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A Tale of Two Brands: Yahoo’s Mistakes vs. Google’s Mastery

February 23, 2016 • 9 min read.

While many theories have been offered to explain Yahoo's downfall in light of Google's ascent, the difference in the companies' brand approaches may be the most illuminating.

The latest upswing for Alphabet, parent company of Google, comes as fellow tech giant Yahoo is mired in increasing challenges to stay afloat. In this opinion piece, author and branding expert Denise Lee Yohn discusses the stark differences in, and impact of, each company’s approach to branding. Yohn is author of the book, What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest . She is also the former vice president/general manager of brand and strategy for Sony Electronics’ brand office and former marketing leader and analyst for Jack in the Box restaurants and Spiegel catalogs.

Less than two weeks after Google’s parent company, Alphabet, became the world’s most valuable public company, Yahoo put its core business up for sale . The contrast between the two companies couldn’t be sharper.

While many theories have been offered to explain Yahoo’s downfall in light of Google’s ascent, I would like to suggest that the difference in the companies’ brand approaches may be the most illuminating. While Google has mastered brand strategy and management, Yahoo has lacked a definitive brand purpose and future-oriented brand vision — and these deficits have led to key brand missteps including introducing an impotent visual identity.

Yahoo’s Confusion vs. Google’s Clarity

Google’s brand mission is well-known and well-established: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin crafted the mission in the company’s early years and, ever since, the organization has stayed committed to it. The statement is displayed front and center on Google’s “About” page and regularly appears in company communication. It has been used by many as a robust descriptor for the company and by employees as the driving force behind practically everything they do.

Yahoo’s brand mission isn’t so clear — actually it isn’t to be found. An official mission statement doesn’t exist on its site, and the statements I did uncover elsewhere were varied and often conflicting. The company lacks both a definitive, compelling description of what it does and why it does it.

According to one researcher who tracked Yahoo’s boilerplate for press releases, the company’s self-description changed 24 times in 24 years.

When Marissa Mayer took the reins at Yahoo, she was hailed as a visionary leader who would rescue the floundering company. But she failed her most important task: explaining — to investors, customers, employees and the world, really — why Yahoo should continue to exist.

To be fair, the company was started with a somewhat problematic mission. Two electrical engineering students at Stanford, David Filo and Jerry Yang, created it as a guide to keep track of their personal interests on the Internet. But over time the world outgrew the need for a single place to find useful websites, and one after another, Yahoo’s leaders failed to articulate an alternate enduring reason for the company’s being.

Mayer eventually tried. Late last fall, she commissioned a book to be distributed to Yahoo employees. It contains stories, images, quotes and messages about Yahoo’s past and its future, along with a new statement of the company’s mission, “To be an indispensable guide to digital information, yours and the world’s.” But it’s not a pithy point and it’s probably too late — and given the company’s track record, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it change again.

“While Google has mastered brand strategy and management, Yahoo has lacked a definitive brand purpose and future-oriented brand vision.”

Of course, mission statements, in and of themselves, are not really all that important. But organizations do need a clear and compelling sense of purpose. Leaders of great brands use brand purpose as a compass and engine for their organizations — driving, aligning and guiding everything they do. Without the long-term commitment to a definitive purpose, Yahoo has been rudderless.

Reacting at Yahoo vs. Anticipating at Google

Yahoo has also been vision-less. While many credit Mayer with leading the company’s transition to mobile, the shift was born out of necessity to catch up with the world, not out of opportunity to change it. In fact, Yahoo has been operating in reactive mode for the last decade. Even the new homepage design it recently introduced is merely an incremental evolution of its past designs and its latest attempt to mimic the popular features of other sites.

Yahoo doesn’t have a brand vision that would propel it forward, leapfrogging over existing realities and pushing the limits of what is possible. Mayer once described her vision for the company’s future saying, “As digital content becomes richer, as search and mail become richer, we need to change what the format of that guide is, as we move to mobile, wearables, TVs, cars, and all the other formats in the future. So, we’re focused on search, communications and digital content, all of which we think are incredibly important parts of that role as a guide, and those are the products that we’re investing in and building on.” Her statement merely reflects the company’s reactive stance to changes that it must address — not new growth opportunities it is creating for itself.

Compare this to the way Larry Page described his vision for the future when he introduced Alphabet as the holding company for Google and other entities: “We’ve long believed that over time companies tend to get comfortable doing the same thing, just making incremental changes. But in the technology industry, where revolutionary ideas drive the next big growth areas, you need to be a bit uncomfortable to stay relevant.” Alphabet, he went on to explain, is intended to give more support to businesses “far afield” from Google’s main Internet products, including glucose-sensing contact lenses, drone delivery and driverless cars.

“Mission statements, in and of themselves, are not really all that important. But organizations do need a clear and compelling sense of purpose.”

The introduction of Alphabet itself embodies the company’s future orientation and brand vision. Separating the Google brand from the organization’s more far-reaching efforts allows Google to remain aligned and focused on its brand mission and “un-hinders” from efforts that should have their own missions, such as Jigsaw, the new brand for the organization’s innovation lab. Having ditched the former name, Google Ideas, Jigsaw can freely pursue its mission — “to use technology to tackle the toughest geopolitical challenges, from countering violent extremism to thwarting online censorship to mitigating the threats associated with digital attacks” — without diluting or derailing the Google brand.

This kind of brand separation would have been useful for Yahoo to have established before the dire situation it now finds itself in. A separate brand might have protected Yahoo from the doubts involved with its decision to spin off its stake in ecommerce giant Alibaba, as well as the embarrassment when it reversed itself and shelved the plan. And now, the move to put the core business up for sale calls into question the future of the Yahoo brand as a whole and therefore the viability and vitality of any of the units that would remain after such a sale.

Again, it’s too late. Yahoo finds itself behind the brand eight-ball because it hasn’t created a future-oriented brand vision.

Yahoo Style vs. Google Substance

Without a powerful brand purpose to ground the company and a visionary brand ambition to advance it forward, it’s no surprise that Yahoo missed a critical opportunity when it changed its logo back in 2013.

Not only was the new logo design a mere update of the old version, but it also failed to communicate anything of substance. In her announcement of the new logo, Mayer said, “We knew we wanted a logo that reflected Yahoo — whimsical, yet sophisticated. Modern and fresh, with a nod to our history. Having a human touch, personal. Proud.” She went on to describe the design details of the new logo, explaining, for example why it didn’t incorporate straight lines, but she said nothing about how the change achieved any strategic objective or reflected any substantive change in the brand experience. Kathy Savitt, the company’s chief marketing officer at the time, explained that the new logo was intended to reflect the company’s “reimagined design and new experiences.” But I couldn’t figure out what she was referring to since no new experiences were incorporated into the logo or vice versa.

“When a company knows what it stands for and where it is going, it can focus its people and resources and have clarity in a range of decisions.”

While Yahoo’s identity refresh was simply about design and brand personality, Google’s new logo sent a clear message about the brand’s updated functionality. When Google introduced a sleeker, brighter, animated logo last year, it explained, “Once upon a time, Google was one destination that you reached from one device: a desktop PC. These days, people interact with Google products across many different platforms, apps and devices. Today we’re introducing a new logo and identity family that reflects this reality and shows you when the Google magic is working for you, even on the tiniest screens.” Moreover, Yahoo’s change seems self-serving whereas Google’s customer-orientation is clear.

