strategic brand management, assignment-2€¦ · google brand analysis | strategic brand...

GOOGLE BRAND ANALYSIS Strategic Brand Management, Assignment-2

Ankush Bajaj Student ID: 1410124

GOOGLE BRAND ANALYSIS | Strategic Brand Management, Assignment-2

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Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................... 2

Google Inc. ...................................................................................................................... 2

Google’s Mission ......................................................................................................... 2

Google’s History .......................................................................................................... 3

Google’s Net Worth .................................................................................................... 4

Product Offerings by Google ....................................................................................... 5

What makes Google so Successful? .............................................................................. 7

Simplicity ..................................................................................................................... 7

Innovation ................................................................................................................... 8

The “Don’t Be Evil” Mantra ........................................................................................ 9

Brand Experience ........................................................................................................ 9

Work Culture ............................................................................................................. 10

Coopetition and Co-ordination ..................................................................................... 11

Google’s Business Model ............................................................................................. 12

Freemium Business Model ........................................................................................ 12

Future Potential ........................................................................................................... 12

Business Potential ..................................................................................................... 13

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 13

Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 14


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Introduction

Google is a global technology company aimed at improving the way people link with

information. In the past few years, Google has become the number one search engine

on the web and has managed to consistently stay there. More than 70 percent of

search queries on internet is handled by Google, which makes it the backbone of most

of the Internet users globally. (Mark Hall, 2013)

Google Inc. started as an online search engine, but overtime google has expanded its

horizons and now it owns a long list of more than 50 internet services under its belt

ranging from e-mail to online document sharing and Google scholar to social

networking website called Google+. Google’s wide product portfolio makes it one of

the most influential and valuable company in the world. According to a research

conducted by Ipsos, Google ranked 1st in the list of most influential brands in 2013

followed by Microsoft and Apple (Ipsos, 2013).

The key to Google’s success is innovation. Every time Google came up with a new

service, it offered something new which was designed to make life simpler and better.

This approach made Google one of the most revolutionary and innovative brand which

ultimately resulted in profits of billions of dollars. By The end of 2012, Google’s net

worth was about 200 billion USD. (http://www.theirnetworth.com, 2012)

Google Inc. is the home to some of the brightest minds in the world, people who are

incredibly smart and incredibly crazy. The company has always been known to pursue

a culture where people are made to believe things and motivated to accomplish what

they want and that’s what makes Google an inspiring and influential success story

ever. Today, Google has become a company like no another thriving on long hours,

too much coffee and something quiet elusive, genius.

Google Inc.

Google’s Mission “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally

accessible and useful.” (Google Investor, 2013)

This mission statement is very much descriptive of what company does on a daily

basis. It searches information through various sources, organizes it and makes it more

accessible and more useful to the user. However, the mission statement does not use


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the word “Search”, instead it says “organize” information. So, in Google’s language,

the mission is to organize data and searching is the chosen strategy to achieve this

mission.

Google’s History Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford University

graduate students. The first collaboration happened in the year 1996 with a simple

search engine that was named as “BackRub”. (Miller, 2008). The USP for BackRub that

made it successful concept was its ability to produce search results on the number of

“backlinks” pointing to a given website- and the same concept was used later by

Google search Engine.

By 1998, Larry and Sergey were trying to sell their technology to giants like Yahoo! And

Excite. But these giants underestimated the potential of this technology and refused

to buy it. Later, Sergey and Larry decided to write a business plan and ultimately found

an investor by the name of Andy Bechtolshein, one of the founding members of Sun

Microsystems. Andy proved to be an angel investor and wrote Larry and Sergey a

cheque of 100,000 USD, which lead to birth of Google Inc. (Miller, Googlepedia, 2008)

Google started in a garage in Palo Alto, California in September 1998. The company

operated in the garage until February, 1999. Now, it was time for Google to move to

real office and it had an employee strength of 8 employees. By this time, Google

search engine was up and running and was able to handle more than half a million

search queries every day. The users were loving what Google was offering which

helped them generate a lot of press attention. Gradually, the hype created in media

and positive reviews helped attract massive traffic on the website.

