A lot of what you say above echoes my thinking on the subject. Distilled it would go something like ‘web analytics tools are only as useful as the strategy that informs their application.’ But as you point out, too often companies invest more in capturing data than they do in understanding the best way to use it. To back this up, a Customer Engagement survey produced by E-consultancy and the company I work for (cScape) found that in spite of enthusiasm for Web Analytics ‘nearly 40% of companies are not very advanced at mapping customer experience and identifying touch-points.’ If you want to take a look at it, it can be found here: http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/customer-engagement-report/

As for the fear of ‘cookies’, the internet as a whole is viewed with suspicion, just as much a threat to national as it is to personal security. Although you’re right to draw attention to the irrational nature of such a specific fear, i.e. the surveillance of users is nothing compared to that which exists offline, be it store cards, or, indeed, CCTV, it’s probably necessary to address the exaggerated sense of risk that inhibits almost all our social interactions.

Cheers,
Tim
(Great blog by the way)

Great assessment about how to get started with web analytics and KPIs. I’ve been struggling with this as well for some time and just presented at Emetrics in D.C. at a strategy I propose to oversee the selection of tools, definition of metrics and KPIs, etc. all designed to allow companies to do less “reporting” and more “analysis”. I call it the Web Analytics Business Process and you can download part of the presentation I gave at Emetrics at:

http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/wabp.asp

Give it a read when you have time. I’m more than happy to discuss it with you if you’d like.

All the best,

Eric T. Peterson
http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/weblog