Good marketing practises
I find it interesting that Google has become a global brand in less than 6 years (see earlier post) and that they have done so without much marketing, if any at all. How do they do it ? Well of course they are the best of breed in their category, delivering a service that outpaces all the competitors. But then again, BetaMax was a better technology than VHS so technical superiority doesn't seem to be quite enough.
I believe that much of their succes lies in their integrity. I trust Google. I believe them when they tell me something. I give them my e-mail address, because I know they won't abuse it. And I endorse their product, and tell my friends about their great service. So they don't have to market their product.
So how did they gain that integrity.
Well for one, they give me a simple and understandable service. Their main page contains 35 words and one graphic. That's it !!! (Yahoo has 478 words, and 20 graphics) They don't show off, try to push stuff down my throat I don't want, or give me irrelevant information. I get exactly what I want.
But more importantly, they have a strong culture, that they stick to. You can make money without being evil is one of the ten philosophies at Google. These are not just words on a webpage. They live by it. For example: Recently they have removed one of their own webpages from their search engine, becuse it uses cloaking, a controversial technology used to get better ranking in search engines. They have, in other words, taken the unusual step of severely penalising themselves, because they do not live up to their own high standards. And this is not a unique example.
This is worth taking note of because it goes against much conventional wisdom. It doesn't do any good for the immediate bottomline, it doesn't make the next quarterly report look good, and it doesn't push their service to the customer.
Yet Google is not only one a global brand, but they make heeps of money. And they do so, not by constantly pushing services we don't really want, but by being honest, trustworthy and having integrity. And for these reasons they also attract the very best engineers in the world.
And they seem to be having a lot of fun too !!!
I believe that much of their succes lies in their integrity. I trust Google. I believe them when they tell me something. I give them my e-mail address, because I know they won't abuse it. And I endorse their product, and tell my friends about their great service. So they don't have to market their product.
So how did they gain that integrity.
Well for one, they give me a simple and understandable service. Their main page contains 35 words and one graphic. That's it !!! (Yahoo has 478 words, and 20 graphics) They don't show off, try to push stuff down my throat I don't want, or give me irrelevant information. I get exactly what I want.
But more importantly, they have a strong culture, that they stick to. You can make money without being evil is one of the ten philosophies at Google. These are not just words on a webpage. They live by it. For example: Recently they have removed one of their own webpages from their search engine, becuse it uses cloaking, a controversial technology used to get better ranking in search engines. They have, in other words, taken the unusual step of severely penalising themselves, because they do not live up to their own high standards. And this is not a unique example.
This is worth taking note of because it goes against much conventional wisdom. It doesn't do any good for the immediate bottomline, it doesn't make the next quarterly report look good, and it doesn't push their service to the customer.
Yet Google is not only one a global brand, but they make heeps of money. And they do so, not by constantly pushing services we don't really want, but by being honest, trustworthy and having integrity. And for these reasons they also attract the very best engineers in the world.
And they seem to be having a lot of fun too !!!
posted by Max at 23:07
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