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1. Introduction

This is an independent learning module assessment assignment, to complete my

postgraduate degree as I need one more module of 15 credit hours. So I am writing

this assignment of maximum 4000 word limit on “International Marketing Mix

Strategies of Google Inc”. As Google has become the world’s most popular search

engine and can attribute its success to an innovative marketing plan. It found a good

market niche and followed the path of innovation to market itself as the strong

company that everyone knows today. The company generates revenue by providing

advertisers with the opportunity to deliver measurable, cost-effective online

advertising that is relevant to the information displayed on any given page. This

makes the advertising useful to all of us as well as to the advertiser placing it. Google

operates websites at many international domains, with the most trafficked being

Google.com.

1.1. Aims

The reason to choose this topic is because I want to work on International marketing

strategies to get the idea of international marketing techniques adopted by a top

branded company and I am very interested in to find out the search engine based

companies marketing strategies that how these companies are promoting their brand

internationally and generating profit from their business. Google Inc is one of world's

largest search engines, who provide best web solutions to their customer while

running effective and efficient International marketing strategies. So the discussion on

International marketing strategies of Google Inc is the best combination for me as to

get my aim. It will give me a huge area of discussion which covers the International

marketing strategies of one of a words top branded search engine. As I am critically

researching on their system that will provide me some ideas and flaws in their system

so that I may can generate some recommendation for their business.

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1.2. Objectives

Looking as an advisory point of view following are the objectives of this study;

Critically analyze the international marketing systems adopted by the

company and gather some relevant background information.

Find out the international marketing mix that can get the balance right between

the different elements.

To incidence and regularity of performance of International marketing mix

activities of Google Inc in Third World business contexts.

To enhance the marketing mix strategies of Google Inc and generate some

recommendation for the better performance of the company.

2. Literature Review

Google the world’s best search engine, they have the world’s largest and most

scalable platform for developing huge web-based applications. It has taken the last 10

years of systems software research out of university labs, and built their own

proprietary, production quality system.

It is interesting to know about the policies and strategies that Google has adopted and

become best web based brand and one of the world’s biggest Search Engine.

Google stands alone in its focus on developing the perfect search engine, understands

exactly what they mean and gives us back exactly what we want. The company is still

working to provide better functions and services. Google developed its own serving

infrastructure and breakthrough PageRank™ technology that changed the way

searches are conducted.

From the beginning, Google is providing the fastest, most accurate results required a

new kind of server setup. Whereas most search engines ran off a handful of large

servers that often slowed under peak loads, Google employed linked PCs to quickly

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find each query's answer. The innovation paid off in faster response times, greater

scalability and lower costs. It's an idea that others have since copied, while Google

has continued to refine its back-end technology to make it even more efficient.

The software behind Google's search technology conducts a series of simultaneous

calculations requiring only a fraction of a second. Traditional search engines rely

heavily on how often a word appears on a web page. Google uses numerous factors

including its patented PageRank™ algorithm to examine the entire link structure of

the web and determine which pages are most important. It then conducts hypertext-

matching analysis to determine which pages are relevant to the specific search being

conducted. By combining overall importance and query-specific relevance, Google is

able to put the most relevant and reliable results first.

3. Theory and Analysis

Marketing Mix

The International marketing mix plan of Google can be broken down into the seven

P’s of marketing; product, price, promotion, place, packaging, Positing and

People. The Google has unique plans for each one of these areas of International

marketing and used them as an advantage over their competitors. With Google

announcing it’s IPO it will need to keep up even more with competitors, now that

there are stockholders analyzing every penny of the company.