The contrast between Yahoo and Google’s new visual identities illuminates the impact of brand purpose and vision. With them, visual identity changes are imbued with meaning and value; without them, they’re merely cosmetic exercises.

When a company knows what it stands for and where it is going, it can focus its people and resources and have clarity in a range of decisions. Not all of Yahoo’s problems originate from its brand failings, but if Google provides a fair comparison, it’s clear that more attention to Yahoo’s brand purpose and vision could have helped.

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Yahoo! The story of strategic mistakes

Jerry Yang  and  David Filo  founded  Yahoo  in  January 1994 . Both of them were Stanford graduates. At first, they developed a website named “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web”. It was simply a directory of other websites, organized in a hierarchy as a searchable index of pages.

By April 1994, Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web was renamed  “Yahoo! “. The word  “YAHOO”  is an acronym for  “ Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle “.  

Yahoo witnessed an enormous and rapid growth throughout the ’90s and diversified its business. It was poised to become a giant and a high profile company.

Yahoo provided a search engine and a directory for other websites in a time when people could only log into a website if they knew the website address. Else there was no way to search a website.

The company started making money from the advertising banners which was the first of its kind and started to grow rapidly. Yahoo went public  in April 1996 and its stock price rose by 600 percent within two years and by 1998, Yahoo was the most popular starting point for web users receiving 95 million page views per day.

Yahoo came up with a series of funny advertisements to popularize its search engine. Check this one out!!

Yahoo’s stock became investor’s darling during the dot.com bubble and once closed at an all-time high of $118.75 in 2000. Just after the dot.com bubble crash the stuck plunged to all time lowest (literrally) at $8.11.

Despite the tremendous performance of Yahoo at its early stages, the company started bleeding in the late 2000s due to multiple factors. Here are the top 6 reasons which resulted in Yahoo’s downfall:

Wrong decisions: Yahoo refused to buy Google for 1 million dollars:

Back in 1998, two individuals, Larry Page and Sergei Brin (Google founders), offered to sell their little startup algorithm to Yahoo for $1 million. The algorithm was supposed to help the Yahoo search engine perform faster and enhance the experience of web search.

Yahoo turned down the offer mainly because it wanted its users to spend more time on Yahoo’s own platform and the other Yahoo content so that it can make more money from the advertising banners on the website.

Again, in 2002 Yahoo rejected an offer to buy Google for $5 billion when the CEO Terry Semel  refused the deal after months of negotiation. Yahoo offered to buy Google at $3 billion but Google was keen on getting $5 billion. So the deal could never happened. (Thank God!!)

Failing to buy Facebook : 

As if saying no to Google was not enough for Yahoo . According to the book called The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick, Yahoo initially offered $1 billion to Facebook but later lowered it to $850 million. David writes that Facebook made its mind in 10 minutes to decline the offer. Although, some stories say that if the offer was submitted at $1.1 billion instead of $1 billion, the board of directors would’ve put pressure on Mark Zuckerberg to sell.

Unsuccessful acquisitions :

Even the successful acquisitions could not bring value to the organization. Yahoo acquired two companies in 1999 that are now ranked by Forbes as some of the  worst internet acquisitions  of all-time.

The first was a $4.58 billion deal for Geocities, a site that enabled users to build their own personal websites. While Geocities was a pioneer in this regard, it eventually  was shut down in 2009 after failing to deliver any value to Yahoo shareholders.

The second was the famous $5.7 billion deal for Broadcast.com, an online television site that was founded by Mark Cuban. Perhaps the idea was way ahead of its time and internet connections were too slow in 1999 to run this type of video content off the web..

Yahoo also bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013. Many Tumblr users were unhappy with this acquisition and started an online petition which got 170,000 signatures. Yahoo had to write down more than half of Tumblr by 2016 and ultimately sold it to Verizon.

Hiring wrong CEOs :

As experts say, Yahoo has repeatedly hired the wrong CEOs. None of the CEOs at Yahoo including Marissa Mayer had a “strategic vision” that could match what Eric Schmidt at Google brought. Some even blame Marissa Mayer entirely for the wrong decisions.

Lack of clear vision and a string of poor leaders :

It’s very clear from the strategic mistakes of Yahoo that its leadership lacked a clear vision and the overall purpose of the company. Meanwhile, Google and Microsoft were very clear about their strategic direction.

Yahoo was all over the place. During the research, people were asked to identify Yahoo with what first comes to their mind. Some said Mail , Some Media. Some said search. Clearly, Yahoo failed to create a niche for itself that its competitors successfully did.

Some former employees actually saw the slow demise of the company many years before it actually happened as they could see the bureaucratic culture with too much focus on advertising.

It became very difficult to get both investment and alignment. If you built a new product and the home page didn’t want to feature it, you were hosed. Greg Cohn, a former senior product director at Yahoo to Reuters

Declining Microsoft’s acquisition :

This was the final nail in the coffin. In 2008, Microsoft had shown its interest to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion but Yahoo declined that too (I really don’t know what they were thinking). Since then, the company market value has never reached such numbers. In 2016 Verizon bought Yahoo in a deal worth $4.8 billion.

Yahoo is still not dead though. It is still among the world’s top 10 websites with more than 3.5 billion visits per month . Nevertheless, its place does not augur well for a bright future. Unless Yahoo comes up with any innovation that can change the future of technology, Yahoo! may die gradually in the coming years. It’s a perfect story to learn where the company despite having the right technology and right resources at disposal, failed miserably due to its strategic mistakes.

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Here’s an In depth Analysis On the Business Model Of Yahoo

By Aditya Shastri

Looking for the business model of yahoo? Here’s an in-depth analysis of it.

Yahoo is one of the most well-known brands in the media and entertainment industries. It is a well-known online brand that bills itself as a democratic and unbiased search engine. Although Yahoo has fallen far behind Google and Facebook, it was once a contender for internet dominance.

In this case study, we will learn about Yahoo’s product, placement, promotion, and pricing strategy, as well as its SWOT Analysis.

Let us begin with a brief introduction to Yahoo before moving on to the main segment.

About Yahoo

In January 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo founded Yahoo, which is regarded as the first web search engine that assisted users in discovering everything on the Internet. It is a multinational technology corporation headquartered in California.

The web search engine offers digital content products, news, media, sports, and advertisements to its users all over the world. Despite fierce competition from Google, the company still attracts more than half a billion users each month in over 30 languages. It ranks third in terms of market share in the United States, trailing only Google.

As of October 2005, Yahoo was serving approximately 3.4 billion internet web page views worldwide. However, according to Alexa Internet and SimilarWeb, Yahoo domain websites continue to be among the most popular, ranking 12th in global engagement.

We now have a clear understanding of what Yahoo is. Let’s see the product offerings of Yahoo in the coming section. 