Google became a hit!


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Figure 1.1

Figure 1.1 shows the original website page for google in December, 1998, it’s not

much different from the one that runs currently on Google.

The term Google is derived from the word “googol”, which is a mathematical term

for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeroes. (Miller, Googlepedia)

A company that started out as a research project has today become a high tech

juggernaut.

Google’s Net Worth Google is considered by experts as the most successful company eve. Undoubtedly,

it is one! Google is most likely to be the youngest one too out of all the biggies. An

idea that started as a research project in 1996 by two Stanford graduates has went

on to become a $224 billon business in just a span on 16 years. (Forbes, 2012) The

reason for success is based on the core value of the business i.e. “Focus on the user

and everything else will follow.” (Company Philosphy, 2013).

They seem to be following Mc Donald’s theory of ““Look after the customer and the business will take care of itself” – Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s, which is making them a huge fortune too.


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Google’s ranking by Forbes lists.

1. Google Ranks 5th in the list of World’s Most Powerful Brands with a Brand

Value of $37.6 Billion and Ranks 7th on consumer perception. (Forbes, 2012)

2. On Forbes Global 2000 lists, Google ranks 68th.

3. Ranks 3 in Market Value.

4. Ranks 24 on Most Innovative Companies.

5. Ranks 38 in Profit.

Above rating are provided by Forbes, 2012

Product Offerings by Google Google started as a web search engine, which still is the primary most offering by

Google. The term Google became so popular among people that in June, 2006

Oxford English Dictionary decided to include this term in the dictionary and officially

declared it a verb. (Google Company History, 2006)

According to Oxford Dictionary the definition of Google is:

Verb [With object]

Search for information about (someone or something) on the Internet using

the search engine Google: on Sunday she googled an ex-boyfriend.

Products offered by Google:

Web

Web Search- Enables user to search billion pages on web.

Google Chrome- An internet browser made for faster, safer, simple and

secured browsing.

Google Toolbar: Search Bar for your internet browser.

Mobile Services

Mobile- Enables you to get Google products on your mobile.

Maps for Mobile- Get maps, views and directions on your mobile phone.


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Geo

Maps- View maps and directions.’

Earth- enables to explore earth sitting in front of your computer or cell

phone.

Sketch Up- Enables you to create 3D models quickly and accurately.

Panoramio-Let’s you explore and share photographs with the world.

Media

You Tube- Enables user to watch, upload and share videos.

Books- Let’s you search full texts from Books

Image Search- Search images on Web.

News- Allows you to search and view different news.

Picasa- Share and edit photos

Home & Office

Google Drive- Create and share documents with your colleagues and friends.

Calendar- Organise and share schedules.

Translate-Translate texts, file and web pages instantly in over 50 languages.\

Gmail- Simple and efficient Email service with less spam.

IM- Call or Chat with your friends instantly.

Google Cloud Print- Print anywhere from any device.

Social

Blogger- Quick, free and easy way to blog.

Groups- Create mailing lists and discussion groups

Specialised Search

Scholar- Search and view scholarly articles and papers.

Blog Search- Find blogs

Alerts- Get email updates about your emails on favourite topics

Innovation

Code- Developer tools, resources and API

All, these products and services are free of cost for consumers.

Some other offerings from Google are


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Google+

Google Adwords

Google Apps

Google Analytics

What makes Google so Successful?

‘’In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of

failure.”-Bill Cosby. Truly it was the courage and passion for success that became the

cornerstone for Google and lead Google to heights. Larry Page and Sergey Brin

believed in their idea and knew that they would have to strive really very hard to

make a statement in the Silicon Valley as they were competing against Giants like

Yahoo! And Excite (already running and popular search engines). They knew that

their idea has the potential to compete against these biggies, and was powerful

enough to beat them too.

Google didn’t made money until it started auctioning its Adwords. Adwords and

AdSense are the services from Google that allows other business to post

advertisements on Google’s website. These ads are termed as Google Ads. Google

ads amounts to about 96% of Google’s total revenue. (Google investor, 2013), others

only contribute 4%. Google makes around $3 billion in advertising every month.

