Google: Using a reputation for ethics and innovation as a marketing strategy in the 21st century

One of Google's greatest strengths as a company is its reputation for ethical decision-making. As its founder famously stated, 'don't be evil' is a cornerstone of the Google philosophy. Google presents itself as an information-seeking company, whose flagship product is its famous search engine. Its ethos as a company is one of promoting information rather than spreading disinformation unlike so many other organizations with their biased advertising. Google must continue to capitalize upon this sense of public goodwill, even while it develops cutting-edge products to compete with Apple and other rivals. Google strives to hone its reputation for innovation and use that concept to gain traction in the marketplace.

A critical component of the positive image of the company which has won it great acclaim is the way it treats its employees. Google offers extensive benefits (including free yoga classes as well as free food and health insurance) as well as the freedom to pursue employees' own projects on the job. Google could be called the 'anti-Wal-Mart,' a company that sees its employees as valued, precious assets. "A strategic focus on people management is necessary because innovations come from people, and you simply can't maximize innovations unless you are capable of recruiting and retaining innovators" (Sullivan 1). Continuing to deploy an HR strategy which can win the company top-level staff is essential so that Google can attract talent -- but also to further bolster Google's image...

"Google has an extraordinary focus on increasing collaboration between employees from different functions. It has found that increased innovation comes from a combination of three factors: discovery (i.e. learning), collaboration, and fun" (Sullivan 1).
Seeking to stimulate the experimental, hands-on curiosity in customers as well as employees is manifested in Google's outreach efforts to the public, most notably its trial run of Google Glass. To test this new technology, Google asked for people to act as volunteers (as well as pay the $1,500 price tag for Glass): "8,000 people jumped at the opportunity to find out and share the usage patterns with Google, plus of course 2,000 developers who got the chance to build applications before the product launches" (Shaughnessy 1). Rather than simply marketing this as a new, high-priced technology, Google stressed that these 'Explorers' (as they were called) would have a critical role in providing input into future versions of the technology. "Go back to the old days of high tech marketing and often you would see a new product in the market with a very high price target, inaccessible to the eventual intended market…That's a hard sell" (Shaughnessy 1). But with crowdsourcing input and participation and presenting becoming part of the trial as becoming part of history, Google realized "it would stand a strong chance of appealing to the ultra-geek and the wealthy who want to be at the cutting edge and a part of something new. The wealthy who want to be engaged"…