The Four
P's of Google
Marketing Mix Promotion
Promotion
Promotions are activities such as advertising, personal selling,
and sales promotion which communicate the merits of the product
and persuade target customers to buy it (Armstrong and Kotler 63).
Time and time again Google has refused to jumble its homepage with
annoying advertisements, banners, or links to other websites, as
reported by Ben Elgin in a recent issue of BusinessWeek (88). Other
companies have flourished mainly due to their colossal advertising
campaigns. For years, Google has committed itself to focus on search
and avoids fancy graphics. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin
dislike the idea of ads affecting search results. Consequently,
Google does not do a whole lot to get their name out to the public.
Surprisingly, the company has grown by word of mouth, not by advertising.
Google relies greatly on word of mouth to develop and expand their
innovative brand. The more credible a brand is, the more widely
its reputation will spread. Google, like Kleenex and Xerox, has
become so pervasive that the brand name is used as an ordinary word.
Google’s convenient service and precise search results have
made it one of the world’s best-known brands and search engines
almost completely through word of mouth from satisfied users.
Despite emerging onto the scene later than others, Google has risen
to outdo all of its competitors becoming what is now the most popular
Internet search engine. Several people like the fact that Google
offers a minimal homepage, which loads immediately without annoying
advertisements. Lycos and AltaVista advertise heavily and load their
homepage with flash. People seem to like Google more because of
its simple and direct approach. As a result of Google’s outstanding
results it has compelled its dedicated users to inform everyone
else about their remarkable search engine. Google’s growth
is proof of the power of viral marketing, without the need for massive
advertising budgets.
With viral marketing, customers become the company’s advertisers
by telling their friends who in turn pass on the news to their friends
until it gets out of hand and word of mouth results. Google is definitely
a successful word of mouth and a word of mouth circulates based
on the quality of the product. Recently, Google launched a new website
called “Froogle,” which is a product search. Froogle
is a separate site from Google. When Froogle was first introduced,
Google did not display an advertisement or a link to Froogle. Rather,
they relied on providing a quality free service and backing it with
good public relations. Another example would be AdSense and AdWords.
Again, Google does not advertise this offer on its homepage. This
agitated some Google users but the company maintains that its search
capabilities will always be independent of advertising. Any displayed
advertisements are designated as “sponsored links.”
Google has also partnered with Amazon.com to make available Google’s
search technology and sponsored links on their site. In addition,
Google features sponsored links on web design and development sites.
Google offers the clearest separation between search results and
ads, its brand will be tough to dethrone (Elgin 84). Page and Brin
have faith that people will check out the site and email their friends,
suggesting that they take a look at the Google site to see what
it has to offer. Their best reference is a friend and with enough
friends, they will create a buzz and significant exposure by word
of mouth, the ultimate branding technique. Word of mouth centered
on quality, not publicizing, prevails in the new business environment.
1
> Google 4 Ps Introduction
2
> Google 4 Ps Product
3
> Google 4 Ps Price
4
> Google 4 Ps Promotion
5
> Google 4 Ps Place
6
> Google 4 Ps Recommendations
7
> Google 4 Ps Conclusion
Google
Related
Smart
Home Technology
Leapfrog
and Powertouch
Internet
Radio Creation
Pressure
Sensitive Label Waste
Project
Management
Wine
Database System
Nestlé
Case Analysis
Enron
Collapse
Ecommerce
Shopping Cart Software
Topics
Tech
Business Computer
Engineering Electrical
Engineering Selected
Topics |