Google Case Analysis Assignment 2

Your task in this case analysis is to answer three questions by critically analysing Google's history,  resources and market situation. Please do not just describe events, although you should read  Google's history to understand the background to your analysis. You should use the principles and  concepts that you have learned in marketing-related modules to answer the following two  questions:  

1. What marketing strategy or strategies has Google adopted since it was created? Answer this  question by applying one or more of the theoretical marketing approaches and/or models  discussed in the literature.  
2. What strategic marketing options can you describe for Google if it wishes to remain a  successful organisation throughout the next decade? Answer this question based on a SWOT  analysis of the circumstances that exist in 2014/15 and your best forecasts of relevant future  industry factors.

Introduction

Google is the biggest search engine and has become a dominating and massive company in the area of web search. It was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were Ph.D. candidates at Stanford. Google dominates the major markets in the western region and has also expanded into cloud computing, mobile technologies, and advertising. It is worth nearly $200 billion. During this growth of the organization, it has made enemies from the entire tech industry and also had fall outs with numerous national governments because of their anti-competitive practices and privacy concerns. Its major competitors are Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, Hotbot, Infoseek, Altavista and a few other small startups.

Background of the company

In the late 1990s, Google grew up. Google was established in Menlo Park, California, in a garage. Page and Brin, along with a fellow Ph.D. candidate from Stanford, attempted to create an algorithm which was faster, accurate and more powerful than its competitors. The first investment in Google was worth $100,000 by Andy Bechtolsheim in 1998. In 1999, it received an investment worth $25 million by a group of major venture capital firms. And in 2005, Google had gone public. 

Marketing Analysis 

The Nature of Google's marketing strategy or strategies since it began

Google has dominated the search engine industry since it came into existence. This is because of the combination of little things which as an organization you should know whether they would boost your sales or not. As Google caters to different types of people, it needs to mix up with respect to the likings of different types of people having varied choices and make sure that they come up with something which is liked by all. At first, their strategy is a bit hard to understand but on further studying, it is a compilation of smart decision making. Let us consider the 4P's of marketing for Google:

Product (Friesner, 2014)

Google offers its services to the customers as a form of the product. It is one of the most used search engines of the world and thus, has a high market share. Due to the growth and availability of internet to its customers, the growth of Google has escalated.

Google, The search engine

Google makes its income through advertising. The advertisements done by companies are the mode of revenue for Google. As Google is already a well-established brand and has a high number of customers, it becomes an idle platform for companies to interact with its potential customers.