Comments on Classmates' Blogs

Amy's blog discussed how VitaminWater utilized Facebook to conduct an experiment. The company deleted its official website and replaced it with its Facebook page. The company received important information about opinions from consumers regarding their products. A Facebook application called "Flavor Creator Lab" generated increased fans on the company's Facebook page from 400,000 to 981,000. This experimental usage of social media was clearly successful in the case of VitaminWater. This post was really interesting because I had not heard about VitaminWater's extensive usage and reliance on facebook. This example shows the true value and importance Facebook plays in today's communications efforts and success.

Francesca's blog discussed the benfits of using experiments in social media to see how effective, or not, the social media has been for the client. She expressed the ability of PR practitioners to set up an experiment to measure the precise value of social media to the client. This can help practitioners gain insight into utilizng the best social medium to achieve its public relations objectives. I think in today's frenzy of social media, it is best to utilize a combination of social media and not just one. An experiment can be conducted to pin-point a specific social medium as "best" for achieving PR goals, but it seems that unecessary time and effort would be put into this experiment when we already know that a combination of social media is best for communications efforts.

Google Experiments to Benefit Customers & Corporation

On Google's official blog, the corporation announces an experiment they plan to conduct. Google wants to "build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks" in a few "trial locations" across the country. The corporation is interested in having a trial period for delivering internet at speeds 100 times faster (than most Americans have access to) to "at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people." The goal is to "experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone."

The company hopes to develop "next generation apps." Also, through experimentation, the company strives for "new deployment techniques." With these new techniques, Google wants to find "new ways to build fiber networks" and to share the lessons learned with the world. They also hope to add "openness and choice" to give users the choice in providers with multiple services. Google states they don't think they have all the answers, but they hope to make a contribution to the goal of delivering faster Internet through the trial. Google is utilizing an experiment to gain research and further insight to better their field.

Google Shows the Importance of Survey Research

On Google's corporate website there is a job description for a "survey research scientist." This shows how important research is to every industry. Corporations utilize research to gain feedback and promote new ideas, products, themes, etc. The role of this particular survey research scientist states they "will have the opportunity to design, execute, and analyze complex surveys across the most important parts of Google's business and products, globally." Emphasizing the importance of "applying the latest research methods to complex surveys and combining results with transactional data to improve understanding."

Requirements of the position are to accomplish the work in a "fast changing business environment" and to collaborate with other analysts, associates, managers, etc. It is necessary to apply statistical methods, apply and research the latest survey methods, work with complex data sets and to COMMUNICATE the findings to a wide variety of colleagues. It is very helpful and encouraging to see that this is a growing field and is essential to the success of any corporation.

Qualitative Research to Reverse Criticism?

In an article published on October 20, Google is coming under serious criticism. Eric Schmidt, CEO of the corporation, is also the chairperson of a think tank called the New America Foundation. This foundation has recently made public criticism of Google's Android phones. In July, it was determined that wireless users should have the right to control the software on their mobile phones. One of the T-Mobile Androids has a chip that prohibits users from altering or controlling the software, which is illegal. The FCC needs to decide if companies have the right to block users from having full control over their mobile device.

The ethical dilemma here is that Schmidt is the chairperson of this organization that is criticizing the company for which he serves as CEO. He is being pulled between his political affiliation with the N.A.F. and his career with Google. People are calling for Schmidt to either stand behind Android and the Google brand or resign from his position as chairman for the N.A.F. It is a problem when the CEO of a corporation as large as Google is in a public moral dilemma and participating in two organizations which have conflicting interests. Google's public relations team needs to do some damage control and reputation management before there is a real problem with the CEO and corporation's reputations.

Qualitative research methods, such as a focus group, would significantly help to find out public opinion about Schmidt. Once Google's PR team understands the way various key publics feel, they can utilize this research to then take further action to help their reputation (if it is hurt) and to prevent crisis and poor reputations from emerging. Focus groups will help them gain insight from different groups such as employees, consumers, stakeholders, competitors, etc. Qualitative data will be expressive of people's opinions and is a useful research method for handling this particular scenario.

Classmate Comments

On Sacha's Blog she discusses non-profit organizations utilizing unobtrusive research to learn about donaters and why people do or do not donate to the organization. She stated, "By using the unobtrusive methods it will be easier to come up with an estimate of who donates annually." By looking at donations from the past few years we can observe who donates, how much, and how frequently without even speaking to one person. Sacha brings up an interesting point which shows the importance and value of unobtrusive research methods in specific instances.

On Brittany's Blog she also discusses unobtrusive research methods, but focuses on Pandora radio. She uses the program to "research" knew music. Also, musicians can use Pandora to see which channels are popular and see how their channels compare to the popular ones. Also, if musicians are in the same genre they can observe the success of their competitors, as compared to themselves. Brittany says that Pandora "is a simple research tool for all music lovers and musicians." I am a regular Pandora user and never thought of its potential research value before. Brittany made interesting points and tied Pandora to research in a unique way.

Using Research to do More Research

In an article published in September, Google has competition with Apple. Both Google and Apple are creating their own television programming and system. The two have many similarities, but two major diferences - the price tag. Apple TV is forecasting a $99 cost, while Google TV is estimated to begin at $300. Because of the huge difference in price, Google is starting off at a disadvantage. It will be easier to convince people to consider or even try Apple TV because "$99 is within impulse-purchase range, while $300 is not."