3.1. Products

Product refers to the services that Google provide to their customers. The services

includes; advertising and providing their search technology to solve companies search

problems within their intranet like; Web search, Book Search with full text of books,

Desktop Search and personalize our computer, Earth Explore the world from our

computer, Images Search for images on the web, Maps to view maps and directions,

News - now with archive search from which we can Search thousands of news

stories, etc. Google provide some Communicate, show & share services like; Docs

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that create and share our projects online and access them from anywhere, Orkut to

meet new people and stay in touch with friends, YouTube to watch, upload and share

videos, Talk that is a Internet messenger so we can call friends through our computer,

Blogger to Share our life online with a blog, etc.

Google also sell tangible items along with its service or hybrid offers and also sell

“pure” products like Pack that is a free collection of essential software to make better

computing and Web accelerator to speed up the web.

In the product plan of International marketing mix of Google it categorizes their

products into three classes;

Advertising solutions

Business Solutions

Google Store

Advertising solutions: In this plan they offer Google’s AdWords, which is actually a

text-based ads that are precise to the search on the site of the user and the customers

pay Google every time when internet search users click on their site. So the Google is

helping there customers to set up their site as the volume of visitors to the customer

site’s increases. The example of this plan is; when we tend to search online buying on

Google search engine then on the top and left side of the page there come some kind

of sponsored Links like; Buy online with www.Ask.com ,Groceries Online at Tesco,

Buying Online at Amazon, etc.

Business Solutions: In Business solution plan Google offers a search appliance to

companies, which provide their customers a solution to hardware and the software

problems regarding Google’s search technology and intranet. This plan includes three

models of the Search Appliance: the GB-1001 for departments and mid-sized

companies, the GB-5005 for dedicated high-priority search services such as customer-

facing websites and company-wide intranet applications, and the GB-8008 for

centralized deployments supporting global business units. For example if a client

wants to install intranet connection in their office then Google support team will

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install best intranet connection including hardware and software that suits to that

company along with advisory solutions.

Google Store: In this service plan Google sells tangible items to increase their brand

image such as shirts, notebooks, bags, caps, lava lamps to almost anything that they

can print their company’s name on. Like Google caps, Shirts etc.

3.2. Price

It’s an important tool International marketing, which is the price that a company

charges for the product that can be a door-opener, a word-of-mouth generator, a

publicity-getter, or a loss-leader. It’s far too critical a weapon to leave entirely to the

accountants. It is not only the price of an item, but also to the value offered by the

product.

Thriving organizations, such as Google, take into consideration list price, discounts,

allowance, payment period and credit terms as relevant elements to consider when

setting the price. AdWords plan of Google is set on the amount of advertisement per

day it provides to its consumers. In Google’s case the list price is at five cents per day,

however it can go as high as $50.00 per day. The price difference will depend on the

amount of advertisement per day that the consumers are willing to pay and the amount

of times individuals click to see the ads and how high these ads rank on a search page.

The payment period of Google is based on its relationship with their customers. New

customers located in specific countries need to make their payments with a credit card

or by direct debit payments. As soon as the finance department receives the financial

information and it is approved, the ads begin to run, yet if a customer has a long and

positive relationship with Google its financial department might be able to set a

monthly account. This is based on the credit history of the customer.

The credit terms required by an organization to finalize the product price and

Google’s structure tightly relates payment periods with credit terms, yet each

organizations credit terms vary depending on the type of industry. The old and

reliable customers with having a good financial record enjoy a monthly credit. The

credit limit starts at $50.00 a month and it can increase to more than $500.00 a month.

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(The Four P's of Google: Marketing Mix Price, Castelar articles 2005, Source:

http://articles.castelarhost.com/google_four_ps_marketing_mix_price.htm)

3.3. Promotion

Promotion is a tricky way that helps in the business to communicating with

customers. Successful promotion increases though increased promotional activity is

often a sign of a response to a problem such as competitive activity, it enables an

organization to develop and build up a succession of messages and can be extremely

cost-effective.

( M a r k e t i n g m i x , By Sun i l on 19 December 2008 . Source: http://mms-

notes.blogspot.com/2008/12/marketing-mix-4ps.html)

Google mainly focus on search they dislike the idea of more ads that affect search

results. The image of Google is still as a best brand of search engine. The more

credible a brand is, the more widely its reputation will spread. The simple and speedy

loading page of Google search engine made it one of the world’s best-known brands.

