FTD Brand Protection Letter

Eric S

Eric S

Demoted Webmaster
Jul 12, 2005
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www.everydayflowers.net
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Since September now I have been monitoring our performance on our PPC campaigns to see if the FTD negitive word has affected our campaigns. I have come to the conclusion that the Negitive Keyword FTD has not effected our performance on any of our campaigns.

However I am still wondering about something that has to do with the association of the term FTD.

Search engines have learned over the years to associate a keyword with another keyword. Such as florist and flower shop.

When you type in FTD what word(s) is associated with the term? Using the keyword tool from google I see that the keyword "FTD" is assoicated with search terms that include flower delivery and send flowers.

My question and idea is do we send a copy of our letter from FTD to the search engines such as google and finding out if the term FTD should continued to be allowed to be automatically associated with terms flowers or florist?

I know it sounds like a long shot but is it really?
 
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Maybe Google will disassociate FTD from flowers, flower shop, florist etc, and link them to what they really are, an order transfer agency, and hard good/technology/service provider. They do not handle "flowers"....
 
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Mark said:
Maybe Google will disassociate FTD from flowers, flower shop, florist etc, and link them to what they really are, an order transfer agency, and hard good/technology/service provider. They do not handle "flowers"....
Click to expand...

closer and closer to the truth, every single day! :)
 
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Eric S said:
Interesting. I was looking for a little more food for thought.
Click to expand...

I guess I am still surprised sometimes at how people outside the search industry view Google (thought I really shouldn't be, by this point). The consumer associates FTD with flowers (or Jersey Shore, but that's a different story), so Google will. There is no one at Google who will read a letter and tweak the algo. There is no human who reviews and considers such things. It's all a series of complicated algorithms.

Besides - why shouldn't FTD be associated with flowers? In the end, that's what they are selling to the customer. That's what the customer comes to FTD to buy. They are a brand associated with an industry. It's one thing to say that others in the industry should be prevented from competing for the brand term (though FTD's approach is asinine), it's another to claim the brand should be disassociated with the industry.
 
Infinite said:
I guess I am still surprised sometimes at how people outside the search industry view Google (thought I really shouldn't be, by this point). The consumer associates FTD with flowers (or Jersey Shore, but that's a different story), so Google will.

There is no one at Google who will read a letter and tweak the algo. There is no human who reviews and considers such things. It's all a series of complicated algorithms.
Click to expand...

See thats what I'm looking for.

I look how many searchs are being done for particular keywords and notice these flaws on a daily bases. No rhyme or reason behind a paticular search pharse or word.

It makes me think more that users doing searches can and are actually manipulating the search results.
 
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Eric S said:
See thats what I'm looking for...
It makes me think more that users doing searches can and are actually manipulating the search results.
Click to expand...

Yes ... but in what volume? Google processes over a billion queries per day :)

And, it's not just searches, it's behaviour. If I google [flowers] and wind up on The Killers' home page, then bounce quickly back to Google and click on FTD and never return, Google knows FTD was the right answer for my search. Oh, and if they buy / attract / manufacture a bunch of links to their site using the terms "flowers" "florist" etc, then that becomes a strong associative signal as well.
 
So let me ask something. Where the heck did the term "Your Search Result + Coupon Code" come from?

Do you honestly think that users have been doing this on their own? Or did someone or something start feeding this search to google?
Check Out The Rise Of The Coupon Code Search.
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=0&q=coupon code,&geo=&gprop=&cmpt=q&hl=en-US

Check out the interest over time graph for "FTD"
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=0&q=FTD&geo=&gprop=&cmpt=q&hl=en-US

And to make it more direct to flowers how about "FTD Flowers"
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=0&q=FTD Flowers,&geo=&gprop=&cmpt=q&hl=en-US

Looks like the 100 year brand is about to fall of the graph in search.

Here is another one. You can see the love for FTD florist here.
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=0&q=FTD florist,&geo=&gprop=&cmpt=q&hl=en-US
 
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Wow, looking at all of these graphs must have been a huge nightmare for FTD. No wonder they are turning into hungry, mean grizzly bears, you can see the writing on the walls.

Clearly, consumers are becoming geared for savings deals, though. That coupon code seach graph is enough to give me the willies. I actually have had a rising number of phone calls asking "what's on special?" It's making me start to think I'd better have a ready answer.

I know my IP's on the computers I use are getting tagged for what I'm looking for as I do searches for myself on google. I'm going to have to go to a FedEx Office and use their computers, see how the results are there, google is getting too wise to what it is I'm looking for and just gives it to me.
 
Eric S said:
So let me ask something. Where the heck did the term "Your Search Result + Coupon Code" come from?

Do you honestly think that users have been doing this on their own? Or did someone or something start feeding this search to google?
Click to expand...

Ya, people do this on their own.

I never go through an online checkout without searching for coupons. RetailMeNot.com is bestest friend.

It's very common for users to search for coupons, especially at the point in the checkout process where they are prompted for a code or coupon.
 
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Infinite said:
Ya, people do this on their own.

I never go through an online checkout without searching for coupons. RetailMeNot.com is bestest friend.

It's very common for users to search for coupons, especially at the point in the checkout process where they are prompted for a code or coupon.
Click to expand...
That kind of search is something I never really thought of to optimize for. Nice to see some great info come out of this thread! I'll be adding a page to my site called Winnipeg Coupon Code for Fresh Flowers!

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=winnipeg coupon code,&cmpt=q
 
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