(www.wired.com, 2012)

Simplicity The only thing Google does different from its competitors is –They create and

innovate their products keeping in mind simplicity and ease for customers/users. The

Google homepage still very much looks the same as it used to look when it was

started in 1998. The reason Google search outclassed Yahoo! search was because

Google created something that made web search easy, simple and fun. And these

drivers of success proved to be the powerhouse for Google and still are.

The technology that is power for Google Search Engine is, simplicity. It just takes a

fraction of a second, and produces effective results from around 8 billion Web pages.

All these fancy equations are solved behind a white home page, not featuring more

than 28 words, a happy looking coloured logo and world’s most efficient search bar.

Couldn’t be any simple and easier.


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A Google Homepage is not allowed to feature more than 28 words

Also, the core values of Google Inc. has always remained the same ever since the

company started in 1998. The core idea of creating google product was to make a

product that could change the world for better. Whereas, most of the other

businesses run with an intention of making an efficient and profitable organisation.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin were also not in favour of bureaucratic and money

minded ideologies of other large organisation. The founders of Google were so

convinced by these ideologies that they decided to make them a part of company’s

corporate philosophy since the very beginning.

Innovation Innovation has always been the key to success of Google. Overtime Google has come

up with different innovative product offering, it may be Google Search, Adwords or

Adsense, Google Maps, Gmail and many more. Google always come up with new

innovative technology. The main ideologies that goes into creation of such

innovative products are:

1. How to improve something? It is not necessary to invent something new,

figure out the flaws for an existing one and try and innovate something that

could improve that already existing one. In Google’s case its Gmail

2. Look for the Customer’s Pain Point- Understand the problems of the

consumer, how they are struggling with a particular product and figure out

what they need. For ex: Google+


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3. What’s next? – Innovation is not just about creating newer, faster and

efficient product. It’s also about understanding what should be next in line.

In Google’s case it Google Chrome book

Google is well known for its”20% time” which allows its employees a day a week to

follow their passion and come up with something innovative and creative. Google

became popular for adopting this practice as it proved to be very fruitful for Google.

(Google, 2013)

The “Don’t Be Evil” Mantra Other corporations have Ethical codes to look after their conduct, Google has “Don’t

Be Evil” as part of their core values. It has now become the informal corporate motto

for Google. (Code Of Conduct, 2013). “Don’t Be Evil” is about providing users with

unbiased and efficient access to useful information which is relevant to them,

understanding their needs and providing them with what they want. But, at the

same time doing these generously- following the law, acting ethically and respecting

your competitors. This mantra is followed for the users, businesses and employees

of Google.

Brand Experience

“The cumulative brand impressions garnered from visual, verbal and experiential

encounters with the brand. The brand experience encompasses a range of

intellectual, sensory and emotional connections.” (Texas Tech University, 2012) Google has always thrived to create an enjoyable experience for its users. Whether

it’s designing a search engine homepage or Gmail, Google Books or Google Maps.

Everything revolves around simplicity and convenience and providing efficient

results too. Making profits is never a priority over user satisfaction. Google’s largest

revenue sources i.e. Google ads never places an ad based on the money paid, the

search placements are never sold to anyone.

Secondly, Google believes in doing one thing well rather than doing different thing at

the same time. With every product, they are focused to create a lasting experience

on user which should make the user use that product over and over again.

Google’s business model is based around simplicity and ease of use which creates a

valuable Brand Experience for the user. Creating a brand experience that too free of

any cost has helps make Google generate billions of dollars every month. This has in

turn become a marketing model for Google.

Along with the functional and organisational aspects, it is important for a brand to

connect with its users emotionally. Google has not been able to make an emotional

connect with its users as good as companies like Apple and Microsoft have. Today, it

has become very important for brands to make an emotional place in users mind in


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order to gain loyalty and trust of the user. Google also understands the significance

of having an emotional space in user’s mind for the brand or the product.

Work Culture All the above mentioned factors are probably the reasons behind Google’s success.

These factors are most important from the perspective of consumer/user, but

behind the success of the organisation customer satisfaction is not only the key

criteria. Apart, from user experience it is about employee satisfaction and work

culture inside the organisation too, and Google is believed to have aced this criteria

and has set a benchmark for other corporations in this scenario.