Yahoo Product Strategy

Yahoo offers a variety of products and services. These are easily accessible through their web portal. On the go, the portal provides news, sports, finance, and weather information. Yahoo Search, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Maps, and Yahoo Messenger are also available to these users. The following are some of the products and services that are part of its marketing mix product strategy:

• Online messaging services, such as Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger
• Social networking services and products, such as Yahoo Buzz, My Web, Yahoo Personals, and Delicious
• Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Music, Yahoo Movies, Yahoo News, Yahoo Weather, Yahoo Games, and Yahoo Answers are all content provider offerings.
• Instant messaging, blogging, email, information services, notifications, and OneSearch are all available on Yahoo Mobile.
• Yahoo Shopping, Yahoo Autos, Yahoo Travel, and Yahoo Real Estate are all shopping services.
• Tumblr, a microblogging and social networking website, and Flickr, a picture and video hosting website.
• Yahoo Next, Yahoo BOSS, Yahoo Meme, Y! Connect, Yahoo Accessibility, Yahoo Axis, Yahoo SearchMonkey, and Geo Planet are all examples of Yahoo products.

These are the products offered by Yahoo. Let’s get to know about the pricing strategy of Yahoo. 

Pricing Strategy of Yahoo

Yahoo’s pricing strategy varies depending on the type of product or service it offers. Yahoo BOSS is a service that allows developers to create Yahoo-powered applications. This is a per-query pricing scheme, with rates ranging from $0.4 to $0.75 for 1000 BOSS queries. The cost is determined by the type of query. 

Yahoo Merchant Solution features a reasonable monthly rate of $ 39.95 for their e-commerce solutions beginning package, followed by a 1.5 percent gross sales additional monthly fee. Yahoo Web Hosting charges $3.75 per month for the basic plan, $5.99 per month for the advanced plan, and $8.99 per month for the premium plan.

Yahoo DomainKeys sells domain names for around $10 for five years, after which there is a $35 annual renewal fee.

 This elucidates Yahoo’s pricing strategy. Let’s take a look at the distribution strategy of Yahoo. 

Place Strategy of Yahoo

Users can access all of Yahoo’s products and services through the Yahoo Affiliate program. This aids online marketers in promoting its Hosting Services, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Games, and Yahoo Merchant Solutions, as well as helping them create a high level of visibility for their brand, attracting more customers. 

Yahoo earns commissions when users sign up for their business services, such as Yahoo Merchant Solutions and Yahoo Web Hosting Plan, through this program.

This concludes the placing strategy of Yahoo. Now let’s tear it down and understand the promotion strategy of Yahoo. 

Promotion Strategy of Yahoo  

Yahoo uses a variety of strategies to attract businesses to its brand. Because it is a website, its promotional efforts are one-of-a-kind in the marketing mix. Yahoo has created several mobile apps that allow customers to access their email, news, sports, and other information by simply downloading the Yahoo app to their mobile device. 

Every month, Yahoo Studios broadcasts live videos and advertisements across the internet. Yahoo creates a platform for native advertising, allowing businesses to reach millions of people. They also provide custom branded content for viewers to watch live streaming of sports, markets, or news from the comfort of their own homes. Tumblr and Polyvore, both powered by Yahoo, are two platforms for their young to connect.

With this, the business model of Yahoo gets complete. Let’s finish it with a conclusion. 

Yahoo has been one of the top online corporations since its inception. Even after Google’s ascension, Yahoo has maintained its place by providing great news to its readers daily. Yahoo will be one of the most popular Web portals in the world as a result of the dedication and hard work of its staff.

I hope you found this case study interesting. Do you want more? Please visit the IIDE website for more information. You can also take Karan Shah’s Free Digital Marketing Masterclass if you’re interested in learning more about digital marketing. 

Share your thoughts on this case study in the comments below. Thank you for reading, and if you liked it, please tell your friends about it.

Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs...... [Read full bio]

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How Yahoo tried (but failed) to go big, and is now going home

I remember the early days of the Internet when the Yahoo directory was my home page. Capturing, categorizing, and presenting the Internet in a clickable tree structure was doable back then, and Yahoo was best of breed. Sadly, that was the last time that Yahoo was truly dominant at anything.

When search engines replaced directories as the dominant information retrieval process, Yahoo outsourced its search tool to Google instead of creating its own, thus jump-starting the rise of a major competitor. Over the years, Yahoo has tried to build up dominance in mail, social media, picture sharing, blogging, broadcasting, e-commerce, messaging, and many other areas… most of which did OK, but none of which cracked the top 2. Time and again, it failed to occupy new market segments, many of which it helped to create.

And, that’s the ultimate sin of an aspirational giant – not being big enough. Yahoo’s end came as a slow, plodding death – a spurned acquisition offer of $45 billion from Microsoft, a succession of ineffective CEOs culminating in the disastrous Marissa Mayer, a slew of splashy and mostly failed acquisitions, and multiple efforts to rebrand.

The announcement that Yahoo’s brand and remaining businesses will be sold to Verizon for $5 billion comes as no surprise. The company had been trying to sell itself for almost a year. It will now join another faded Internet giant, AOL, in Verizon’s stable of misfits hoping to stave off the massive digital disruption currently playing out in the telecommunications industry.

Yahoo’s $40 billion stake in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan – its main remaining assets – will not go with the sale to Verizon. Now unencumbered by Yahoo’s operating businesses, these assets will presumably be sold off in a more tax-efficient manner.

Google has its search engine, Facebook has its social network, Amazon has its e-commerce site, but Yahoo tried to become a giant without the backing of a solid core business. If your strategy is to be a giant, then you’d better be big. In the end, Yahoo was not big enough or dominant enough in the markets it chose to focus on.

Michael Wade is the Cisco Chair in Digital Business Transformation, and Professor of Innovation and Strategic Information Management at IMD. His interests lie at the intersection of strategy, innovation, and digital transformation.

He is Director of the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation and co-Director of IMD’s new Leading Digital Business Transformation program (LDBT) designed for business leaders and senior managers from all business areas who wish to develop a strategic roadmap for digital business transformation in their organizations.

He is also co-director of the Orchestrating Winning Performance Program (OWP) .

Research Information & Knowledge Hub  for additional information on IMD publications

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Yahoo! case: the fall

In the early days of Internet search engines and email pages, Yahoo! was one of the giants. From the beginning, it was outlined to achieve a great future, but due to bad decisions made throughout its history, the company, today, does not have much weight on the Internet and has been sold for much fewer dollars than in a time had been offered.

In this case study, we are going to talk about the history of Yahoo! and what were the key decisions that led this company to its decline instead of leading it to the success that it seemed it was going to have.

<<< Case study Blockbuster: Why is it necessary to innovate? >>>

What is the history of Yahoo!?

The company was born in 1994 , like most companies in the United States, in a small office or shed of some university, from the idea of university classmates. In this case, it was in a small office at Stanford University that Jerry Yang and David Filo created a directory of Internet pages to facilitate the search for information and websites. We must bear in mind that we are talking about the first half of the 90s when the Internet was not yet so installed in our lives and a few years ago web pages began to emerge.

In 1995, the yahoo.com domain was created , having exceeded 100,000 daily visits in 1994 . In this way, its founders managed to get a venture capital company to invest a million dollars in them and from there venture into novelties that were not yet so exploited in the virtual world. In 1996 Yahoo went public.