It offers a minimal homepage, which loads immediately without annoying

advertisements. Most of the people like Google more because of its simple and direct

approach. As a result of Google’s outstanding results it has compelled its dedicated

users to inform everyone else about their remarkable search engine. So Google’s

growth is proof of the power of viral marketing, without the need for massive

advertising budgets.

The example of this strategy is one of a product Froogle, which is a product search.

Froogle is a separate site from Google. When Froogle was first introduced, Google

did not display an advertisement or a link to Froogle. Rather, they relied on providing

a quality free service and backing it with good public relations. Another example

would be AdSense and AdWords. Google does not even advertise this offer on its

homepage. The displayed advertisements are designated as “sponsored links.” Google

has also partnered with Amazon.com to make available Google’s search technology

and sponsored links on their site.

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The offers and ads are shown secretly and we can email the offers and ads to our

friends and family. So it is a way of Google to pass a message of their offers through

one friend to another.

3.4. Place

Place refers to how an organization will distribute the product or service to the target

consumer. It must be delivered to the end user at the right place and the right time.

The platform of the Google is the internet. The best way to target the consumers on

the Internet is Google. "The rate of the adoption of the Internet in all its forms is

increasing, not decreasing," says Eric Schmidt, Google's C.E.O.

The search results of Google on the web are more accurate then any other search

engine because Google always concentrate on quality rather then quantity. For

example; As of July 2003, Yahoo owned Overture, Alltheweb, AltaVista, and

Inktomi, and finally dumped Google in February 2004. Everything needed to turn

Yahoo into a major search engine and pay-for-inclusion ad agency, at a level that can

compete with Google, is under Yahoo's roof. Early evidence suggests that Yahoo will

shoot themselves in the foot with all of this firepower; their desire to monetize

everything appears to be high on the agenda. Google, on the other hand, has been

selling out only recently, and still shows some "pure search" residue from its early

roots. Because of this reason Microsoft tries to buy Google as a way out but Google is

not for sale.

The language addition which was introduced in April 2000 with eleven languages,

which was expanded as of Aug. 2000 to 24. As of July 2001, Russian was added. In

Nov. 2001, Arabic and Turkish and then in early 2002 Catalan, Croatian, Indonesian,

Serbian, Slovak, and Slovenian joined the group for the following 34 language limit

options. These are available on the Advanced Search page and their Language Tools

page.

Good search engines need many months of practice before they can crawl the web

effectively, and order the results so that searchers perceive them to be relevant.

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Google provide 75 percent of the external referrals for most websites which gives

more search results coming out from different search engine including Yahoo and

AOL.

(The Four P's of Google: Marketing Mix Price, Castelar articles 2005. Source:

http://articles.castelarhost.com/google_four_ps_marketing_mix_place.htm)

3.5. Packaging

The fifth element in the marketing mix is the packaging. Develop the habit of

standing back and looking at every visual element in the packaging of particular

product or service through the eyes of a critical prospect. As we know first impression

is the last impression so physical looks does matters a lot. It includes the physical

appearance of products, Offices, Employees, brochures, correspondence.

The look of the Google’s home page is very simple and clear with no extra

formatting. The reason for providing simplicity in the page is to avoid extra loadings,

which may reduce the downloading speed. All the search pages and software are in a

form that customer can easily understand them and can utilize maximum out of it.

The offices of the Google Inc are ideal places to work. They provide very neat and

clean environment to their employees with almost all the necessities of life. There are

different relaxing rooms and gardens. The entrance and the reception rooms are well

decorated and looking awesome. The middle management uses casual dress as to feel

free in their jobs and there is a proper dressing for lower management and bottom line

staff.

