BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

CEO Turnaround Has Kept Yahoo! in the Headlines and Perception High

This article is more than 10 years old.

Yahoo!’s fifth new chief executive in as many years has the tough task of turning around the brand in an intensely competitive internet search market. Pundits have widely praised the hiring of Marissa Mayer, and consumer reaction has also been positive, although modest.

Google still leads the Internet sector in terms of consumer perception, followed by Yahoo!, Bing and Ask.com. YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score asks respondents: “Have you heard anything positive or negative about this brand, either through advertising, the press or by word of mouth?”

Mayer isn't the first person to take on the top job at Yahoo! this year. Former CEO Scott Thompson resigned over a mistake on his resume in May 2012, after only 5 months in the job. During Thompson’s tenure, perception declined steadily for Yahoo!. Buzz score declined from 25.1 on the day he was sworn in on January 9 2012, to 18.5 on May 11, the week of his resignation. This coincides with company restructuring involving cutting 14% the workforce, which was announced in April 2012.

Thompson also initiated a lawsuit against Facebook in March 2012 accusing the rival firm of infringing 10 of Yahoo’s patents. The ensuing counter-lawsuit by Facebook falls within the 6-month period of a downward trend in perception. But since May 2012, Buzz score has been trending upwards under interim CEO, Ross Levinsohn, who worked with Facebook to solve the patent dispute.

Media coverage of Mayer’s appointment referring to Yahoo! in beleaguered terms might be reminded that the brand is still a powerful online hub. Besides its search engine, key products like Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Answers keep it competitive in the search market. This is reflected in terms of the brand’s consumer perception, which rates well above the Internet Search Sector.

But Yahoo! does not command the same influence in mobile and social networking as big names like Google and Facebook. Yahoo! has so far struggled to make in-roads in social media, and discontinued its microblogging site, Yahoo! Meme, in May 2012. It’s now up to Mayer to hold consumers’ attention and keep perception high in the fast-moving online search industry.

This post was written by Ted Marzilli. He is senior vice president and managing director of BrandIndex.