From that moment, the company began to grow abysmally . Incorporated Yahoo! mail, games, pagers, and yahoo messenger, among other actions that led it to position itself as one of the companies of the moment. For a long period, Yahoo! was growing, increasing its numbers and employees. It was part of the boom of internet pages that occurred between 1997 and 2001.

<<< Netflix case: disruptive business model >>>

When did their mistakes start?

In 1998 Google emerged , the company that years later would be one of the main nightmares of Yahoo!. In its beginnings, today's giant Google asked for financing from Yahoo! and it refused to give it. We could say that this was one of the first mistakes.

During the first years of development, both companies coexisted, but as Google gained ground, Yahoo! went from being a provider of services on the web to being an advertising portal that was increasingly relegated to what the competition allowed it to access.

In 2007 , one of the most serious mistakes of the company Yahoo! is committed. The owners of Google do not rule out selling their company, and Yahoo! offered 3,000 million dollars, but unfortunately, they could not acquire it because the amount that Page and Brin asked for was 5,000 million. Yahoo! did not make any other offer and lost one of the great opportunities that it would have had to gain much more ground in virtuality.

Another of the mistakes that condemned this company was the missed opportunity to buy Doubleclick , an online advertising company, which was later bought by Google and through which it was able to take a big step in terms of online advertising. What also unseated Yahoo! in this area of development.

Later, Yahoo! also had the opportunity to buy Facebook. In 2006 , the social media company did not have the weight it has today, but its imminent growth could be seen coming. Zuckerberg was asking for something like $1 billion, but Yahoo! decided to offer 850 million and did not agree to buy it.

Microsoft , another technology giant, in 2008, offered the owners of Yahoo! to buy the company for more than 44,000 million dollars, much more money than it was worth at the time. But, again, Yahoo! made the wrong decision and turned down the offer. Even more incredible is that years later, Microsoft asked them for permission to use their search engine (Bing), and Yahoo! allowed it. Let's say it gave them something for free that, years before, they had offered billions of dollars for.

<<< Spotify case: The importance of user experience >>>

Other problems faced by the company

Cybersecurity today is one of the main issues that every technology company must guarantee, but in the case of Yahoo!, this has failed . Numerous times the company has acknowledged having suffered cyberattacks that generated data loss and leaks that involved user accounts. This took away the credibility of its security and, of course, caused many users to migrate to other offers. It has even admitted to creating software at the request of the US intelligence service, to obtain information from users' emails.

In addition to security problems, the company has suffered from organizational problems . In its years of history, it has had 7 different executive directors and almost none of them deviates from having made a significant mistake for the company. One of them even admitted having lied about the information on his CV.

In 2012 Marisa Mayer joined, who had previously worked at Google and came to Yahoo! hoping to revitalize the company but she didn't make it. It was she who in 2016 announced the sale of it to Verizon , for an amount of just over 4,000 million dollars , something that a few years before could have been much more.

<<< Zappos case: the best customer service >>>

As we see, the company Yahoo! has been successful in its first years , due to not having too much competition in the market, but as soon as a company of the same weight arrived, it was completely overshadowed by it and did not have enough maturity to make strategic decisions correctly, which led to its decline. The role of executive directors is very important when making decisions and also organizing the company itself, but this is something that could not be achieved. Their high turnover is a point that did not contribute at all to their growth.

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Driving Retail with Emerging Formats

How We Did It

Finding our audience.

By reaching on-the-go consumers at various retail touchpoints

Positioning for success

By elevating Bud Light as the core brand within the family of products, including Bud Light Seltzer and Bud Light Flavors

Driving results

With a 2.4X lift in offline sales ROI vs. Yahoo benchmarks 1 ‍

1 Source: Yahoo internal data, 2021

Bud Light approaches digital marketing the same way that it approaches the market: a leader that pushes boundaries and connects with people on their terms.

Laurel Van Tassel, Director, Digital Media, Anheuser-Busch

The cooler essential

With a consumer base that’s always connected and always on the go, Bud Light looked for innovative ways to promote their brand as a summer essential. Together with Yahoo, they positioned Bud Light as the core to a family of products including Bud Light, Bud Light Seltzer and Bud Light Flavors.

Going big, going everywhere

The omnichannel campaign spanned audio, native, and cross-platform video. It also included streaming services to connect with millennial audiences and digital-out-of-home video ads at gas stations and convenience stores. Bud Light tracked offline sales ROI in real-time leveraging a Yahoo proprietary dashboard. By extending video assets into the retail space, Bud Light found the strongest ROI of any format: 2.4 times greater than the benchmark.

Summertime success

By leveraging emerging formats, Anheuser-Busch increased awareness of Bud Light’s family of brands, supported the launch of in-store variety packs, and drove purchases as consumers stocked up for summer fun — reminding them that no cooler is complete without a Bud Light.

[Yahoo] offers us the ability to optimize campaigns in real-time to drive in-store sales, helping us maximize ROI.

Digital out-of-home video ads

Across gas station and convenience store screens

The Yahoo DSP

Delivered emerging channel formats including Connected TV and audio

Native, Display and High Impact ad formats

Tracked through our In-Flight Sales Analysis tool

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Yahoos Company’s Strategic Management’ Success Case Study

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

A number of macroeconomics affect the search industry, but the shifting needs of consumers and the evolution of social platforms are the main factors. For instance, since the advent of Yahoo and Google, the search industry has undergone a radical transformation (Hill and Gareth 3). These days, people interact with the web through social channels such as Facebook.

Often, instead of searching for a site or information on Yahoo, people are turning to the social platform to get anything they want (Hill and Gareth 5). For instance, a business page on Facebook offers excellent results for an establishment. In fact, it is one of the best ways of finding information instead of navigating through different business websites, checking for the business hours, and tracking down the information.

Companies are also shifting from traditional platforms to social sites as they are good sites to net potential clients (Hill and Gareth 4). For instance, before the emergence of social platforms, many companies had signed with Yahoo to advertise their products, but they have reduced drastically today as a result of social platforms. In 2009, the revenue of Yahoo decreased by 13 percent as a result of the lack of use of its traditional advertising forms by companies.

Yahoos prospect for the future is still bright as it has competencies that give it a sustainable competitive advantage (Hill and Gareth 4). The diversification strategy of Yahoo is one of its great competencies. That is in as much as its stocks plunged in 2011; Yahoo owns or has a stake of more than 40 percent in Alibaba, a Chinese search engine, whose stocks increased. Also, acquisitions made by the company also give it an added advantage in the search industry (Hill and Gareth 4-5).

For instance, Rocket mail which attracts clients in the email line, GeoCities which offers webhosting services to registered users who share their information with friends on the internet, and in 2000, the company acquired an eGroup which is a social networking site that allow registered users to link and share their information with friends (Hill and Gareth 4). All these factors have enabled the company to stay ahead of the competition in the search industry.

The dominance of Google in the search engine industry accounted for about 60 percent of all United States searchers in 2011, whilst Yahoo! Search engine received 14percent, and Bing received about 13 percent (International Business News par. 2). In addition, Yahoo recorded a lot of success init core business, such as Relevance Engine and Content Optimization (Hill and Gareth 2-3). These segments are receiving a lot of attention at the moment, even though the company has not changed its technology (Watson par. 1). In 2012, Yahoo reported an increase of 270 percent in clicks putting it ahead of Google and Bing. Also, the deal with Bing saw the company’s visits rise to about 80 percent beating Google with almost 20 percent (International Business News par. 2).

