There's
something about Google
Google’s
success is based on sound marketing principles and provides lessons for us all.
As
a reader of WNIM it is almost certain that you will be a regular Google user.
Just in case you have yet to discover this marvel of technology here is a thumbnail
sketch.
It
is really is quite simple - Google is the world’s best Internet search engine.
From its birth in 1998 it now handles approximately 40% of the world’s Internet
searches and is able to deliver the results to its users in an astonishing 0.3
seconds.
The
statistics about the company are astonishing. It has a user base of around 65
million people who use it 150 million times a day to search through the 3 Billion
Web pages that reside on its 10,000 servers. The story of the company is a ‘must
read’ for all of those who believe the age of the high tech success story
are over.
At
this point I suggest those of you who have yet to discover Google go and experience
its delights and then return to this article when it will make a lot more sense.
From
a marketing perspective, Goggle’s achievements have been spectacular.
The
company has spent virtually no money on advertising, yet Interbrand’s BrandChannel.com
voted it the brand of year, displacing last year’s winner, Apple and beating
Coke and Starbucks. According to research from the branding consultancy Brand
Keys, Google has the highest brand loyalty of any online company. To achieve its
premier position it had to displace Yahoo!, a company that was thought to have
an impregnable lead as the market’s top search facility. It has done all
of this in a viscously anti-technology environment whilst creating a company estimated
to be worth around $1 Billion.
Is
it possible for us mere mortals to learn any marketing lessons from the Google
success story? The answer is undoubtedly, yes. These appear to be Google’s
principles of marketing.
Keep
things very, very simple
The
Google home page contains 32 items of text, including all of the navigation. I
gave up counting the words on Yahoo! when I passed 600.
This
is a very simplistic comparison but it does illustrate the point that Google is
obsessive about providing a highly efficient search facility and discards anything
that might distract or confuse its users.
When
Yahoo! was launched it had a format that was remarkably similar to Google. Its
site contained just 150 words and did nothing else other than assist users to
find information on the Web. Since then the site has expanded, lost focus and
its supremacy.
There
seems to be a universal law of nature that says ‘Web sites continue to expand
their functionality until they become unusable’. Just because it is so easy
to provide additional functionality does not mean it should be added. The next
time there is a suggestion to add more to your organisation’s home page,
remember that handful of words on the Google home page and the success they have
generated!
Unless
you innovate you die
The
thing that keeps driving Microsoft forward is paranoia that somewhere there is
a Bill Gates Version 2 working on technologies that could threaten his empire.
Google’s management seem to be driven by this same fear.
To
protect against this threat most companies expand their product/service portfolio
to spread the risk over a range of products. What is too often associated with
this strategy is the accompanying diffusion of marketing focus as resources and
marketing energy is spread over a wider range of products.
So
far Google has been brilliant at avoiding this pitfall.
During
its short life the company has launched many new services. Froogle, a service
to find information about products for sale online by locating stores and directing
you to the place where you can make a purchase. Google Catalogs, a facility to
search and browse mail order catalogues online. Google News, a service to access
over 4000 continuously updated news sources.
Each
of these services are extensions of the company’s original product that
are re-packaged to satisfy a very precise user need. Where Google has shown real
marketing inventiveness is to add these services without detracting from its main
product.
In
the past few months the company has acquired several new companies (Semantics
and Pyra Labs). We have yet to see if it can leverage these company’s products
without defusing its market focus.
Know
what your customer want and give it to them
I
think the following quote, taken from and article published by the FastCompany,
perfectly expresses this point ‘....The cardinal rule at Google is, if you
can do something that will improve the user's experience, do it. It is a mandate
in part born of paranoia. And the maniacal attack on imperfection reflects a genuine
belief in the primacy of the customer….’
We
have become so accustomed to the platitudes that companies utter about being ’customer
centric’ and how the ‘customer is king’ that when we see a company
that really believes and makes a reality of the statement we fail to recognise
what they are doing.
The
company’s site has equal appeal to novice and the most experienced Web user.
This does not come about by accident but results from clarity of vision about
the needs of the customer and continually innovating to meet their requirements.
It is one thing to employ 10 staff to study the e-mail from customers and then
to act upon their comments. Google does both of things.
Get
others to promote your brand
It
is very likely that your PC/Notebook has a little label attached saying ‘Intel
Inside’. It was a very clever marketing ploy by Intel to get its customers
to promote its brand on every box they sold. The reason this was possible was
the mutual advantage for Dell, IBM, HP and the other vendors to associate themselves
with the technical excellence of Intel.
Google
appears to be following a similar route. More and more sites are using Google
as their search mechanism and advertising the fact they are doing so. The ‘Powered
by Google’ icon is set to become a common sight. During the past 2 months
both Amazon and Disney have adopted the company’s search facilities.
The
other thing the company has done to expand its brand reach is to allow software
developers to incorporate its search engine in their own products, whilst of course
giving due recognition to Google. Rather than being dependant on all of the innovation
coming from within the company it has created hordes of entrepreneurial developers
producing new products. Perhaps the most interesting of these is Smackdown, which
allows two names or phrases to be compared to see their relative popularity on
the Web. I bet you didn’t know that there are more references to ‘Arsenal
Football Club’ than ‘Manchester United Football Club’ on the
Web!!
Don’t
take yourself too seriously
On
March 6 the Google logo had changed into a stone sculpture with the letter ‘L’
being replaced by the Michelangelo’s Statue of David in celebration of sculptor’s
birthday. On the October 25 the logo appeared as an expressionist painting to
celebrate Picasso’s birthday. On Valentine’s Day it had changed again
with the two ‘Os’ being placed with interlocking hearts.
You
cannot help but smile when you see the latest variant of the Google logo. The
continual adaptation of the logo may seem a minor ploy but I think it perfectly
illustrates how an ultra sophisticated service and company can still be fun.
From
the perspective of logo design and extension it is sheer brilliance.
It
is OK for marketing ideas to fail as long as you learn from the experience
Google
has tried many new product ideas. There is the Google Toolbar that can be downloaded
to your PC to assist your Web searching. If you get nothing else from this article
I suggest you start to make use of this facility. There is the Google Viewer that
provides a visual representation of the search process in something akin to a
motion-player version of the site. Google has even experimented with voice search
that enables you to phone your query and then see the results online. Some of
these features will become part of the product offering others will die. What
is certain is the company will have extracted all of the lessons it can from these
ventures.
Hopefully,
the next time you use Google you will see it as not only a great way of searching
the Web but also as a live case study on how to incorporate the best principles
of the Web and Marketing to create an astonishing company.
Web
Sites mentioned in this article
About
the Author: Dick Stroud is a CIM training course director, specialising in
Internet marketing. He also teaches at the London Business School. His consultancy
helps companies use technology to improve their marketing effectiveness. He can
be contacted at dick@internet-strategies.co.uk