To make sure its employees are putting in the best of their efforts, Google makes

sure to pamper them in all possible ways. Google is well known in tech-community

for being most generous to its employees when it comes to providing them with

perks and incentives. Employees are provided with almost every kind of facility to

make them feel at home. This has been one of the main reason for Google’s success

as it allows the employees to put in the best of their efforts as they don’t mind

spending long hours at work.

Perks of being an employee at Google:

I. Free haircuts

II. Free Gym and Swimming Pools

III. Billiards, Foosball and Ping-Pong Tables

IV. Free healthcare and dentist

V. Subsidised Massage programme

VI. Subsidy on Hybrid Cars for up to $5000

VII. Free food (all types of cuisines, prepared by 5 star chefs)

VIII. Free laundry and dry cleaning.

IX. On site Video games

All these are the perks of being an employee at Googleplex. Google also believes in

the ideology “You don’t have to wear suits to be professional”. Google allows its

employees to wear casuals. Even if we watch events and press conferences held by

Google, their representatives are hardly dressed in suits and ties. Google believes

that way to creativity is playful and fun environment. Google invests a lot in their

employees hailing from diverse cultural background to take out the best in terms of

creativity by maintaining a playful and creative environment. (Google Company

Philosphy, 2012)


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Coopetition and Co-ordination The technology industry is coming up with new technologies every day. Every

company comes up with an innovative technology quiet frequently. These

technologies are focused to make human life easier and simpler. Google understand

the significance of creating relationship with other players in the technology sector.

They understand that this collaboration would be of huge mutual benefit to

themselves, their business partners and ultimately to the user. This is called

Coopetition.

Coopetition is referred to as Cooperation among competing companies. It is thought

of as a great strategy between the businesses to expand their market and create

new business relationships. It is a form of strategic alliance and is quiet popular in

technology industry. Coopetition aims at developing products using those same

standards. (www.investopedia.com, 2012)

Google has collaborated with tech giants like Yahoo! and Apple in the past. Google

used to be the search provider for AOL and still powers Yahoo! search. Google co-

brands with other websites by providing them with “Powered by Google” search.

This has made them generate a lot of brand equity, at the same time reducing the

traffic of their main website which has resulted in efficient functioning on Google

search website.

Google and Apple shared a good relationship in the past. Google Maps and YouTube

were given prominent places on Apple’s IPhone. Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt was one

of the board member of Apple Inc.

History suggest that such alliances have delivered but never lasted for a longer

period. Apple’s and Google’s broke down after Google launched the Android

Operating system in the market to compete against Apple OS. Apple blamed Google

of imitating key technology that they had developed. Unfortunately, this relationship

never re-established. Relationship in tech industry have always been like this. In

early 1980s Apple and Microsoft collaborated to work on the “greatest creation in

technological industry” called Macintosh. But this relationship also face the same

destiny with Apple accusing Microsoft of stealing their graphical user interface. In

1997, Microsoft saved Apple from going bankrupt by providing them with $150

million.

Acquisitions is also an important part of tech industry. Many technological giants

make strategies that include acquisitions of other companies and Google did the

same too. Google went on to purchase YouTube, Picassa, Keyhole (now Google

Maps), Urchin (Google Analytics). Google acquired these to strengthen the brand. If

done well, such co-operations provides desired results for both company as well as

the consumer.


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Google’s Business Model What makes Google different from the rest is its Business Model which aims at

providing its core services free of any cost. Before Google Inc. came into existence it

was impossible to believe that a company that offers its services completely free to

its users could make it to top 5 wealthiest companies in the world. The same idea

that was introduced by Google is now being followed by other too.

Google’s main source of revenue is advertising on Google SEO which amounts to

about 97% of total revenue generations. The Google search is free of cost to user. It

makes money from AdSense and Adwords. It is believed that Google generates

around $3 billion every month from Google ads.

Google is able to gain the trust and loyalty of the users by providing them with

products that are free to use, wherever possible. This is what has differentiated from

other companies like Pepsi, Nike, and others.