With this, I had the money I still would invest in Yahoo. The decision to invest rests partly with its recent performances and, more so, its recent technology of personalizing its homepage (Hill and Gareth 5). This aspect has given people tailored information which has enhanced page views. Since page views have increased threefold, companies marketing their offering will follow suit, and Yahoo will pick again. When its deal with Alibaba is sustained, Yahoo in as much it may underperform in the US market, the Asian market will emerge to be its competence, and as such it will be able to deliver not only on clients demand but also on the shareholders demand (Hill and Gareth 4).

Works Cited

International Business News. Yahoo, Bing Yield ‘Higher Success Rate’ Than Google Search: Study . 2011. Web.

Hill, Charles and Jones Gareth. Strategic Management:An integrtaed Approach. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2013. Print.

Watson, Frank. Yahoo Content Behaviorally Targets Success . 2011. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2020, June 2). Yahoos Company's Strategic Management' Success. https://ivypanda.com/essays/yahoos-companys-strategic-management-success/

"Yahoos Company's Strategic Management' Success." IvyPanda , 2 June 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/yahoos-companys-strategic-management-success/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Yahoos Company's Strategic Management' Success'. 2 June.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Yahoos Company's Strategic Management' Success." June 2, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/yahoos-companys-strategic-management-success/.

1. IvyPanda . "Yahoos Company's Strategic Management' Success." June 2, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/yahoos-companys-strategic-management-success/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Yahoos Company's Strategic Management' Success." June 2, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/yahoos-companys-strategic-management-success/.

Naresh Sekar

Case Study— Yahoo

Product lifecycle.

Yahoo, once a dominant force in the internet industry, provides a notable example of the challenges and complexities associated with managing the product lifecycle of a major online service. Yahoo’s journey from being a pioneer in web services to struggling to maintain relevance in the face of fierce competition highlights the importance of continuous innovation, strategic decision-making, and market adaptation. This case study explores the key phases, significant events, and strategies that shaped the lifecycle of Yahoo.

Timeline of Events

Development and Launch

1994 : Jerry Yang and David Filo created “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web,” which was later renamed Yahoo. Yahoo was incorporated in March 1995.

1996 : Yahoo went public, raising $33.8 million in its IPO and becoming one of the first major internet companies.

Growth and Market Expansion

1997 : Yahoo became the most popular website on the internet, expanding its services to include email, news, and search.

2000 : Yahoo reached its peak during the dot-com bubble, with a market capitalization exceeding $100 billion. Yahoo acquired Geocities and Broadcast.com to expand its web presence.

2001 : The burst of the dot-com bubble led to a significant drop in Yahoo’s stock price and market valuation.

Maturity and Continued Success

2003 : Yahoo shifted focus to becoming a media company, acquiring Overture (a search advertising company) and launching Yahoo Search Marketing.

2005 : Yahoo acquired Flickr, a popular photo-sharing site, and delved into social media and user-generated content.

2006 : Yahoo Mail was revamped, becoming one of the most widely used email services.

Decline and Challenges

2008 : Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to acquire Yahoo for $44.6 billion, which Yahoo rejected. The decision was controversial and led to internal strife.

2010 : Yahoo struggled with management changes, strategic missteps, and increasing competition from Google and Facebook.

2012 : Marissa Mayer was appointed CEO, focusing on revamping Yahoo’s core services and mobile strategy.

2016 : Yahoo announced its sale to Verizon for $4.48 billion, marking the end of its independence as a major internet company.

2017 : Yahoo was merged with AOL to form a new entity, Oath Inc., under Verizon’s ownership.

Product Lifecycle Stages

Introduction Stage

Characteristics : Yahoo’s introduction stage was marked by its rapid rise as a leading web directory and search engine.

Market Entry : Yahoo began as a directory of websites, quickly expanding its services to include email, news, and other web-based applications.

Marketing Focus : Early marketing efforts focused on Yahoo’s user-friendly interface and comprehensive directory of internet resources.

Challenges : Building a scalable platform and establishing a strong user base in the rapidly growing internet market.

Growth Stage

Characteristics : Rapid expansion and diversification of services characterized Yahoo’s growth stage.

Market Expansion : Yahoo expanded its offerings to include search, email, news, finance, and other web services, attracting millions of users worldwide.

Marketing Focus : Aggressive marketing campaigns and strategic acquisitions helped Yahoo maintain its position as the leading internet portal.

Challenges : Managing rapid growth, integrating new services and acquisitions, and maintaining a competitive edge in the evolving internet landscape.

Maturity Stage

Characteristics : The maturity stage saw Yahoo achieving peak market penetration and facing growing competition from emerging internet giants.

Product Diversification : Yahoo continued to diversify its offerings, including acquiring Flickr, launching Yahoo Answers, and expanding into social media and advertising.

Marketing Focus : Emphasis on maintaining user engagement, enhancing core services, and expanding advertising revenue.

Challenges : Intense competition from Google in search and advertising, and Facebook in social media, leading to a decline in user base and market share.

Decline Stage

Characteristics : The decline stage was marked by a significant loss of market share and relevance in the face of stronger competitors.

Market Dynamics : Rapid decline due to Google’s dominance in search and advertising, and Facebook’s rise in social media, leading to decreasing user engagement and revenue.

Marketing Focus : Attempts to revamp services and focus on mobile strategy under CEO Marissa Mayer, but with limited success.

Challenges : Adapting to a rapidly changing market, addressing internal management issues, and finding a sustainable business model in the face of declining relevance.

Strategies and Implications for Yahoo’s Decline

Failure to Innovate

One of the critical factors in Yahoo’s decline was its failure to innovate and adapt to changing market dynamics. While Google continuously improved its search algorithms and advertising platform, Yahoo struggled to keep up with technological advancements.

Strategic Missteps

Yahoo made several strategic missteps, including rejecting Microsoft’s acquisition offer, overpaying for acquisitions like Broadcast.com, and lacking a clear vision for its future. These decisions eroded investor confidence and hindered long-term growth.

Strong Competition

Google’s rise as the dominant search engine and advertising platform, coupled with Facebook’s growth in social media, significantly impacted Yahoo’s market position. These competitors offered better user experiences, superior technologies, and more effective monetization strategies.

Attempts to Rebrand and Revitalize

Under Marissa Mayer’s leadership, Yahoo made several attempts to rebrand and revitalize its services, including investing in mobile applications, enhancing user interfaces, and acquiring new startups. However, these efforts were not enough to regain significant market share.

The Yahoo case study highlights the critical importance of continuous innovation, strategic agility, and effective management in managing a product lifecycle. From its early success as a pioneering web directory to its decline in the face of stronger competitors, Yahoo’s journey offers valuable lessons for businesses in the tech industry. Understanding the factors that led to Yahoo’s decline underscores the need for relentless focus on technological advancement, market awareness, and strategic decision-making. While Yahoo’s attempts to rebrand and revitalize were commendable, they ultimately fell short due to internal challenges and the superior strategies of its competitors.

