Re: Google a brand?

From: John Gaskill <jg_at_Info-Central-USA.com>
Date: Tue 23 Sep 2003 08:51:48 -0500

Rob Frankel wrote:

>John Gaskill wrote thusly:
>
>>Google certainly is a brand, albeit one
>>which has achieved its current mantra
>>status through good work and public
>>relations methods, as opposed to
>>buying millions of ad impressions.
>
>John:
>
>Never said Google wasn't a brand. I said it wasn't a good brand
>because no two people can evangelize in the same way. Big
>difference. With Volvo, everyone pretty much responds with the same
>first brand attribute: safety.

That any firm ties its branding success to
the process of being touted by its users
entails enormous risk. It is safer and
easier to advertise the brand and its
desired attributes and association and
let users "confirm" their factualness to
interested third parties who bring up the
subject.

A search engine is much more to explain
than a car. Witness Yahoo's success with
its TV ads for catching giant fish, but its
failure to preserve its Numero Uno position
in the search business resulted from how
it perceived the business, not its customers'
perceptions of the business.

Google never did any of this. Like William
Mulholland they said, "There it is, take it!"
and the people took it.


>Also, I make a profound distinction in which awareness is a media
>function, not a brand issue. A brand with high awareness is simply
>a brand you know. It does little good to raise awareness for a brand
>when there's no clear message.

Google's brand has more than high
awareness. It has loyal users who
helped build the brand by explaining
to other folks how to use the product.

Many people buy a Mercedes but
never learn how to use it because they
fail to read the owner's manual.

Google has much more than high brand
awareness driven by media. Because
search is a unique individual experience
its brand value floats in the mind of search
users. Some may be happy with Google
one minute when conducting a hard facts
search but unhappy when seeking real
information about a celebrity which gets
lost in the sea of celebrity websites.

I believe that Google's "hands off" approach
to their branding is in keeping with how the
Internet is used and viewed by people. Aside
from a little PR now and then, they let their
customers drive.

Deng Xiaoping once said, "It matters not if you
call a cat a dog, just so long as he catches mice."

I suggest that the same approach applies in the
present instance.


John Gaskill
jg_at_Info-Central-USA.com
http://Info-Central-USA.com






Received on Tue Sep 23 2003 - 08:51:48 CDT