Search Me Taylor, Neil. Search

Search Me

Taylor, Neil. Search Me: The Surprise Success of Google. Cyan Books, 2006.

I'll have a Coke, please,' people say when they really mean a soda -- even if the store's sign only reads 'Pepsi.' People talk about Hoovering up a living room, or a family dinner, rather than vacuuming up a rug or eating everything on their plate. McDonald's is no longer just the name of a hamburger chain. It is also a verb, as the McDonalization of America has come to connote the standardization of certain goods and services. Even the term 'Supersizing,' as in the supersizing of the American waistline, is testimony to the power of the McDonald's fast food chain to affect our language. These are all examples of effective branding -- the brand has penetrated the mind and the vocabulary of the consumer, and become a part of the national consciousness and unconsciousness.

Branding is why people reach for Kellogg's Raisin Bran rather than the generic version of the cereal at the supermarket. It creates a core customer base that chooses a product reflexively. With successful branding people hardly think whether competitor's offerings are superior to the brand they usually use. The use of the object with a specific brand becomes a part of daily life and routine. Certain brands have become so ubiquitous that it is hard to think of life without them, and the brand names have come to mean the thing itself, as with Post-it notes and Scotch Tape. These examples of successful marketing seem invisible because they are such long-standing parts of our culture.

However, in our own age, we have seen a similar phenomenon. To 'Google' something or someone is a verb, not just a brand name. Using a search engine to explore the Internet has become synonymous with the name of a single Internet company, perhaps even more so than eating fast food has become synonymous with McDonald's. Moreover, because Google as a brand arose in popularity just as when the Internet was becoming a part of everyone's everyday life, it seems as hard to envision the world without Google as it is to envision a world without the Internet. Google secured a first market mover, competitive and comparative advantage over other search engines that it seems unlikely to relinquish in the near future. Google and searching the Internet are entwined in people's minds.

What is even more extraordinary, according to Neil Taylor, in his chronicle of Google's rise to supremacy, is its ability to circumvent the negative associations attached to many branded companies. Because it is a brand for a way of accessing knowledge, its name cannot be tarnished like McDonald's association with the obesity crisis has harmed the hamburger-selling chain's standing in the eyes of consumers. McDonald's is no longer seen as a child and family friendly company. When a documentary director wished to criticize the fast food industry, he chose to focus on McDonald's in the infamous film "Supersize Me." But Google has retained its pristine image. How can someone look unfavorably upon a company that embodies the future and with a name that signifies a search for information?

Research analyst Neil Taylor attempts to discover the reasons for Google's branding success as well as explain why it has such a positive image as a company in Search Me: The Surprise Success of Google. The book's title suggests that the text is kind of the 'anti-Supersize me,' a laudatory study of the efficacy of branding with a consumer-friendly company. Taylor asks, why do people see Google as an intrinsically good company, as well as a good place to work or a good company in which to invest? The first principle can be summed up as thus, the first principle of marketing. KISS. Keep it simple, stupid! In other words, generate a brand image that can be summed up in a single word, sentence, or image. In the case of Google, its simplicity and power is embodied in its fun, catchy name and its unfussy site design. Like the red target sign suits the Target Company, the simple image suits the product. Google's white box is so simple and elegant many consumers are hardly aware that they are using a branded company search engine at all. As far as they are concerned, they are merely using the Internet

Unlike the cluttered screen of Yahoo, or the unfamiliar names of Mozilla or Ask Jeeves, Google has always consisted of a single search box in a sea of clear white with a simple name -- nothing fancy, cute or clever. This reduces the intimidation factor when using technology for persons unfamiliar with the Internet. Many people were just getting used to searching the Internet when Google was first establishing itself as a brand. Now the search box surrounded by white space is a part of everyone's Internet routine.

Simplicity was at the heart of the founder's beliefs in terms of generating a user-friendly product, and the design was created without brand consultants or test marketing. The founders had a clear idea of what their product was, and how it should be sold. Yet despite this sparseness, their character as creators comes through in Google's design as well. Another core principle of Google's marketing success is its playfulness, for despite its uncluttered graphics, it also often includes such innovations in its design like changing its logo seasonally or for holidays. Even when people search the Internet for work or school related reasons, Google creates a certain sense of fun and uninhibited joy and humor when using technology.

This sense of play is a vital factor in selling the space to the information-seeking consumer. The search engine is easy on the eyes, does not tax the mind in addition to the query the user is embarking upon, yet still creates a sense of humanity and fun behind the white screen. The humanization of the Internet is yet another critical factor of Google's success. In an age where distrust in corporations has grown, Google has carefully crafted an anti-establishment, anti-corporate image. This has enabled Google to prevent fanning the flames of anti-big business sentiment, where animosity against McDonald's and Wal-Mart is running high.

Google even has a strong reputation for sound and ethical corporate governance Taylor is British, so he can vouch for this from a non-American vantage point.. Taylor compares Google's success to the Simpsons. Even abroad, where distrust in American corporate expansion is even more deeply ingrained in the public consciousness, Google is am American brand that is seen as funny and eccentric, rather than prepackaged and craven, and only concerned with profits, even though Google has generated tremendous profits for its founders and shareholders. Thus, Taylor is far from cynical about the reasons for Google's success. Rather, he suggests that it is deserved, because it is an example of how sound product has used branding in an honest, ethical, and profitable fashion.

Taylor provides a history lesson of this recent phenomenon and a study of the principles of branding in a new, Internet age of marketing, which makes his book invaluable. Google's founders were two Stanford University students when they began the company. True to the mythology they created, they really were budding entrepreneurs without resources such as financial backing from a major lending institution, and little ability to market themselves through conventional channels. Their main selling points were their ability to create an effective design and a good product that fulfilled a need. Yet, through word-of-mouth promotion and simply by selling a superior product, the company's stock was initially sold at one of the highest prices for a recently developed IPO.