react and adapt swiftly are a must.
The Solution Competitive Insights for
“By keeping up-to-date with competitive trends, we are able to react to changes in understanding consumer
consumer behavior and investigate causes for that behavior,” says Francis Lavelle, behavior
Delta’s Manager of Web Analytics. “The value is in the analysis - by creating a
Industry
Hitwise report of our exact competitive set, we are able to analyze their activities and
Travel
understand how traf c is driven to each site by marketing channels.” Using My
Hitwise, a customizable tool for creating custom categories and aggregations, the
Delta team created a custom category of airline websites they view to be their online
competition - something they were unable to achieve with any other provider.
Using Hitwise Rankings, Charting and Clickstream tools, Delta.com was able to run “Hitwise provides
a competitive analysis to determine: competitive information
- Where Delta.com ranks against speci c competitors that allows Delta to analyze
- How much market share delta.com gains or loses in comparison to the trends and quickly
competition on a daily, weekly and monthly basis determine changes in the
- Whether marketing, search and advertising campaigns have a direct impact on
Delta.com’s market share – the very next day online marketplace.”
“Using Hitwise, we are also able to analyze and understand what’s Francis Lavelle
happening in the online travel industry daily,” said Lavelle. “We discover Manager Web Analytics
the most notable changes that occurred and react accordingly. For example,
discovering which sites had the biggest increases in market share on a particular
Delta Air Lines
day, leads us to investigate further to identify the reason for the movement.” Using
Hitwise Clickstream data, Delta can determine whether the changes were a result of
new search campaigns, advertising partnerships or other promotions and then apply
that knowledge to the airline’s own marketing strategies.
The Bene ts
Since using Hitwise, Delta has been able to “understand and react to industry
changes, applying new insight to our own online business like never before,” said
Lavelle.
About Experian Hitwise
Experian Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Experian Hitwise gives marketers a
competitive advantage by providing daily insights on how 25 million Internet users around the world interact
with more than 1 million websites. This external view helps companies grow and protect their businesses by
identifying threats and opportunities as they develop. Experian Hitwise has more than 1,500 clients across
numerous sectors, including nancial services, media, travel and retail.
Experian Hitwise (FTS:EXPN), www.experianplc.com, operates in the United States, the United Kingdom,
Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Brazil. More information about Experian
Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.
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