Importantly; in all the products and services which Google Inc offer comes with a

unique Logo, which shows the picture of Google as;

(Source: http://jkontherun.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/google-logo.jpg)

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We can see this Logo on each and every product, offices, brochures, buildings, buses

and software which company owns.

Infact the unique idea of packaging plays a very important role in the success of

Google Inc which represents one of the worlds best Logo and brand name.

3.6. Positioning

The next P is positioning. It is the habit of thinking continually about how the product

or services are positioned in the hearts and minds of the customers. How do people

think and talk about the company? What positioning do the company have in the

market.

Google’s founders often state that the company is not serious about anything but

search. So the focus of the Google is to remain in the top position in the names of

worlds best search engine. Many people say they can’t remember what life was like

without Google and with its continued innovation, there will be many more people

added to that list. When ever I want to search any thing on internet I always prefer

Google, which is also set as my home page. This reflects the popularity of Google that

the most of the customers are using Google as their default page.

The Google is always around the idea that work should be challenging and the

challenge should be fun. They are aware of their future as they know the future needs

and demands of their customer. They are highly focused to provide better and safe

internet environment. To retain in that position Google is continuous increasing its

volume of search in terms of quality and quantity.

(The 7 Ps of Marketing, By Brian Tracy, May 17, 2004.

Source: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/701284.html)

3.7. People

The final P of the marketing mix is people. It refers to develop the habit of thinking in

terms of the people inside and outside of the business. It is extremely hard to think

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through every element of the marketing strategy and the marketing mix, and then pay

little attention to the fact that every single decision and policy has to be carried out by

a specific person, in a specific way.

Google puts users first when it comes to online services and puts employees first

when it comes to daily life in its offices. They are selecting, recruiting, hiring and

retaining a good combination of different people from different backgrounds and

attracting and putting the right person into the right position. They provide a standard

package of fringe benefits, but on top of that are first-class dining facilities, gyms,

laundry rooms, massage rooms, haircuts, carwashes, dry cleaning, commuting buses;

just about anything a hardworking employee might want. “Let’s face it: programmers

want to program, they don’t want to do their laundry. So we make it easy for them to

do both.” Eric Schmidt, CEO Google.

They strive to be innovative and unique in all services they provide both to customers

and employees, including there benefits and perks offerings. They realize and

celebrate that their employees have diverse needs, and that this diversity requires

flexible and individually directed support. Their priority is to offer a customizable

program that can be tailored to the specific needs of each individual, whether they

enjoy ice climbing in Alaska, want to retire by age 40, or plan to adopt 3 children.

(Google Jobs and Benefits, Source: http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?

page=benefits.html)

4. Recommendations

The most common roles for all new graduates include:

An up to date technology is a must for a company such like Google. They

must keep an open eye on the web based technology and knowledge.

Google is currently letting spammers (electronic messaging systems) advertise

their blog spamming software via AdWord. Just Google for "blog burner"

(publishing tool from Google for easily sharing our thoughts with the world)

and the Rick with blog spamming software is being advertised through

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Google's AdWord. I think it's about time Google makes its position clear on

where they stand when it comes to blog spam.

Put a timed moratorium on newly created blogs. Make it so that newly

created blogs will not be indexed by search engines or show up on Next Blog

ring for the first 30 days or whatever the appropriate time may be. This will be

enough to identify and delete spam blogs before it sees the light of day and do

anything to pollute the search indexes. Currently a spammer can create dozens

if not hundreds of blogs and they will just show up on Next Blog ring and get

indexed immediately.

Google should continue to be innovative and try new things. They are

constantly using technology and bright minds to come up with useful tools for

everyday use and bring some more features in their search result to avoid the

bogus information and fraudulent activities in the search results.

Its time for Google to introduce their own operating system to provide the best

platform for the best supports of all their products and services.

A list of software is needed from Google to support their services and

products, Like; Media Player (just need wma/wmv, mp3, mpg, and avi) FTP

client (no need for SSL support), Torrent Client (downloading with Azureus

takes a lot of system resources).