If you’re eager to expand your knowledge and enjoy a case-study-based approach, you might find the book series “ Management In Action ” interesting. Since I firmly believe that the pursuit of knowledge should never be limited by financial constraints, you can access all my content for free on my Substack account .

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Yahoo Strategic Management Case Study

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The case examines the current problems facing Google during one of the worst economic environments since the Great Depression. Google was faced with stagnant net profits and employee turnover, while trying to maintain their culture of corporate entrepreneurship and innovation. The case was written for senior level undergraduate and MBA students in entrepreneurship and business strategy. It can be taught in one hour and twenty minutes. The amount of outside work to prepare for the case is expected to be at least four hours. The case outlines the history of the Silicon Valley titan, Google, Inc., and how it will navigate in one of the worst economic environments since the Great Depression. The case describes the current economic environment and then examines the history of the founders and the company. Google’s stages of growth, strategies, and its keys to success are then examined. Specific attention is paid to the location of the firm in regards to Silicon Valley and Stanford University. The latter part of the case focuses on the heart of the success of Google, corporate entrepreneurship and innovation. The case describes what corporate entrepreneurship and innovation is and how it is utilized within Google. The case ends with the founders asking the reader what recommendations they would make to Google to solve their problems.

In May 2009, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, co-founders of Google, Inc., were trying to determine how they were going to navigate Google through the worst recession since the Great Depression. Their primary problem was how to maintain the company’s culture of corporate entrepreneurship and innovation in the face of stagnant profits and a host of other issues. Google sought answers on how to increase corporate entrepreneurship and innovation during the worst economic environment that the company had ever experienced.

Tumor Biology

leo L U C Y Fan

E-cadherin, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are important molecules involved in tumor metastasis. In this study, we examined the expressions of E-cadherin, VEGF, MMP-1, MMP-2, and microvessel density (MVD), as well as microlymphatic vessel density (MLVD) in 200 cases of gastric cancer tissues, and determined the relationship between these parameters and the clinicopathological features and patient survival. Protein expressions, MVD, and MLVD were detected by immunohistochemistry. The correlation between the expression levels of these molecules and the clinicopathological features was analyzed. Patient survival was estimated by Kaplan and Meier analysis. Compared to normal gastric mucosa, expression of E-cadherin was reduced in 78% of gastric cancer tissues and 44.6% of adjacent non-cancerous gastric tissues. VEGF was positive in 81.5% of gastric cancer tissues, 35.7% of adjacent non-cancerous gastric tissues, and 10% of normal gastric mucosa. MMP-1 was positive in 80.5% of gastric cancer tissues, 69.6% of adjacent non-cancerous gastric tissues, and 20% of normal gastric mucosa. Reduced expression of E-cadherin was closely correlated with poor tumor differentiation and a deeper tumor invasion. Increased expressions of VEGF and MMP-1 were closely linked with poor differentiation and Lauren classification. Increased expression of MMP-2 was closely correlated with more lymph node metastasis, a deeper invasion, and a larger tumor size. More MVD was observed in VEGF-positive tissues than in VEGF negative tissues. Therefore, abnormal expressions of E-cadherin, VEGF, MMP-1, and MMP-2 are widely present in gastric cancer tissues. Abnormal expressions of E-cadherin, VEGF, and MMP-2 may represent the early molecular changes in the development of gastric cancer. Positive expression of E-cadherin and negative expression of VEGF and MMP-2 are correlated with a better patient survival.

Dr Aysem Diker Vanberg

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Tree service digital's marketing case study reveals a client’s significant revenue growth.

Tree Service Digital recently published a case study detailing a client's experience, showcasing an increase in revenue to $3 million through the implementation of the company's marketing strategies.

Atlanta, GA, Feb. 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tree Service Digital is a digital marketing agency with a focus on assisting tree service companies and businesses in scaling their operations. With years of industry experience, the agency collaborates closely with clients to enhance their profit margins. Demonstrating transparency, the agency has recently shared a case study outlining its role in contributing to a threefold increase in a client's revenue to $3 million.

The Tree Service Marketing Case Study highlights that the client sought assistance from the agency primarily due to substantial expenses incurred in generating leads from third-party platforms. Additionally, the client faced challenges in visibility on major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing for local searches crucial for conversions and genuine leads.

Utilizing their discovery call offer, the client, a West Palm Beach, FL, tree service company, engaged Tree Service Digital to explore solutions. The marketing agency performed a comprehensive audit of the client's web properties and formulated a strategic marketing blueprint. The Tree Service Marketing Agency focused on complementing its organic approach with a well-defined paid ads strategy, contributing to another successful outcome.

According to Wesley Smith, representing the Tree Service Digital team, the onboarding process spanned approximately 30 to 40 days. This period included significant tasks such as new website development, Google Ads setup (completed within a week), and Google Local Service Ads verification. Smith highlighted the effectiveness of their strategies, noting that the client achieved top placement in Google organic search rankings within 3 to 6 months of the project kickoff.

The marketing agency highlighted key solutions in the case study, outlining their tree service online marketing program. This program included optimized and responsive websites focused on high conversion rates, search engine optimization targeting the top position in organic search rankings for local and additional service areas, and a Google Maps strategy aiming for the client to secure a position in the top 3 ranking map pack.

The agency also implemented a Google review strategy to establish social proof. Additionally, the carefully planned Google Local Service Ads (Google Guaranteed) contributed to improved conversion rates and enhanced customer trust. The combination of paid ads, including Google Ads and Facebook Ads, was strategically employed to reach the target audience effectively.

Tree Service Digital's ongoing communication with converted leads and strategic retargeting of customers through Email and Text Messages, featuring the latest services, promotions, and special savings offers, yielded significant results. As a result of this comprehensive strategy, the client experienced an increase in revenue, reaching $3 million and achieving a threefold growth, contributing to sustained year-on-year revenue growth.

About Tree Service Digital

Tree Service Digital is a go-to digital marketing agency for tree service businesses across the United States. The agency offers various marketing solutions, including SEO, web design, social media marketing, reputation and review management, email marketing, and coaching. Working with a diverse clientele within the tree service industry, Tree Service Digital maintains a practical and collaborative approach, helping businesses enhance their online presence for improved performance.

Company Name: Tree Service Digital

Contact Person: Wesley Smith

Phone: 770-637-3707

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Country: United States

Website: https://treeservicedigital.com/

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Struggling with Lower Back Pain? This One Simple Habit Can Help, According to a New Study

Slip on your walking shoes and let’s go!

How Was This Study Conducted?

What did this study find, how does this apply to real life.

If you’ve ever had low back pain, you know how limiting it can be. And you’re not alone. According to 2019 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 39% of U.S. adults experience back pain, and prevalence increases with age—from 28.4% in those ages 18 to 29, up to 45.6% in those ages 65 and up . Women are more likely to experience back pain than men—40.6% versus 37.2% respectively. 

And back pain is expensive. According to a 2023 review in BMJ Open , direct medical and indirect costs of low back pain are at least $50 billion per year and upward of $100 billion in medical costs, lost wages and lost productivity . 

But a new study published on June 19, 2024, in The Lancet suggests that back pain recurrence could be prevented—or at least delayed—by the simple act of walking . Let’s take a closer look. 

