Integrated Advertising, Promotion and Marketing Communications 5th Edition by Kenneth Clow,Donald Baack

Exercise 13

Every once in awhile, a product or a company's name becomes so famous it gets added to the national vocabulary. A generation ago, employees started making "xerox" copies. Before that, people started taking "aspirins" instead of "pain medicine" and covering wounds with "band aids" rather than "adhesive strips." Today, it is common to hear someone say she "googled" something.
The basic Google business model is to organize a vast amount of information into a system that can be easily accessed using the Web. Google provides information to users for free. The company sells advertising that is linked to the free information. One primary advantage held by Google is that the firm has been able to expand indexing and retrieval searches into nearly 100 languages. Using tools from Basis Technology, Google is able to offer searches in Asian languages as well as other challenging languages. The net result is a global company with a worldwide reach.
The year 2004 was especially significant at Google. The company sold stock for the first time, raising $1.67 billion in capital. The stock price then soared. Many major firms have learned that advertising on a search engine like Google provides a targeted audience with profitable results. Naturally, advertising dollars are quick to follow, and in this case they moved to Google, the market leader in search engine use. One industry leader commented that Google has created almost a "new world order" in advertising.
Google's management team remains acutely aware of competitors. Microsoft and Yahoo! are two main search engine providers that could affect Google's share. New competitors emerge every day. In June 2009, Microsoft introduced the search engine Bing in an effort to challenge Google.
Bing replaced Microsoft's Live Search engine. It was started after more than a year of research showing that although users said they were generally satisfied with Web search services there were times when searches became too difficult. In the beginning, Bing received praise from many influential reviewers, increasing the possibility that it could shake up the dynamics of the search business, which is worth $12 billion in the United States alone.

In July 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo! announced a partnership in Internet search and advertising intended to build on the introduction of Bing and close the gap with Google; however, Google still held 65 percent of the search market, compared with 10 percent for Microsoft. Then, the competition with Google became more direct.
Bing began running television commercials designed to indirectly hint that Google searches were too complicated, turning users into data-spewing zombies. Bing was offered as the easy-to-use alternative.
Then, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer allegedly offered to pay Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to remove all its content from Google. This would include content from The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and The Times of London. The idea was that if Web surfers could not find News Corp. content when they did a Google search, they would be more inclined to use Bing. There were reports that Microsoft offered the same deal to other publishers.
News providers have long been frustrated that stories and materials they create are posted without the news company receiving any compensation, whereas Google and Bing are able to sell advertising right beside the stories. Google responded by saying any organization was free to pull content at any time, apparently unfazed by Bing and Microsoft's effort.
Other search engines have also emerged. Still, Google's power in the marketplace makes company leaders optimistic about the future. Time will tell if Bing can make inroads on what is practically a cultural icon: Google.
1. What tactics should Microsoft and Bing use to gain market share
2. As an advertiser, does Bing hold an advantage due to lower clutter on the site, or does Google's wider reach offset that advantage
3. Which site would facilitate a faster search engine optimization effort Why
4. Which site, Google or Bing, would be most useful to an international company Why
5. Design an advertisement for Bing that would appear in a magazine. Which magazine would you use for the ad Why
Sources: Heidi Gautschi, "Search in Any Language," EContent 28, no. 5 (May 2005), p. 29; "Google Is Standing on the Brink of Global Dominance," Marketing Week (April 28, 2005), p. 31; Thomas Claburn and Tony Kontzer, "Google Wants a Piece of the Business Market," InformationWeek, no. 1040 (May 23, 2005), p. 29; Mathew Creamer and Kris Oser, "Google Breaks Down and Decides to Advertise," Advertising Age 76, no. 18 (May 2, 2005), p. 3; Daniel Lyons, "Google This: The Tech Giants Duke It Out-Again" ( www.newsweek.com/id/224597/page/1 , accessed March 29, 2010), November 28, 2009; "Microsoft Corporation" ( http:// topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/microsoft_corporation/index.html scp=1 sq=bing%20versus%20google st=cse , accessed March 29, 2010).