One area of Google where it's poorly done today is real estate, where most

real estate sites today remove listings once sold rather than pointing people to

related properties that are still on the market. Using search engines, a person

could run queries that generate relevant results as well. Try coming up with

comparative phrases that may be mentioned on product review sites or blogs

to generate appropriate search results.

They have to advise their customers on how to get the best out of their

services by providing some help and support system on their web.

5. Conclusion

Google operates in IT sector, which becomes increasingly important as a key driver of

business competitiveness, increasing emphasis is placed upon the development of

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skills such as relationship management, business process analysis and design, project

and program management, business change management, systems architecture,

networking, risk management and security.

Google is doing a great job of refining results to bring up stuff that we like. It should

be able to overcome even the most volatile market; tech stocks. Google must have

an ongoing plan for marketing now that they have filed to become a public

corporation. All eyes will be on their every move now and they may have to modify

their marketing plan in order to satisfy their new customers, the shareholders.

Google has 31% of the online advertising market revenue, and 56% of the market

share for online searches. The company has nowhere to go but up, Google spends

20%-25% of its resources pursuing new ventures.

(Is Google too powerful? Posted by: Rob Hof on March 29, 2007. Source:

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2007/03/is_google_too_p.html?

chan=search)

Google and Microsoft are currently both pursuing the acquisition of double-click,

which is the words best online ad agency. More likely Google has come out with its

own productivity software suite including word processors, spreadsheets, database

software, presentation software, instant messaging and video conference software to

compete with Microsoft in the corporate arena. Most of the software are free of

charge and other are very cheap in price.

It is constantly expanding its massive server farms and fiber-optic capacity. Google

may eventually be an alternative to the internet, by providing the same network that

runs faster.

Google is also currently working on Artificial Intelligence systems, an example of

that is its spell checking system, its language translator, and eventually a search

engine that almost knows what we are looking for as soon as we start looking for it.

They are also trying to create the first online ad marketplace, like an eBay for anyone

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who wants to advertise. Google is also looking into revolutionizing television

commercials, so that television commercials can be custom-tailored for each

household, based on the ages and the people living in them, as well as their hobbies,

interests, likes, dislikes, and shopping habits.

The world is much bigger than we thought so the Google still have some more areas

to improve. They should not stop their journey but take their products and services

keep going in the new dimensions. The new creative features Google will produce and

offer to the public will prove to play an important role in their long lasting success.

Bibliography

Books

Marketing Insights from A to Z: 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs to Know

By Philip Kotler

Published by John Wiley and Sons, 2003

ISBN 0471268674, 9780471268673

Page 108, 109 and 110

FROM MARKETING MIX TO RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

By: Gronroos Christian,

Management Decision, 00251747, 1997, Vol. 35, Issue 3/4

Source: Business Source Elite

Marketing

By David Steuart Mercer

Edition: 2, illustrated, revised

Published by Blackwell Publishing, 1996

ISBN 0631196382, 9780631196389

Page 29, 30 and 31

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Articles

Marketing and the 4P's

May 07, 2007

By Andrew Gettler

Source:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/233129/marketing_and_the_4ps_product_p

rice_pg2.html?cat=35

The 7 Ps of Marketing

May 17, 2004

By Brian Tracy

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/article70824.html

Worry about your margins (or not)

December 3rd, 2007

By Joe

Source: http://www.pondermarketing.com/category/4ps-price

Is Google too powerful?

March 29, 2007

By: Rob Hof

Source:

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2007/03/

is_google_too_p.html?chan=search

Web sources

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http://learnmarketing.net/Place.htm

http://www.cim.co.uk/mediastore/FactFiles/Factifile7ps.pdf

http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=benefits.html

http://mms-notes.blogspot.com/2008/12/marketing-mix-4ps.html

http://www.google.co.uk/corporate/tech.html

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