Participants were chosen based on criteria related to back pain and current exercise status. They had to be at least 18 years old and to have recovered from an episode of nonspecific back pain within the previous six months. Nonspecific means that there was not a specific diagnosis for the back pain. 

Researchers further defined an episode of nonspecific back pain as one that lasted at least 24 hours with a pain intensity of at least a 2 on a 0 to 10 pain scale. The pain had to be located within the area between the 12th rib and the crease of the buttocks to qualify as low back pain. It also had to have interfered with daily activities, including work.

To be included in the study, participants could not have been exercising regularly prior to the study, since researchers were looking at how exercise influenced the frequency of back pain episodes. They also could not have a condition that prevented them from being able to participate in a walking program.

After dismissing those who did not qualify, there ended up being 701 participants, who were randomly assigned to one of two groups—the intervention group or the control group. The average age of the participants was 54 and the majority of them (81%) were female. Participants were followed for a minimum of 12 months and up to 36 months, depending on when they entered the study. 

Baseline data was gathered from both groups, including the number of previous back pain episodes, time since the last episode, levels of physical activity, time spent sitting (sedentary behavior), mental health status (depression, anxiety), stress levels and sleep quality. 

Sociodemographic information was also collected, including sex, age, BMI, education level, income level, current work status, smoking status and occupational tasks—like if they had to lift heavy loads or were placed into awkward positions during manual labor. 

The control group received no education or training from the research team. They could, however, seek out treatment and prevention strategies on their own during the study period—and many did, in the form of physical therapy, massage and chiropractic care. 

The intervention group received education on back pain, as well as individualized training with one of 24 physical therapists. Each participant received a walking program designed specifically for them based on their baseline fitness level, abilities and limitations. The physical therapists were also trained in health coaching methods to help increase adherence to the program and to more effectively coach participants in behavior change. There were six available sessions participants could attend. While these sessions were initially intended to be in-person, the COVID pandemic occurred after the study had begun, so they had to switch to telehealth sessions. 

The education component of the program included information about back pain, what current research suggests about pain, and coaching to help reduce the fear of movement. This was important, as many who experience back pain fear that exercise will exacerbate the pain and limitations of it.

Each participant in the intervention group also received a pedometer and walking diary. For seven days during the minimal 12-month study period, they wore an accelerometer, which is similar to a pedometer, but registers all movement, not just walking. 

All participants—both the intervention group and the control group—were required to complete monthly questionnaires to establish whether they had experienced another episode of back pain.

According to the 12-week walking diaries, the intervention group progressively worked up to averaging four walking sessions per week for a total of 130 minutes. This is close to the recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity per week recommended in the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans . 

The primary outcome researchers were looking at was the number of days between a participant entering the study and their next occurrence of activity-limiting back pain. They wanted to know if the education, training and intentional walking for exercise increased the number of days between back pain episodes.

In the intervention group, the average number of days to recurrence of activity-limiting back pain was 208, and in the control group 112 days.

The researchers concluded that compared to the no-treatment control group, the group that received an individualized, progressive walking program, education and health coaching substantially reduced the recurrence of low back pain. The intervention group also experienced reductions in back pain-related disability (i.e., missing work, not able to perform normal daily activities) for up to 12 months. Researchers also stated that taking all things into consideration, including lost work time and wages, and medical expenses due to back pain, the intervention was likely cost-effective. 

This study shows how walking alone may benefit back pain. Participants were not taught any strength-training exercises or stretches for back pain. They simply learned how to make walking a habit.

What we know about behavior change is that it takes consistent practice to form new habits . This study drives this home since participants were followed for at least a year (remember, some were followed for as long as three years if they entered the study early on). 

While you may have heard that it takes just 21 days to form a new habit, research, like a 2023 study in PNAS, suggests that it depends on the complexity of the habit you’re trying to form . In that study, the habit of hand-washing took several weeks to establish, whereas forming a new exercise habit can take several months—and that’s if you’re committed and consistent with practicing the new habit. 

The reason it takes time for habit formation is because it involves the brain cells and nerve pathways. Your habits are essentially well-worn, frequently used nerve pathways in the brain. That’s why they’re habits—they’re the pathways your brain can automatically go to. So when trying to create new habits, you’re fighting your brain for what it already knows and is familiar with. So creating new pathways—and ultimately habits—requires consistent practice of the new behavior so that brain cells will wire together to form new pathways. It’s pretty cool and is called neuroplasticity (this is where I geek out!). 

If, for example, you’re trying to create a new exercise habit, the first step is to start where you’re at. Too many times we try to start at the end goal and quickly get burnt out. If you’re not currently exercising, then start with fewer sessions per week and fewer minutes per session—even if it sounds like a really small amount of time. Then gradually increase your time and frequency over several weeks. This can help your body adjust to the increase in movement and reduce muscle soreness and the risk of injury.

Simple habits, like hand-washing, can be stacked with habits you already have. You probably formed this habit as a child when you were reminded to wash your hands after using the toilet. Boom—new habit formed! 

But more complex habits can also be stacked. Going back to the exercise example, what if you stacked going for a walk with eating lunch? So after eating lunch, you’ll go for a 10-minute walk. Eating lunch is your trigger to go for a walk. Or, stack brushing your teeth in the morning with doing a set of pushups, squats and planks. In this case, brushing your teeth is the trigger for doing some exercises—not necessarily at the same time, although I’ve been known to do squats, leg lifts, heel raises and pushups off the kitchen counter while doing dishes. It’s the same idea. 

The Bottom Line

This study showed that regularly walking for exercise helped to increase the number of days between low back pain episodes. It also highlights the importance of consistently practicing the behaviors you want to become habits. Start slowly and gradually increase the number of days and amount of time to form new habits. Be patient and show yourself some compassion. It can take months to form more complex habits like exercise, so keep practicing consistently and before long it will be a regular part of your lifestyle. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Back, lower limb, and upper limb pain among U.S. adults, 2019 .

Fatoye F, Gebrye T, Mbada C, Useh U. Clinical and economic burden of low back pain in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review. BMJ Open . 2024. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-06411 9

Pocovi N, Lin C, French S, et al. Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an individualised, progressive walking and education intervention for the prevention of low back pain recurrence in Australia (WalkBack): a randomised controlled trial . The Lancet . 2024. doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)00755-4

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Physical activity guidelines for America, 2nd edition .

Buyalskaya A, Ho H, Milkman K, Camerer C. What can machine learning teach us about habit formation? Evidence from exercise and hygiene . PNAS . 2023. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2216115120

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Stripper, adult establishments sue Florida government over new age restriction

'the ban on performers under the age of twenty-one is not narrowly tailored and does not advance the asserted government interest commensurate with the burden on free speech,' the plaintiffs say..

A 19-year-old Florida stripper is suing the state, alleging a new law raising the age requirements for her profession not only made her lose her job but also violated her constitutional rights.

The law took effect Monday , the same day the lawsuit was filed. It requires those working at strip clubs and other adult entertainment establishments to be at least 21 years old. Employers found in violation could face criminal penalties.

