Google’s Current Marketing Communications Strategy
a. Their primary means of advertising is through word of mouth. Google relies on the quality of their products to increase their consumer base. However, they have made limited advertising efforts such as tying up with BMW and GM( typical banner ads for Aura, a new Saturn midsize sedan. Clicking on an ad will produce a view of the earth that zooms in on the dealership nearest to the computer user) They have also tied up with BMW
b. We do have a philosophy that our products should speak for themselves. We tend not to make a lot of noise”- Jeff Huber Senior VP engineering
C. Google have started various public relations campaigns such as Doodle for Google, a competition where K-12 students play around with the Google logo, Lunar X-Prize – a $30 million competition for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, travel 500 meters and transmit video, images and data back to the Earth, Google SketchUp Model your Campus competition where college student’s submit models of their campus, and google.org, google’s for-profit charity aimed at helping with the environment, global poverty and energy.
Main Problems With Current Strategy
1) Many consumers are still unaware of Google's numerous working products.
2)From a PR stand point, Google.org is far too passive and hands off as a charity. If consumers are unaware of Google's charitable ventures, then the charity adds little value to Google's brand and image.
Since Google relies primarily on word-of-mouth advertising, a lot of their products are unheard off among groups of potential customers. Exploiting certain advertising opportunities may help generate buzz about their products. Although Google is a well established and a loved brand, they still need to keep growing if they want to stay the market leader. Google need to keep working to develop their brand.