Brand Google

Google, the largest search engine, besides restricting itself as the number one search engine globally has become a one stop shop destination for many other offerings. It offers G-mail, the fast e-mail service; Google Earth replaced, atlas; Google News replaced newspapers and magazines. Google digitize all books available on the planet to offer e-versions of books. With so much to offer, it was no wonder that starting its journey as a humble search engine in late nineties, the company had emerged as one of the most powerful brands by 2006.

Beginning of Journey

Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University. Larry Page and Sergey Brin planned to develop a new way for online search. The idea behind the setting up of the Google was to organize all the globally available information and make it accessible and useful to all people across the world. Google was incorporated as a privately held company on September 7, 1998.

In 2000, Google was answering 18 million queries daily and maintained a repository of one billion URLs (Uniform Resource Locator). Unlike other search engines, which relied on servers to answer the queries, Google linked PCs to answer the query fast and in accurate manner. This technology leads to a faster response time, greater scalability and lesser cost.

Google offers search facility on different subjects, in different languages, and users could search information on Google Toolbar, Google Deskbar, and on mobile through WAP and i-mode phones. Along with search facilities, Google also provided images, pages in different languages, airlines information and phone numbers, spell check and translation of web pages. Google to stay ahead in the competition and to become one of the most innovative companies, Google used PageRank and Hypertext-Matching Analysis technologies to provide reliable, fast and accurate information.

Google – Name
When Larry Page and Sergey Brin established Google, the prime focus was on developing a ‘perfect search engine’ as Larry Page, defined Google as some thing that, ‘understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want’.

The name ‘Google’ was derived from the word ‘googol’ which meant a mathematical term for 1 followed by 100 zeroes (Googol means 10100). The company was named by nine year old Milton Sirotta, nephew of noted American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, “Mathematics and the Imagination” by Edward Kasner and James Newman. The name Google itself portrayed the company’s mission to organize information available on the internet. The name and meaning of the name reflected the company’s mission to organize virtually all the information available on the web and make it easily available free of cost. The word Google portrayed both technological and scientific supremacy and not an improbable, silly word.

Google – USP
The unique selling proposition of the Google brand was its searching specialization. Contrary to other search engines, which was evolved as media portals, Google remained a search engine. The four elements based on which Larry Page and Sergey Brin positioned Google differently from the rest of the companies were speed, accuracy, objectivity and easy usage. The easy usage and benefit transformed Google from a search engine to one of the most successful global brands.

Google – Logo

In 1998 Sergey Brin designed the logo of the company, to portray the essence of a cheerful, innovative and technical brand. Sergey Brin wanted Google to carry the fancy and fun Image which reflects in its name, image and logo of the company. The colorful rounded edges depicted that the company is approachable and friendly but at the same time means business and was serious about its work. Google, backed by a great idea and concept, supported by a service that delivers and portrayed by a fun logo and a relevant name, the company enjoyed high brand loyalty.

Google – Brand Expansion
By 2000, Google piggyback on the four elements – Speed, accuracy, objectivity and ease of use became the largest Internet search engine. With time only one aspect of Google brand changed, which was done in a careful manner. It extended its philosophy from online internet search to easy availability of information, without considering the mode of delivery. Google retained its core online search engine as a separate brand identity and launched a separate brand for its different product category. (I will discuss Google – Brand Expansion in detail soon)

In 2004, Google created new product categories and forayed into unrelated areas viz. social networking, email services, Google earth, Google mini. The Google Search Appliance, the new hardware of Google also signified the brand image of Google.

Google – word-of-mouth way
In 2006, Google became Generic brand with its unique model of service. Google also became synonymous for online search. Google became a household name and attained a power brand status without any advertising expenditure. The company did not spend anything on print or electronic media or online banners. Google, instead of developing the brand through the traditional way of advertising, focused on experience – user experience, customer experience or searcher experience. Google is a classic example of a power brand built on word-of-mouth. Google has strong word-of-mouth because it delivers on its uncomplicated promise. Its reputation spread with word of mouth from millions of satisfied users of Google as a search engine and helped the brand building process.

Google – Marching Ahead
A simple and uncomplicated business model which was supported by a simple brand and logo was the main prerequisite for the company’s success. Google portrayed itself as a company of 21st century and amazed many companies with its meteoric success.