Joining her in the lawsuit, which is before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, are strip clubs and a lingerie store.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, in signing the bill ( HB 7063 ) into law earlier this year, said it would combat human trafficking.

But the plaintiffs rebut the link between trafficking and their establishments.

"The ban on performers under the age of twenty-one is not narrowly tailored and does not advance the asserted government interest commensurate with the burden on free speech," they write.

Who is suing and why?

Serenity Michelle Bushey was a nude dancer at Café Risque, a strip club near Gainesville in Alachua County.

Since she's 19 years old, she's now out of a job, as are at least eight others at her former workplace, according to the lawsuit. She says that violates her First Amendment right to express herself.

"As with similar performers around the state, Bushey earned her living through her art while providing entertainment for the benefit and enjoyment of her audience," the complaint says. "Plaintiffs maintain that the human body is a thing of beauty which, when combined with music and rhythmic motion in the form of dance, conveys an important message of eroticism."

The corporation operating Café Risque is also suing. So is a company that runs Sinsations, a strip club in Jacksonville.

In the lawsuit, both said they haven't only employed adult dancers younger than 21 but also cooks, waitresses, barbacks, DJs and security personnel. They also believe the law prevents them from contracting out work to those younger than drinking age, even for something like air conditioning repair.

Exotic Fantasies in Jacksonville has the same concern, though it's not a strip club. It not only sells lingerie but also a "modest amount" of adult movies and sexual devices, according to the lawsuit. It doesn't offer any live entertainment or movie screenings, and it doesn't permit use of what it sells on its premises.

Still, because it falls under what state law considers to be an "adult entertainment establishment," it can't hire adult clerks younger than 21 years old, which it has in the past and says it wishes to do in the future.

"Café Risque, Sinsations and Exotic Fantasies have the right to select the adult staff and employees of their choosing to assist in the dissemination of their speech, without regard to age," write the plaintiffs, who are being represented by Gainesville-based First Amendment attorney Gary Edinger.

They accuse the law of violating their First Amendment rights to speech and association.

"(It) is not narrowly tailored nor did the Legislature even consider any less restrictive form of regulation (and it) unreasonably burdens speech without measurably advancing any significant governmental interest," they write. "Plaintiffs have a right to associate with adults of their own choosing, including the right to employ and contract with those adults."

They also say it's unconstitutionally overbroad, citing how the law affects not just strip clubs but places like Exotic Fantasies, and unconstitutionally vague.

They additionally charge it with violating the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, writing that it "irrationally allows adult entertainment establishments to admit adults under the age of twenty-one as patrons while excluding performers, contractors and employees of comparable age."

And they allege it runs counter to the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause.

Under the law, employers who "knowingly" hire workers younger than 21 years old at adult entertainment establishments would face criminal penalties. Those criminal penalties would go as high as a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years behind bars, if that worker performs nude.

Yet, the language also emphasizes that “a person’s ignorance of another person’s age or a person’s misrepresentation of his or her age may not be raised as a defense in a prosecution.” 

"(That) allows for conviction and incarceration even if the accused made a diligent effort to discover the true age of an applicant but was thwarted by skillful fraud and deception on the part of the applicant," the lawsuit reads.

Named as defendants are Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody as well as two state attorneys: Brian Kramer and Melissa Nelson. They're responsible for enforcing the challenged law.

Kramer's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment; Nelson's office said she doesn't comment on pending litigation. But Moody spokesperson Kylie Mason said in an email, "We have not been served, but we will defend the law."

A similar case also going through courts

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule soon on a Jacksonville dancer age restriction ordinance, a decision that could set  a First Amendment precedent  on age-based regulation of expression – and a decision that could potentially knock down such restrictions, as previously reported by the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida.

During the Jacksonville litigation, it came out that “no arrest for human trafficking has ever been made in an exotic dance establishment” in the city, according to court records. A federal judge  upheld the ordinance anyway, and it remains in effect awaiting the appeals court's decision.

"The State considered no evidence or studies supporting the notion that human trafficking is associated with adult entertainment establishments or that trafficking is more common in such establishments," the plaintiffs write in the latest lawsuit. "Or, to the extent that such information was considered, it consisted of shoddy data which is insufficient to support the asserted government interests."

But supporters of the law have alleged businesses like strip clubs are dens for human trafficking, especially of young women. And some made it clear that the targeting of trafficking wasn't the only goal.

"My vision for the young women of Florida is to not work in the adult entertainment (industry) but rather get a job, an education and career and have a good quality of life," said Rep. Carolina Amesty , a Windermere Republican and bill sponsor, at the bill signing event.

What First Amendment laws took effect?: New laws that involve the First Amendment are soon taking effect in Florida

Not the only new court news: Florida says governments can ban school library books just because they disagree with them

This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA Today Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Douglas Soule can be reached at  [email protected] .

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What happens if there is a hung jury in the Karen Read trial? What to know

It's rare, but it happens: a hung jury.

Less than 10% of juries deadlock, according to a study by the Court Statistics Project , but sometimes the 12 jurors just can not agree.

Which is where jurors in the high-profile Karen Read case told Judge Beverly Cannone they are, in a note from the jury foreperson on Friday afternoon. She told them to keep deliberating.

Read is on trail for the 2022 death of Boston police Officer  John O'Keefe , who she was dating at the time of his death. She was arrested days afterward on charges of manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of a deadly crash.

Two narratives have emerged since the arrest. The state alleges that Read killed O'Keefe by backing into him with a car and leaving him to die. Read's defense team argues that the police and other parties have colluded to frame Read for O'Keefe's murder.

The case has drawn national attention and daily protests outside the courtroom.

But what happens if the jury can't come to consensus?

Who is Karen Read? Everything you need to know about Boston's Karen Read murder trial

What happens if the jury is hung?

If the jury deadlocks, then a mistrial is declared.

This means the trial will start all over again from the beginning with a new jury. 

The district attorney would have to decide whether or not to bring the case forward again. This would not violate the constitutional prohibition on "double jeopardy" because no verdict was reached.

Is it common for a judge to tell a jury to keep deliberating?

It's not unusual for a judge to tell a jury to keep trying, even after they initially say they are deadlocked.

“Whenever a jury says it’s deadlocked (at this stage), a judge always sends them back and pushes them,” Peter Elikann, a longtime Boston defense lawyer and member of the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Council said Friday. He added it’s not unusual for a judge to continue requiring deliberations even after a second or third such note. 

How likely is it that the Karen Read jury stops being deadlocked?

Elikann said sometimes jurors are able to reach a verdict after initially signaling concern, and sometimes they are not. 

“We don’t really know what is going on inside (the jury room). It’s pure speculation,” he said. “But what would be very important to know is, whether there’s two strong sides to this, or whether it’s just one or two people holding this up.” 

Has Judge Beverly Cannone declared a hung jury before?

As of Friday afternoon, Cannone told the Karen Read jurors to keep deliberating, but she has declared a jury hung before - and fairly recently.

In the trial of double-murder suspect Emanuel Lopes last July, Cannone declared a mistrial after one juror refused to continue deliberating. Lopes was found guilty in his second trial of killing Weymouth police Sgt. Michael Chesna and resident Vera Adams. He has not been sentenced yet.

Jessica Trufant and Rin Velasco contributed to this report.