 

With this imformation, Google can make the necessary changes to target the product to the proper demographic. Also, this initial feedback gives the company time to find out other problems before the product is launched. Google can utilize unobstrusive research to gather additional opinions without doing formalized research. Once the TV launches, Google can hire people to observe consumer reactions to their product. If they people in major electronics stores, such as Best Buy, then this feedback will serve as additional research to modify the product. By hearing what people say about the product while looking at it in the store, Google is getting better information than having a formal focus group where people might not state their true opinions.

 

Thus far Apple TV is up in the competition. However, there is still much time for Google to figure out what consumers want and how to address these issues with their product.

 

 

Google Celebrates 10 Years!

There is an article on CBS's website that discusses how Google is celebrating its ten year anniversary of operation. Google created a guided tour, on its anniversary site, detailing its ten years in business. The site also launched Project 10 to the 100th to try to "improve the world." There is also a timeline which focuses on historical moments in the company’s existence. All of these website features are the end result of research. Google's team must have researched possible ways to promote and celebrate the anniversary, prior to planning or creating these tactics.

Project 10 to the 100th allows Google users to submit ideas of where $10 million would best be spent. The advisory board will pick up to five ideas, donating up to $50 million. The company's website says, "If you have an idea that you believe would help somebody, we want to hear about it. We're looking for ideas that help as many people as possible, in any way."

These methods of celebrating the company's anniversary must have been thoroughly thought-out before any planning or implementation could occur. Research such as focus groups and surveys were probably utilized to gather opinions from top management, employees, investors, and customers. This research was then probably utilized to plan, and later carry out the results. Google decided to utilize historical timelines, a guided tour, and created an interactive and humanitarian project. Now, the company is probably in the process of doing final research and evaluating the effectiveness of these methods.

Will Concealed Story Damage Image?

Google acknowledged Wednesday that two employees have been terminated after being caught in separate incidents allegedly spying on users' e-mails and chats. In July David Barksdale, an engineer for Google's Site Reliability team in Washingtong state, was fired for "violating company privacy policy." However, this story was covered up since July when the events actually occurred. Also, no legal action was taken against Barksdale and many experts are concerned by this. Google might need to utilize public relations research methods to conduct reputation management after this incident.

Yet "the company insists that it maintains careful control over employee access to user data, and said it’s amping up its log-monitoring to guard against similar violations in the future." It seems that Google was doing a good public relations job by admitting the truth, saying what they are going to change, making restrictions, and ensuring stakeholders that the "problem" will be fixed. The problem is, that this incident was covered up for two months, no legal action was taken, and experts have voiced their opinions on the matter.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, acknowledged that legal action wasn't compulsory, but should have been taken. Rotenberg said this incident “impacts the interests of individuals outside the company, I don’t think it’s sufficient for Google to handle it as an internal matter." Others have a more pessimistic view, insisting that more internal privacy breaches will occur, and possibly even increase. This can be a big problem for the Google Corporation in the next few weeks or even months. They are probably in the process of doing quantitative research, like surveys, and gathering data from qualitative research, probably by doing focus groups. With these research tools Google can learn the opinions of its various publics - shareholders, users, investors, clients, advertisers, etc - to assess the damage this has done and how to resolve the situation in satisfying manner.

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"Great Just isn't Good Enough"

Microsoft Corporation and Yahoo have begun integrating their search engines, Yahoo's search engine has been incorporated in Microsoft's Bing, leaving Google to reap the benefits. An analytical firm, Experian Hitwise, found that the first week of the Microsoft-Yahoo deal, 24% of all searches were done through Bing. But, in August Google's search capacity market share increased to 71.6%. Experian Hitwise accounts this growth for Yahoo users moving to Google, instead of Bing. Previously in 2007, Microsoft's CEO hoped the company would hold 35% of the market share between 2010 and 2012. Since then, Google's  market share increased from 54-65% while Microsoft's Bing only rose a few points. American Banking and Market News said that Bing "still hasn't gained any significant traction against Google's search market share."

Google has been a launched search engine for 12 years. It is a well recognized global brand. The name Google has become such a commonly recognizable brand, that I would consider if a brandnomer. A brandnomer is a brand that becomes the generic term for a product. For example Kleenex for tissues, Band-Aid for adhesive bandages, and iPod for mp3 players. Now, we say "Google it" in place of "look it up online."

So, what is the reason for Google's growing success, high control percentage of the search engine marketplace, and its vast expansion into most technological markets? One reason I think the corporation is so successful is because one of its ten philosophies is "Great just isn't good enough." The corporate website adds to this point by saying,  "We see being great at something as a starting point, not an endpoint. We set ourselves goals we know we can't reach yet, because we know that by stretching to meet them we can get further than we expected....Ultimately, our constant dissatisfaction with the way things are becomes the driving force behind everything we do."

Throughout the semester I will be blogging about Google's success and future expansion in regards to public relations.

http://www.americanbankingnews.com/2010/09/08/did-microsoft%E2%80%99s-and-yahoo%E2%80%99s-search-deal-increase-google%E2%80%99s-market-share-msft-goog-yhoo/