Freemium Business Model The reason for the immediate success of IT companies is the “Freemium Business

Approach or Freemium Business Model”. The term Freemium is derived from 2

words “Free” and “Premium” which means offering core services to the users free of

cost and charging a little for premium services. Websites like Spotify, YouSendIt.com

and many others offers their core services to the user free of any cost and charge a

little for the premium ones.

The same goes for Google too. In technological sector, it is very doubtful that user

might or might not embrace an innovative technology a company has to offer. It

becomes even more difficult to predict when the user has to pay some amount of

money to use that service. In order to introduce that service to the user, the

companies offers such basic services free of cost. This allows the user to get in touch

with that technology and if the service is efficient than there is a huge possibility of

user becoming loyal to it.

For most of the service Google does not charge at all. This is what allows Google to

make their technology reach its user and most of the times they have been

successful too. Even when Google started their proposition was to provide user with

best possible search results free of cost.

Future Potential Clearly, the large growing influence of internet on our lives clearly predicts that

companies like Google have a great future potential ahead. It is hard to imagine

future without brands like Google. Google has always came up with technologies

which have the potential to change the way human beings interact with the digital

world. Google search has become an essential part of everything we do, it may

finding locations on Google Maps or viewing Scholarly articles on Google Scholar.


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Google has always amazed us with its products and is believed to do so in the future

too. Google glass is the latest technological offering by Google which is promising

and according to the experts, Google glass would revolutionise the way we see

digital world.

Business Potential The focus for Google to do their business will remain through their core service

offering i.e. Google Search. Advertising has always been the biggest source of

revenue for Google and will always will be. But apart from revenue from advertising,

Google needs to invest in other technologies and products which could become the

future source of revenue generation. Google has very well realised this fact and a

technology like Google Glass is an example that Google is now looking to make

business through hardware market too.

Mobile Technology: Mobile technology is quickly becoming the most widely used

technology in the world today. Even Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt believes that future

technological growth for IT companies rests in Mobile Technology. With giants like

Apple and Samsung who are making most of their revenues through Mobile sector.

There is a huge opportunity as Google already shares a good perception among the

user and if they Google comes up with something better, people would not hesitate

to embrace Google’s Technology.

Advertising through LOOP Model- LOOP model has proved to be a great success in

advertising so far and still needs to be explored. It allows the consumer to respond

to an advertisements through Text Message. Google need to jump in and figure out

ways to enhance the LOOP service through Google ads on websites and

Smartphones.

Conclusion The success of Google is truly remarkable. This success is largely based on the

experience created for its user by Google through the main drivers of Simplicity,

Innovation, and free to use ideology. For a brand to excel in modern day competitive

society, it is very important to create an unforgettable experience. Almost every

company provides with similar kind of product offering, the difference is what kind

of experience is delivered. There are brands in the market which offer nothing

different from their competitors, the only thing they do better is deliver remarkable

Brand experience. A brand like Apple, which offers its products at a very higher price

in the market but people buy those products because of the experience is worthless.


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Google was based on the cornerstone of creating a brand experience for the user.

Before, entering the market Google knew that their USP will be creating a wonderful

brand experience for the user. Google was simple, easy to use, and free of cost and

provided user with what they wanted. All these factors together created a valuable

experience and people welcomed it. Now, Google has become a part of our everyday

lives. If in future Google plans to hold the same place in people heart, than they

would have to keep marching ahead keeping in mind its core values of ‘Simplicity,

Innovation and desire to make human life better.’

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http://www.google.co.nz/about/company/history/

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sources/

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http://www.texastech.edu/identityguidelines/glossary.php

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http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/coopetition.asp

Code Of Conduct. (2013). Retrieved from Google Investor:

http://investor.google.com/corporate/code-of-conduct.html

Company Philosphy. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.google.co.nz:

http://www.google.co.nz/about/company/philosophy/

Forbes. (2012, October). Retrieved from

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottdecarlo/2012/10/03/billionaire-scorecard-googles-surge-

sends-brin-to-new-highs-oracles-slide-sinks-ellison/

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