Nearly a decade back, as students we used to hear, “Some brands don’t advertise as they don’t need to.” One brand that was a unanimous example was GOOGLE.
However, somewhere in 2013 – 14, I saw a heart touching, slice of life story of 2 friends. To my surprise is was content created by Google to promote Google.
That made me question, why did Google advertise? Why a brand that had transitioned from a NOUN to a VERB & had maintained its market dominance for more than a decade suddenly advertise?
Well, this is what I think.
Google is a search engine. It helps you to search information; relevant information to be precise
Currently, markets are flooded with smartphones.
Smartphones support many different applications that make our life easier
Applications range from social network, games, travel booking, food ordering, yellow pages, etc.
That’s where Google’s far-sighted vision witnessed the competition.
Now if we see our mobile phone and let’s say we want to order food, our step by step process shall be:
Click on an app that delivers food à search the restaurant nearby à select menu à order
How about looking for a dance instructor?
Click on an app (eg. Urban Clap, Just Dial, etc.) à Search for the requirement à send the enquiry à receive a quote à Hooray, job done.
You see in this whole scenario, what we miss is Google’s part. Now we don’t need Google to Google all these things. To book a flight we do not Google, we use the Travel app, to know the weather we now no longer Google but we use the weather app. To search details on movies or booking tickets or to order gifts we don’t use Google, but use the apps specifically built for this. This results in Google losing its Share of Search. Earlier if we searched 10 things on Google, today we search may be nearly 7. Now that’s a loss to Google, as brands for those particular categories would not divert all their digital budgets on search but also on other digital media touch points, as the overall number of impressions & clicks go down drastically.
Since, 2014 I have noticed Google coming up with different stories / content to reinstate their relevance in a subtle manner.
Below are some of them
The below ad is a complete opposite of 'Catch them young, watch them grow.' Google capitalized on the technological gap between parents & younger generation. They targeted the large group of parents & older generation who feel that the internet is a difficult thing. These TG are not very adventurous in terms of trying new technology or systems, so how if you teach them just one simple thing 'Log on to Google' or rather go online.
Recently they have targeted Father's day & the ease of searching details about movies & music. A nice & interesting combo
In the end, I still remember the debate we used to have as fresh grads / interns. Is Google GOD?
Well that is an interesting topic for some other time…
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