Dale and Thomas got money-saving results with multivariate testing from Google Website Optimizer

Company

Most people don't think of popcorn as haute cuisine, but at Dale and Thomas Popcorn, it's the ultimate delicacy. Dale and Thomas opened their first shop, then called Popcorn Indiana (now the company's wholesale kettle corn-based brand), on New York City's Upper West Side in 2002. After former NBA star and current Knicks president Isiah Thomas stopped in for a snack, he decided to invest in the business. Today, Dale and Thomas has 12 retail stores, a booming ecommerce website and wholesale business. They've even won high praise as Oprah Winfrey's favorite popcorn. In the kitchen, their Culinary Institute of America-trained chef dreams up such concoctions as Cinnamon Crème DrizzleCorn™, Southwest Cheddar Chipotle, and Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Drizzlecorn™-a favorite by popular vote. The company aspires to be "the Starbucks of popcorn."

Approach

Dale and Thomas wanted to make sure that their online retail site was giving them the best return on investment for their online advertising dollar, including funds going toward Google AdWords™. For a while, they employed a testing vendor to do multivariate testing on their site. The tester implemented a home page test, and results were impressive. "Multivariate testing is definitely a fantastic tool. The problem came when we wanted to implement the next test," recalls Marketing Manager Deborah Krier. "The code behind our website is Byzantine at best. We went back and forth with our test vendor for months, trying to get their code for the new multivariate test to work on our website. It was an exercise in futility."

Dale and Thomas also wanted to test continuously, not just occasionally. "We want a website that's like a living lab, where we can test and play and constantly be trying to figure out how to improve and then putting that into practice," Krier says. Heading into the holiday season, they had a company that wanted to place a trust mark on their site. Dale and Thomas decided that the trust mark was an excellent way to try Google Website Optimizer on a small scale. They set up a test with Google Website Optimizer comparing reaction to their current anti-hacker logo versus the new trust mark.

Result

With no setup hassle at all, Dale and Thomas began using Google's free Website Optimizer tool to test the two logos. After one month of test result analysis, the company determined without a doubt that there was no statistical difference between the logos. As a result, Dale and Thomas saved money - they turned down the opportunity to add the more expensive trust mark. As Krier points out, another advantage of Google Website Optimizer is that "it's 100% self-service" and is all in-house too.

Dale and Thomas plans to use Google Website Optimizer for multivariate testing from now on, from logo results, to which headlines prompt higher conversion rates, to whether a Peanut Butter and White Chocolate DrizzleCorn™ picture sells more popcorn than a Toffee Crunch DrizzleCorn™ image. "If you understand the potential of testing and have the resources, there is no reason to pay a bunch of money. Website Optimizer is free and works incredibly well," Krier says. "With Website Optimizer, you never second-guess your users."

About Google Website Optimizer

Google Website Optimizer offers free multivariate testing that helps you take action to convert visitors to customers. Graphical reports show which content engages your audience and results in the highest conversions. The Website Optimizer is integrated into Google AdWords, but it tests all traffic to your site - including traffic from your AdWords ads, Google search results and any other source of traffic to your site. For more information visit http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer.