Commentary

Even More On: Everything I Need to Know About Marketing I Learned From Google

by Aaron Goldman , Op-Ed Contributor, September 23, 2009

In my last two columns, I've offered the following 15 marketing lessons learned from Google and examples of folks applying them:

Everything I Need to Know About Marketing I Learned from Google

1. Relevancy rules (Apple)

2. Tap the wisdom of the crowds (Doritos, Threadless)

3. Keep it simple, stupid (Ford)

4. Mindset matters (Zappos)

5. Be where your audience is (Obama)

6. Don't interrupt (Best Buy)

7. Act like content (American Express)

8. Test everything (Airwalk, Sesame Street, Blues Clues)

9. Track everything (Kaplan)

10. Let the data decide (Yours Truly)

More On: Everything I Need to Know About Marketing I Learned from Google

11. Brands can be answers (Lake Side Café)

12. Your USP is critical (Milk, Obama)

13. Your competition is broader than you think (Global CPG)

14. You can learn a lot from a query (Pier 1 Imports)

15. Sex sells (Bing, Anyone That's Used Ice Cubes In Ads)

More than just tidbits to maximize SEM programs, these are principles that can be applied to all facets of marketing. Of course, the irony in all this is that Google is a company that's proudly spent very little on advertising. Accordingly, perhaps the most important lesson of them all is that marketing is so much more than just advertising.

Today, I'll close this series with five more lessons learned from Google about marketing. Fans of this topic need not fret, I'm actually working on expanding this thread into a full-fledged book. And I'll look to spin off this theme into my next column.

16. Altruism sells. In my last column I talked about how a dash of sex appeal can be a great ingredient in the marketing mix. Let's not forget that, at the other end of the spectrum, good old-fashioned altruism can also be a great brand attribute to play up. Google -- with its unofficial motto of "do no evil" and philanthropic efforts through Google.org -- has successfully created an image of "serving the greater good," allowing it to get the benefit of the doubt in the court of public opinion -- if not the EU and DOJ -- when it comes to various privacy and monopoly issues.

Today, there's no shortage of marketers trying to hitch their wagon to the altruistic horse (read: feel-good fad) of "going green," but GE is one company that jumped on the sustainability bandwagon well before green became the new black with its ecomagination initiative.

17. Show off your assets. No, this is not a subset of "sex sells." We're talking about digital assets here. About three years ago, I sat in a meeting at the Google Chicago office and listened to Jim Lecinksi, who now heads up U.S. sales across key verticals, preach about the importance of brands unlocking all their assets -- video, images, PDFs, etc. -- and making them available for consumption online. A strong belief in the value of digital assets, no matter how old, is why Google started scanning books and just bought reCAPTCHA.

For marketers, each and every asset in your portfolio can help your brand get exposure on Google and other engines. So take a cue from Time Warner with the LIFE magazine photo archive -- go dig through the vault and start shaking what your momma, er... predecessors, gave you

18. The more shelf space, the better. We've all seen the research that shows a lift in clicks and sales when PPC and SEO listings appear on the same SERP. And eye-tracking studies have shown us the power of the golden triangle -- although universal search has brought on the advent of the golden sprinkle. The bottom line with Google is that the more of the SERP you can penetrate with favorable brand messaging, the better off you are.

Of course, in the CPG world, brands have long "optimized" their presence at point-of-purchase through couponing and negotiating for eye-level placement and end-caps at retail. However, just like Google polices PPC affiliates to prevent one brand from owning the SERP, supermarkets would never let, say, General Mills claim the entire cereal section. So the key is to get crafty and try and leverage partnerships to increase your footprint. In CPG, this means cross-promoting with other brands to get your logo on their box, prize in their contest, etc. In SEM, you can create co-op campaigns, as Electrolux and Lowe's did, to garner more of that precious SERP space.

19. Make your company a great story. This one comes courtesy of Dave Chu from Eton Corporation who sent me a note through the MediaPost community in response to my first column. Dave wrote, "From using goats to mow their lawns, putting solar panels on their buildings to the famous 'Do no evil' motto, Google is a company of stories that are relevant to their audience and these times." I couldn't have said it better myself, but I'll try...

How many "human interest" stories have you read about the perks Google gives its employees? And did you get caught up in the fun facts and timeline laid out for Google's 10^th birthday celebration and its accompanying Project 10 to the 100^th? There's no question Google has become one of the world's top brands not only because it creates great products but because it's created a great story.

Zappos is a perfect example here. Just as everyone knows that Google was started by Larry Page and Sergey Brin as part of a Stanford research project that focused on the power of back-links, everyone knows that Zappos was started as a shoe company that was fanatical about customer service and corporate culture before growing into a leading internet retailer serving multiple categories.

20. Don't rely on SEM alone. This final one comes from Amy Oliver of Utah Foster Care Foundation, who commented on my original column, saying, "If Google is all you do, you'll still be wondering why nobody knows about you. It's the same with traditional media. If you only choose one medium, you won't make a true difference in your marketing results."

Google certainly hasn't relied solely on SEM to drive usage of its products -- although I've always wondered about who manages Google's in-house campaigns (especially after seeing PPC ads for Google Radio Advertising after it had already shut down that service). Nor has Google relied solely on SEM to drive revenue -- although its forays into print and radio were unsuccessful, and YouTube and Google TV have yet to claim significant ad budgets.

Bing is the ironic case study here. In its never-ending quest to out-Google Google, Bing reportedly earmarked $80-$100 million for overly-dramatic TV spots and hokey sponsorships, in addition to lining Google's coffers with a YouTube brand channel and poorly targeted Google PPC campaigns. What does it all add up to? Well, per Nielsen, Bing just cracked double-digit search share. So maybe this was a Google lesson well-learnt.

The Hits Keep Coming

Stay tuned for my next column -- Everything I Need to Know About Product Development I Learned from Google -- where I'll flesh out these five lessons...

1. When in doubt, crowdsource

2. Leverage the economics of free (another one courtesy of Dave Chu)

3. Open source is the best source

4. It doesn't have to be perfect

5. Don't lose the signal (heeding the advice of Max Kalehoff to learn from things Google did wrong)

2 comments about "Even More On: Everything I Need to Know About Marketing I Learned From Google".

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Genie O'Loughlin from People's Trust, September 23, 2009 at 12:02 p.m.
As much as this column is about integrating online and offline marketing approaches (sort of), I can't help but comment on the the ongoing Bing/Google debate ...
Coming out of a traditional marketing background, but now fully entrenched in the online/search marketing industry, it constantly surprises me that search folks don't recognize the effectiveness of traditional media, especially with consumer marketing. Yes, Bing has made some mistakes. And yes, new media is driving innovation. Case in point: Research currently being done to develop "behavioral targeting" for TV watchers.
But the bottom line of peddling influence is still reach and frequency -- no matter what the medium is. You can do it on a shoe string with search and social media and a lot of sweat equity ... or if you have budget, you can buy that reach and frequency from someone else. Google's current strategy is mainly to market to people who are already using them. Granted, 7 billion searches offer powerful opportunities.
And trust me, I am the last person to endorse a microsoft initiative, but as an old boss of mine used to say "dollars follow audiences." In a traditional advertising arena, what Bing is doing may be referred to as counter programming ... appealing to an audience they know their competitors just aren't reaching. What search insiders fail to recognize is that regular consumers aren't the google snobs that the pros are. Many of them don't spend all day online (they actually have non-search day jobs, image that!) and and probably never even questioned why they use Google in the first place. But, with repeated exposure to a message to try something new ... they might just do it.
That's why politics is about raising money. Yes, Obama broke the mold in online political strategy. But he still outspent McCain in ALL media buys, online and off. Conservatives have been doing this for decades, prompting Campaign Finance reform a few years back. Political candidates on both sides of the aisle are often very successful if they have supporters with deep pockets.
The most effective creative campaigns are those that elicit an emotional response, hammer home the point that most people are not that critical when making decisions, especially those that don't cost anything. Bing understands that all they need is to be comparable, not better. Sadly, it doesn't always come down to the having the best product if you have a motivating message and budget to spend on it. Bing is likely to make more inroads before their growth (and budget) levels off.
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Peter Schankowitz from Joe Digital, Inc., September 23, 2009 at 12:39 p.m.

Excellent synopsis of proven elements that easily and effectively transfer to all prongs of marketing. Note that many of these are things that have ALWAYS been at the core of great marketing. Google was simply smart enough to learn from the past. I especially love the Altruism note. We push this with clients ad nauseum. It's all about authenticity and the modern consumer really believes that brand ACTIONS speak much louder than salesy words.